
The Lucy Fossil’s Extraordinary Journey to Becoming an Icon of Human Evolution
The 3.2-million-year-old human ancestor known as Lucy rose to fame through an incredible combination of circumstances

The Lucy Fossil’s Extraordinary Journey to Becoming an Icon of Human Evolution
The 3.2-million-year-old human ancestor known as Lucy rose to fame through an incredible combination of circumstances

These Bird Nests Show Signs of an Architectural ‘Culture’
Culture may play a role in how birds build collectively in the Kalahari Desert

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Can the Coriolis Effect Cause Your Cowlick?
No, but the direction of our hair whorls could teach us about human development

Do Spiders Dream Like Humans Do? This Researcher Wants to Find Out
During the pandemic, researcher Daniela Rößler couldn't go out, so she started looking around her for her next research project. Then she found a really big one, and it had been right in front of her all along.

These Hornets Can Thrive on Just Alcohol without Getting Buzzed
Social wasps can hold their liquor

The Daring Russian Geneticist Whose Experiments on Silver Foxes Explained Domestication Has Died
Lyudmila Trut devoted her life to studying the process of domestication by selectively breeding friendly foxes

Donald Trump Wants to Make Eugenics Great Again. Let’s Not
Trump’s anti-immigrant good-gene-bad-gene screeds are nothing but factless eugenics for a new era

How the Famous Lucy Fossil Revolutionized the Study of Human Origins
Half a century after its discovery, this iconic fossil remains central to our understanding of human origins

Trump’s Racist Rants against Immigrants Hide under the Language of Eugenics
Anti-immigrant rhetoric in the U.S. comes straight out of the playbook of eugenics, deeply dishonest scientism that falsely claims that criminality, poverty and a host of other ills are all genetically inherited

Birds Practice Singing in Their Sleep
New work listens in on bird dreams

Humanity’s Origins Paint Our Ancestors as Lovers, Not Fighters
Fossil and gene discoveries paint an ever-more-intertwined history of humans combining with vanished species like Neandertals

Enlisting Microbes to Break Down ‘Forever Chemicals’
Bacteria can degrade particularly tough PFAS varieties