Imaging shows brain quickly switches among tasks instead
NPR Oct 4, 08 9:33 AM CDT
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Pull your ears away from that cell phone: Multitasking is a myth. New research shows we can’t really concentrate on two things at once; rather, the executive functions of the brain sweep quickly between multiple tasks. It’s thought that survival and the hunt made this rapid refocusing of attention an evolutionary boon. NPR checked in with researchers studying the phenomenon.
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DNA probe sheds light on early humans' doom
Independent (UK) Aug 8, 08 8:20 AM CDT
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Analysis of DNA from a thigh bone is helping solve the longstanding question of what happened to Neanderthals. Did they simply die off, were they killed by more modern humans—or did the two groups interbreed? DNA from the Neanderthal bone is so different from that of modern humans that interbreeding now appears highly unlikely, the Independent reports, making it likely that our ancestors were to blame.
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Scientists find innate ability to discern slithering critters in the wild
LiveScience Mar 5, 08 4:42 PM CST
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Evolution seems to have given humans a hard-wired ability to recognize snakes and spiders, LiveScience reports. Intrigued by the widespread fear of serpents despite the fact that most humans rarely interact with them, researchers showed groups of adults and 3-year-olds natural scenes containing various hidden animals. Both groups were consistently able to find snakes and spiders faster than other animals.
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Testing confirms man evolved on continent before migrating
Reuters Feb 21, 08 1:47 PM CST
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A pair of wide-ranging genetic studies, published yesterday in the journal Nature , back up the idea that humanity first evolved in Africa before migrating elsewhere, Reuters reports. DNA testing of African Americans and European Americans found that people with African roots had much more genetic diversity. Other tests discovered that DNA diversity decreased the farther away populations were from Africa.
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A long-ago genetic mutation diluted brown eyes, scientists say
LiveScience Jan 31, 08 7:21 PM CST
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All blue-eyed people have a single, shared ancestor, scientists say. And all those baby blues are the result of a genetic mutation that occurred between 6,000 and 10,000 years ago, LiveScience reports. Before that, everyone had brown eyes. The mutation limits the effects of the gene that produces melanin, which colors our eyes and hair, thus diluting browns to blues.
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New research contradicts theory that easier life slowed development
Los Angeles Times Dec 11, 07 3:59 AM CST
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The pace of human evolution switched to the fast track when people began forming agrarian societies 10,000 years ago, researchers have discovered. Scientists had theorized that evolution would slow as challenges to survival waned, but the opposite appears to be the case with changes occurring surprisingly quickly, the Los Angeles Times reported.
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GOP candidate sounds off on creationism in schools, Romney's Mormon faith
Associated Press Dec 5, 07 10:40 PM CST
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A month before the Iowa caucuses, Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee reacted with frustration when asked if creationism should be taught in public schools, the AP reports. Huckabee, a Southern Baptist minister who has said he does not believe in Darwin's theory of evolution, said his personal views on religion were irrelevant—though they remain a hot topic.
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Study says feminist practices put the 'reproductive core' in harm's way
Boston Globe Nov 11, 07 11:11 AM CST
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"Stone Age feminism" may have contributed to the Neanderthals' extinction, says a recent study, which uses archaeological evidence to argue that Neanderthal females hunted—and were "stomped, gored, and worse"—alongside males. Pitting the "reproductive core" of a population that never topped 10,000 against giant beasts, reports the Boston Globe , "could bring doom to a hard-pressed species."
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Wrist-bone analysis shows link to apes
Daily Telegraph (UK) Sep 21, 07 1:30 PM CDT
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A new study of three wrist bones from an 18,000-year-old fossil shows that the so-called hobbits of Indonesia were, indeed, a separate human species. When the bones were discovered in 2003, scientists trumpeted the find as evidence of a smaller species, Homo floresiensis. But skeptics argued that the hobbit, at 3 feet tall with a brain the size of a grapefruit, was in fact a human afflicted by microcephaly, a brain-shrinking disorder.
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Less-evolved specimens in Europe indicate earlier emigration from Africa
New York Times Sep 20, 07 6:57 PM CDT
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Archaeologists have unearthed four fossilized skeletons of a human ancestor that shares characteristics with the humanesque Homo erectus and the earlier, smaller Australopithicus afarensis, of which the famous 'Lucy' skeleton is a member. The fossils in the republic of Georgia contradict the previously held idea that hominids developed all key human attributes before emigrating from Africa, the NY Times reports.
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But dem bones ain't made for traveling,
say scientists
Houston Chronicle Aug 29, 07 5:20 AM CDT
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Lucy kicks off her public debut at the Houston Museum of Natural Science tomorrow amid controversy that the world's favorite human ancestor should never have left her home in Ethiopia. The public wants the chance to the 3.2 million-year-old remains, but scientists say Lucy's too fragile to travel.
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Rules of attraction haven't changed much
LiveScience Aug 25, 07 10:42 AM CDT
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The facial proportions of the average hot guy haven't changed much throughout human evolutionary history, finds a new study that compares contemporary human skulls with skulls from 2.6 million years ago. Women have been selecting for males with short, broad faces—think Brad Pitt and Will Smith—since the dawn of man, and chimps do the same.
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Women's attraction to redder hues linked
to evolution
Daily Telegraph (UK) Aug 21, 07 3:16 AM CDT
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Shocking news: Girls love pink. That love might not just be cultural—but linked to evolutionary development, researchers in a new study have concluded. Pink may have helped ancient women recognize ripe fruit and healthy men with ruddy faces, while both genders yearned for the blue of open skies and clear water, the Telegraph reports.
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Skull suggests two precursors were actually concurrent
National Geographic Aug 9, 07 8:15 AM CDT
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Two of our ancestors apparently lived alongside each other in Africa rather than evolving from one to the next on the path to Homo sapiens , as scientists once believed. National Geographic reports that a Homo habilis skull dug up in Kenya is surprisingly young, making its 1.4 million-year-old owner a neighbor to Homo erectus rather than an evolutionary forerunner.
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Apes pay attention to whether they are being understood
BBC Aug 2, 07 9:24 AM CDT
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Orangutan communication works just like a game of charades, according to new research. Orangs and other apes who use signals to communicate what they want pay careful attention to whether their audience understands their gestures—if something works, they repeat it, and if they aren't getting through they try another signal.
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