Humans
We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.
- Anthropology
Humans may have started tending animals almost 13,000 years ago
Remnants from an ancient fire pit in Syria suggest that hunter-gatherers were burning dung as fuel by the end of the Old Stone Age.
- Health & Medicine
How living in a pandemic distorts our sense of time
The pandemic has distorted people’s perception of time. That could have implications for collective well-being.
- Genetics
Can’t comb your kid’s hair? This gene may be to blame
Scientists linked variants of one hair shaft gene to most of the uncombable hair syndrome cases they tested.
- Health & Medicine
How the COVID-19 pandemic may leave a long-term imprint on our health
As much as we want to put the pandemic in the rearview mirror, the coronavirus’s impact will remain a feature of many tomorrows.
- Anthropology
The oldest known surgical amputation occurred 31,000 years ago
A young adult on the island of Borneo survived a lower left leg removal thanks to medically savvy rainforest surgeons.
- Anthropology
How mythology could help demystify dog domestication
The path that dog myths took around the world closely parallels that of dog domestication, a new study finds.
- Archaeology
Indigenous Americans ruled democratically long before the U.S. did
Oklahoma’s Muscogee people, among others, promoted rule by the people long before the U.S. Constitution was written.
- Health & Medicine
What you need to know about the new omicron booster shots
With approval of omicron booster shots, COVID-19 vaccine approval and dosing guidance is moving closer to the way flu shots are handled.
- Health & Medicine
Who has the highest risk of long COVID? It’s complicated
Long COVID can look different for different people, making it difficult to pinpoint the risk factors behind it.
- Health & Medicine
The curious case of the 471-day coronavirus infection
One patient couldn’t get rid of their coronavirus infection. The case gave scientists an unprecedented look at viral evolution.
- Anthropology
7-million-year-old limb fossils may be from the earliest known hominid
An earlier report on one of the bones of a 7-million-year-old creature that may have walked upright has triggered scientific misconduct charges.
- Tech
50 years ago, genes eluded electron microscopes
In the 1970s, scientists dreamed of seeing genes under the microscope. Fifty years later, powerful new tools are helping to make that dream come true.
