The Whole Story of How Humans Evolved From Great Apes
More than 2 million years ago, a mutation reduced the power of the chewing muscles in human ancestors. That may indicate they were doing more food preparation, but also possibly …
evolution
There’s a reason reading in car makes you sick – it’s ‘basic instinct’
Many people experience motion sickness when trying to read in a car. Long road trips can be tedious, and passengers often rely on books to pass the time. However, for …
The Physics of Cold Water May Have Jump-Started Complex Life
After 30 days, the algae in the middle were still unicellular. As the scientists put algae from thicker and thicker rings under the microscope, however, they found larger clumps of …
Loneliness can lead to blood-clotting and Alzheimer’s risk – expert
The detrimental effects of loneliness on health can be traced back to evolution, with one expert warning that it increases the risk of diabetes, heart disease and Alzheimer’s. Severe loneliness …
How Your Body Adapts to Extreme Cold
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Metabolic details matter to predict health in the modern world, Ocobock says. The same genetic programming that arose to protect someone in the Arctic—like high BMI and faster metabolism—could become …
Magnetic Minerals May Have Given Life Its Molecular Asymmetry
Naaman and his team discovered that chiral molecules filter electrons based on the direction of their spin. Electrons with one spin orientation will move more efficiently across a chiral molecule …
How Insect Brains Melt and Rewire During Metamorphosis
The original version of this story appeared in Quanta Magazine. On warm summer nights, green lacewings flutter around bright lanterns in backyards and at campsites. The insects, with their veil-like …
In a Fierce Desert, Microbe ‘Crusts’ Show How Life Tamed the Land
At first glance, the grit crust could seem like a routine example of what researchers call a biological soil crust, or “biocrust”—a community of coexisting bacteria, fungi, algae, and other …
A New Idea for How to Assemble Life
According to assembly theory, before Darwinian evolution can proceed, something has to select for multiple copies of high-AI objects from the Assembly Possible. Chemistry alone, Cronin said, might be capable …
How a Microbial Evolutionary Accident Changed Earth’s Atmosphere
A dense rainforest or other verdant terrestrial vegetation may be what first comes to mind at the mention of photosynthesis. Yet the clouds of phytoplankton that fill the oceans are …