16 December 2020
Watching TV and staring at flickering flames produce similar physiological effects, offering intriguing clues to the enduring power of entertainment – and the origins of sociability
11 November 2020
Hugs, handshakes and air kisses serve the same crucial purposes as animal greetings like sniffing, eye poking and buttock grabbing
9 September 2020
We can't extract DNA from some of the most perplexing ancient human fossils. But ancient proteins sometimes survive better, and they are finally starting to give up their secrets
5 August 2020
New research reveals that miscarriage serves a critical role in human evolution – and in some instances, may even be associated with optimal fertility
1 April 2020
Forget the simple out-of-Africa idea of how humans evolved. A huge array of fossils and genome studies has completely rewritten the story of how we came into being.
11 December 2019
Human attempts to define intelligence are largely motivated by a desire to prove we have more of it – but a look at the world around us suggests a different story
11 December 2019
A common misconception is that evolution naturally selects for biological complexity, eventually creating advanced organisms like us. That couldn't be further from the truth
9 October 2019
We can sniff out fear, find solace in the smell of a loved one, breathe in the scent of happiness. How we're deciphering the subliminal signals of human scent
25 September 2019
Our survival instinct should undercut morality – but our mammalian brains pulled off an amazing evolutionary trick, says neurophilosopher Patricia Churchland
25 September 2019
The Americas were the last continents conquered by humanity. Now we know that those who settled there were a hardy group that first had to survive in the Arctic
