Africans Have World's Greatest Genetic Diversity

It's physical, not psychological: researcher

(NEWSER) - Stuttering has long been considered a psychological issue, something born of anxiety or trauma—but new research suggests it’s in the genes, the Telegraph reports. “The brain actually looks different in people who stutter compared with those that don’t,” says a scientist. Certain gene variations often appear in stutterers, particularly in a part of the brain tied to muscle control. The gene can kill cells, and that cell death may "block" the stutterer from pronouncing some sounds, he says. More»

DNA helps decode history of Denisovans

(NEWSER) - A 30,000-year-old finger is pointing the way to a population of humans experts never knew existed. The pinkie bone, discovered in southern Siberia in what's known as the Desinova Cave, contains DNA that scientists used to sequence the entire genome of the young girl it belonged to, NPR reports. More»

Cloudier climes allowed trait to gain in population

(NEWSER) - The cooler, cloudier climes for northern Europe make for more redheads—particularly in Scotland and Ireland, a researcher says. About 8% of Scots sport a ginger mane, to less than 2% of all Europeans. The theory, Emily Pritchard tells the Times of London, is that genetic traits that allow sun-unfriendly red hair and fair skin didn’t die out as humans moved from Africa northward. More»

And anthropologically speaking, women are always the cooks

(NEWSER) - Cooking—not just eating—meat is what prompted human evolution, Richard Wrangham argues in his book Catching Fire: How Cooking Made Us Human, and he discusses his beliefs—including an opposition to the trend of raw diets—with Salon. “Raw foodists argue quite strongly that it is our natural diet,” the doctor says. “But it was natural 2 million years ago, not a few thousand years ago.” More»

(NEWSER) - President Obama toured the Cape Coast Castle in Ghana today, a shipping-off point for African slaves to America, Reuters reports. He saw the monument as a reminder. “As painful as it is,” the president said, “I think that it helps to teach all of us that we have to do what we can to fight against the kinds of evils that sadly still exist in our world, not just on this continent but in every corner of the globe.” More»