News

  1. Anthropology

    DNA to Neandertals: Lighten up

    DNA analysis indicates that some Neandertals may have had a gene for pale skin and red hair.

    By Bruce Bower
  2. Animals

    Smells Funny: Fish schools break up over body odor

    Just an hour's swim in slightly contaminated water can give a fish such bad body odor that its schoolmates shun it.

    By Susan Milius
  3. Anthropology

    Not So Clear-Cut: Soil erosion may not have led to Mayan downfall

    Hand-planted maize, beans, and squash sustained the Mayans for millennia, until their culture collapsed about 1,100 years ago. Some researchers have suggested that the Mayans’ very success in turning forests into farmland led to soil erosion that made farming increasingly difficult and eventually caused their downfall.