Ancient North Americans started using tobacco around 12,500 to 12,000 years ago, roughly 9,000 years before the oldest indications that they smoked the plant in pipes, a new study finds.…
Category: Humans
How catching birds bare-handed may hint at Neandertals’ hunting tactics
Juan Negro crouched in the shadows just outside a cave, wearing his headlamp. For a brief moment, he wasn’t an ornithologist at the Spanish National Research Council’s Doñana Biological Station…
‘Ghost tracks’ suggest people came to the Americas earlier than once thought
Footprints left behind by prehistoric people may be some of the strongest evidence yet that humans arrived in the Americas earlier than previously thought. Over 60 “ghost tracks” —…
50 years ago, X-rays revealed what ancient Egyptians kept under wraps
Probing pharaohs with X-rays — Science News, October 9, 1971 The 29 mummies of pharaohs and queens were examined without disturbing their present positions.… [Researchers using portable X-ray equipment] found…
Fossils and ancient DNA paint a vibrant picture of human origins
In The Descent of Man, published in 1871, Charles Darwin hypothesized that our ancestors came from Africa. He pointed out that among all animals, the African apes — gorillas and…
Brain implants turn imagined handwriting into text on a screen
Electrodes in a paralyzed man’s brain turned his imagined handwriting into words typed on a screen. The translation from brain to text may ultimately point to ways to help people…
Surprisingly, humans recognize joyful screams faster than fearful screams
Screams of joy appear to be easier for our brains to comprehend than screams of fear, a new study suggests. The results add a surprising new layer to scientists’ long-held…
Professor Peter Saville on Tools and Knowledge in the Post-Pandemic Era
Life has changed dramatically since the COVID-19 pandemic. For more than a year, people were locked in their homes, causing significant changes in their daily lives, psychological state and work…
