All Stories by Bruce Bower
- Animals
Chimps may be aware of others’ deaths
Reactions of chimps to dead companions and infants suggest a basic realization of what death entails.
- Psychology
Dream a little dream of recall
As the sleeping brain builds memories it generates dreams about recently learned material, a new study suggests.
- Anthropology
Lice hang ancient date on first clothes
Genetic analysis puts garment origin at 190,000 years ago.
- Anthropology
Hobbit debate goes out on some limbs
A new analysis of fossil hobbits’ limb bones links them to much earlier hominids, and immediately attracts criticism.
- Anthropology
For ancient hominids, thumbs up on precision grip
An analysis of a 6-million-year-old bone indicates that a humanlike grasp evolved among some of the earliest hominids.
- Anthropology
‘Java Man’ takes age to extremes
New dating of Indonesian strata has produced unexpected results.
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- Anthropology
Partial skeletons may represent new hominid
Partial skeletons may represent a new hominid species with implications for Homo origins, one researcher claims. But many of his peers disagree.
- Anthropology
Inca cemetery holds brutal glimpses of Spanish violence
Bones from a 500-year-old cemetery have yielded the first direct evidence of Inca death at Spaniards’ hands.
- Humans
For a rare few, driving and cell phones go well together
Some people do well at combining driving with cell phone use, raising questions about the nature of attention.
- Humans
Ancient DNA suggests new hominid line
Genetic data unveil a previously unknown Stone Age ancestor in central Asia.
- Anthropology
Ancient footprints yield oldest signs of upright gait
Human ancestors may have been walking with an efficient, extended-leg technique by 3.6 million years ago.
