Latest Human Stories

  According to a new study, the first ancestor of modern humans to master the art of cooking was homo erectus. Harvard University researchers said that the ability to cook and process food allowed homo erectus, the Neanderthals and homo sapiens to make huge evolutionary leaps that differentiated them from chimpanzees and other primates. The scientists back-up claims by previous studies that suggest homo erectus may have known how to cook.  They based their results on an analysis of...

While both humans and chimpanzees start out life with key portions of their brains underdeveloped, the rapid growth in these cognitive and decision-making areas that occur in human children are not characteristic of young chimps, a new study has discovered.According to Sindya N. Bhanoo of the New York Times, researchers from Kyoto University in Japan discovered that both species "start out with undeveloped forebrains" but that "the human brain increases in volume much more...

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Researchers say that evolution of human longevity led to both a large brain and brain shrinkage. A team of researchers sought to find out if a chimpanzee brain shrinks as much as a human's brain does with old age. Chet Sherwood, an anthropologist at The George Washington University in Washington, D.C., and a team of scientists from seven other U.S. universities used magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to measure the space occupied by various brain structures in adult humans and chimpanzee. They...

The role of grandparents in helping to nurture children dates back some 30,000 years, when the life expectancy of the human population began to increase significantly, a team of American anthropologists claim in a new study.In fact, according to David Derbyshire of the Daily Mail, as the number of people reaching advanced age began to rise, the researchers discovered that the "older generation" could have "played a key role in the evolution of mankind.""With older...

Chimpanzees, the closest living relatives to humans, do not experience a decrease in brain volume as they age like humans do, according to a study by George Washington University researcher Chet Sherwood and his colleagues. Washington, D.C. (PRWEB) July 25, 2011 Chimpanzees, the closest living relatives to humans, do not experience a decrease in brain volume as they age like humans do, according to a study by George Washington University researcher Chet Sherwood and his colleagues. There...

Scientists at the University of Liverpool discovered ancient footprints that show human-like features of the feet and gait existed two million years earlier than previously thought. Earlier studies suggested that the characteristics of the human foot, such as the ability to walk upright, emerged in early Homo, which was about 1.9 million years ago. However, the Liverpool researchers have shown that footprints of a human ancestor dating back 3.7 million years ago show features of the foot with...

Study results may shed light on apparent self-awareness deficits in humansIn the first study of its kind in an animal species that has not passed a critical test of self-recognition, cognitive psychologist Justin J. Couchman of the University at Buffalo has demonstrated that rhesus monkeys have a sense of self-agency -- the ability to understand that they are the cause of certain actions -- and possess a form of self awareness previously not attributed to them.The study, which will be...

Advanced crafting of stone spearheads contributed to the development of new ways of human thinking and behaving. This is what new findings by archaeologists at Lund University have shown. The technology took a long time to acquire, required step by step planning and increased social interaction across the generations. This led to the human brain developing new abilities.200 000 years ago, small groups of people wandered across Africa, looking like us anatomically but not thinking the way we...

What links speed, power, and the color red? Hint: it's not a sports car.It's your muscles.A new study, published in the latest issue of the journal Emotion, finds that when humans see red, their reactions become both faster and more forceful. And people are unaware of the color's intensifying effect.The findings may have applications for sporting and other activities in which a brief burst of strength and speed is needed, such as weightlifting. But the authors caution that the color energy...