Jun 04 2009
Great apes really do giggle when tickled, new research says – just like you and me.
Researchers from the University of Hannover in Germany recorded the tickle-induced vocalizations from three human infants and 21 infant and juvenile orangutans, gorillas, chimpanzees and bonobos and analyzed this acoustic data to find similarities and differences among the five species. [...]
Apr 30 2009
When scientific research is published, the authors often confess that they wish they’d collected more data. Critical reviews of research studies often say the same thing. Indeed, if there’s anything scientists love, it’s more data.
Which is why the members of an international team of genetic anthropologists led by Sarah Tishkoff of the University of [...]
Apr 29 2009
I spent the better part of my undergraduate career lugging around massive biology textbooks. General biology, genetics, embryology: It didn’t matter, they all weighed a ton. I pored over endless chapters of text, highlighting the important sentences, always wishing for more photos, more diagrams, more graphs. A single well-made diagram or image was easier to [...]
Apr 15 2009
Over the past decade, there has been no shortage of studies focused on the relationship between Neanderthals and our own species, Homo sapiens. Researchers have dug deep into the fossil record and our genomes to uncover how closely related we are to the Neanderthals, whether we interacted with them, and even whether our two species [...]
Apr 10 2009
Ever since European explorers first came upon the African Pygmies in the mid-19th century, they have fascinated anthropologists and other researchers. Their short stature (they rarely grow to over 5 feet), unique languages, and distinct genetic signatures have led to much speculation on how such groups of humans evolved. Now, a new study published in [...]
Mar 17 2009
Before 500 years ago people rarely went far to find a mate, choosing a husband or wife from the locally available pool of men and women. But with the dawn of European colonialism people from different parts of the world were suddenly living side by side, and had a whole new set of people to [...]
Feb 12 2009
Biology has changed a lot over the past 150 years. Scientists have discovered entirely new forms of life, deciphered the molecular code of heredity and observed the machinery of life on the smallest dimensions. And through it all, one scientific theory has stood the test of time.
New discoveries in genomics, medicine, developmental biology, and countless [...]
Sep 24 2008
What is it about humans that distinguishes us from the rest of the animal kingdom? Is it our upright walking? Our language? Our love of Reality TV? Even though we are said to be 99% genetically identical to our closest evolutionary relative, the chimpanzee, we clearly differ vastly from them physically and behaviorally.
For many years, [...]
Jul 01 2008
Last month I had the opportunity to go to the Society of Molecular Biology and Evolution conference in the striking city of Barcelona. This is the premiere conference for geneticists studying evolution in everything from bacteria to fruit flies, weeds, worms and our favorite model organism, humans! This is a highly interactive conference: almost everyone [...]
May 23 2008
Just when you thought everything was starting to make sense – new genetic research on the peopling of the Americas throws us a curve.
There has been plenty of research in both genetics and archaeology recently trying to figure out how the New World was colonized. Was it by boat or via the frozen wasteland [...]
