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19 Nov 09

'Hobbits' are a new human species, according to statistical analysis of fossils

Researchers from Stony Brook University Medical Center in New York have confirmed that Homo floresiensis is a genuine ancient human species and not a descendant of healthy humans dwarfed by disease. Using statistical analysis on skeletal remains of a well-preserved female specimen, researchers determined the "hobbit" to be a distinct species and not a genetically flawed version of modern humans.

www.sciencedaily.com/...091119101034.htm - Preview

human species hobbits evolution

12 Nov 09

Human-Chimp Gene Comparison Hints at Roots of Language | Wired Science | Wired.com

By comparing how a gene critical for language works in humans and chimpanzees, researchers have identified an entire network of genes involved in the incredible linguistic powers of Homo sapiens.

www.wired.com/...language-genes - Preview

human language primates genetics AZB evolution

05 Nov 09

Babies' Language Learning Starts From The Womb

From their very first days, newborns' cries already bear the mark of the language their parents speak, reveals a new study published online on November 5th in Current Biology, a Cell Press publication. The findings suggest that infants begin picking up elements of what will be their first language in the womb, and certainly long before their first babble or coo.

www.sciencedaily.com/...091105092607.htm - Preview

development language human

Human Evolution: Our Closest Living Relatives, the Chimps | LiveScience

As scientists try and solve and mystery of how we originated, an invaluable source of clues is the chimpanzee.

www.livescience.com/...104-origins-chimps-humans.html - Preview

evolution human primates human-evolution

08 Nov 08

What Makes the Human Mind?

Across the board, Hauser says, there are signs that animal evolution passed along some capabilities “and then something dramatic happened, a huge leap that enabled humans to break away. Once symbolic representation happened, if the combinatorial capacity was there, things just took off. Precisely how and when this happened, we may never know.” (November-December 2008)

harvardmagazine.com/...what-makes-the-human-min.html - Preview

human science hauser

even though human brains have inherited many of the raw abilities observed in nonhuman animal species, a divergence arises from the ways in which multiple capacities interact in humans, allowing them to convert information into myriad forms to serve infinitely diverse ends.
Hauser summarizes the distinguishing characteristics of human thought under four broad capacities. These include: the ability to combine and recombine different types of knowledge and information in order to gain new understanding; the ability to apply the solution for one problem to a new and different situation; the ability to create and easily understand symbolic representation of computation and sensory input; and the ability to detach modes of thought from raw sensory and perceptual input.

25 Aug 08

Clones, Drones and Cyborgs

A collection of links for my HNR 101 course on technology called "Clones, Drones and Cyborgs."

www.diigo.com/...clones-drones-and-cyborgs - Preview

cloning artificial intellience cyborgs human enhancement

10 Dec 07

Are Humans Evolving Faster? | Science & Consciousness Review

sci-con.org/...are-humans-evolving-faster - Preview

evolution genetics human

We used a new genomic technology to show that humans are evolving rapidly, and that the pace of change has accelerated a lot in the last 40,000 years, especially since the end of the Ice Age roughly 10,000 years ago,” says research team leader Henry Harpending, a distinguished professor of anthropology at the University of Utah.
“Rapid population growth has been coupled with vast changes in cultures

and ecology, creating new opportunities for adaptation,” the study says.

“The past 10,000 years have seen rapid skeletal and dental evolution in

human populations, as well as the appearance of many new genetic

responses to diet and disease.”
4 more annotations...
- But Harpending believes the speedup in human evolution “is a temporary
  
  state of affairs because of our new environments since the dispersal of
  
  modern humans 40,000 years ago and especially since the invention of
  
  agriculture 12,000 years ago. That changed our diet and changed our
  
  social systems. If you suddenly take hunter-gatherers and give them a
  
  diet of corn, they frequently get diabetes. We’re still adapting to
  
  that. Several new genes we see spreading through the population are
  
  involved with helping us prosper with high-carbohydrate diet.”
- The new study looked specifically at genetic variations called “single
  
  nucleotide polymorphisms,” or SNPs (pronounced “snips”) which are
  
  single-point mutations in chromosomes that are spreading through a
  
  significant proportion of the population.
- “We aren’t the same as people even 1,000 or 2,000 years ago,” he says, which may explain, for example, part of the difference between Viking invaders and their peaceful Swedish descendants. “The dogma has been these are cultural fluctuations, but almost any temperament trait you look at is under strong genetic influence.”
  
  “Human races are evolving away from each other,” Harpending says. “Genes are evolving fast in Europe, Asia and Africa, but almost all of these are unique to their continent of origin. We are getting less alike, not merging into a single, mixed humanity.” He says that is happening because humans dispersed from Africa to other regions 40,000 years ago, “and there has not been much flow of genes between the regions since then.”
  
  “Our study denies the widely held assumption or belief that modern humans [those who widely adopted advanced tools and art] appeared 40,000 years ago, have not changed since and that we are all pretty much the same. We show that humans are changing relatively rapidly on a scale of centuries to millennia, and that these changes are different in different continental groups.”
- Harpending says genetic differences among different human populations
  
  “cannot be used to justify discrimination. Rights in the Constitution
  
  aren’t predicated on utter equality. People have rights and should have
  
  opportunities whatever their group.”