"X hits the spot"
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“This month marks the twenty-fifth anniversary of the discovery of Mitochondrial Eve, the common ancestor of every human alive today. Here’s everything you need to know about why the mother of humanity is so important.”
“Disgust is having its moment in the light as researchers find that it does more than cause that sick feeling in the stomach. It protects human beings from disease and parasites, and affects almost every aspect of human relations, from romance to politics.”
” One of the biggest problems with prejudice in modern society is that we often perceive people as being threatening even if they pose no real danger. So something that evolved as a protective mechanism in tribal society—when we didn’t often encounter “outsiders”—has become highly maladaptive. And left unchecked, it can fuel discrimination, fear, and downright hatred and violence.”
” One of the biggest problems with prejudice in modern society is that we often perceive people as being threatening even if they pose no real danger. So something that evolved as a protective mechanism in tribal society—when we didn’t often encounter “outsiders”—has become highly maladaptive. And left unchecked, it can fuel discrimination, fear, and downright hatred and violence.”
“Thought it was just humans that are ticklish? Think again - scientists are studying how animals respond to being tickled in a bid to shed light on how laughter evolved.”
“Since the underlying mechanisms of cultural learning appear to be the same in both humans and orangutans, that suggests we all evolved this capacity at the same time - or, more to the point, our common ancestor did. Orangutans are more distantly to us than are chimps or gorillas, and we likely diverged from them thirteen million years ago. That means the basic building blocks of culture have been around for a long, long time.”
“Using computer simulations of two ‘competing’ populations, evolutionary biologist Andre Martins of Brazil’s University of Sao Paolo ‘proved’ that under some conditions, it could be an advantage to age and die”
“A survey of orgasmic function in thousands of twins found none of the statistical patterns expected if female orgasm is just a coincidental byproduct of natural selection on its male counterpart, as has been suggested.”
“Lost DNA provides keys to human anatomy and a new way to study evolution”
“Conventional wisdom presumes that the larger the brain, the more intelligent the animal must be. Though it seems logical that a creature with more grey and white matter crammed inside its head would have greater mental acumen than an animal with lesser anatomy, the evidence surrounding this claim is mixed.”
“Simulations of evolution in robots, which can “reproduce” in mere minutes or hours, have thus become a potentially useful system for studying evolutionary dynamics.”
“Our species is still evolving, but future humans might be more like Danny DeVito than Stuart Broad. Olly Bootle explains why”
