New Atlas

Biology Audio available

New study suggests humans and Neanderthals split off earlier than we thought

Michael Irving May 16, 2019

It’s not known exactly when humans and Neanderthals split off from their last common ancestor, but the estimated window is very wide, between 300,000 and 800,000 years ago. Now a new study has found evidence that this split took place towards the earlier end of that range, or even longer ago still.

New research suggests humans and Neanderthals split off from their last common ancestor earlier than we ...

Science Audio available

Jawbone reveals enigmatic early hominins beat modern humans to China

Michael Irving May 1, 2019

A fossilized jawbone discovered on the Tibetan Plateau has been found to belong to a Denisovan, an enigmatic early human species closely related to Neanderthals. Its age suggests that Denisovans were the first hominins to occupy the area, long before the arrival of modern humans.

A jawbone found in China has now been identified as belonging to a Denisovan, an ancient ...

Science Audio available

Ancient pee helps archaeologists track the rise of farming

Michael Irving April 17, 2019

One of the most important transitions in human history was when we stopped hunting and gathering for food and settled down to become farmers. Now, to reconstruct the history of one particular archaeological site in Turkey, scientists have examined the salts left behind from human and animal pee.

The Aşıklı Höyük site in Turkey, where researchers have studied urine salts to estimate human and ...

Science Audio available

New species of human discovered in cave in Philippines

Michael Irving April 10, 2019

A new species of human has been discovered in a cave in the Philippines. Named Homo luzonensis after the island of Luzon where it was found, the hominin appears to have lived over 50,000 years ago, painting a more complete picture of human evolution.

The bones of Homo luzonensis were discovered in Callao Cave, on the island of Luzon in ...

Science Audio available

Bold study claims humans may have arrived in Australia 120,000 years ago

Michael Irving March 15, 2019

It’s currently believed that Aboriginal ancestors made their way to Australia as long as 65,000 years ago, but new evidence may push the timeline back much further. If the Moyjil site does turn out to be human-made, it suggests that people have been living in Australia for as long as 120,000 years.

A bold new study suggests that Aboriginal Australians have lived on the southern continent for as ...

Medical Audio available

Intriguing study suggests Alzheimer's-like brain damage can be "caught"

Rich Haridy December 13, 2018

A new study is adding weight to the hypothesis that Alzheimer's disease is somewhat transmissible, providing experimental evidence that in the past amyloid beta plaques may have been seeded in a patient's brain through contaminated samples of human growth hormone.

A new study reveals old, human-derived growth hormone may have indirectly seeded Alzheimer's-like pathologies in the ...

Science

Genome study of cave bones reveals early human hybrid

Michael Irving August 23, 2018

Early hominins were known to have cross-bred when they crossed paths, and now the most direct evidence of those meetings has been found. By sequencing the genome of a hominin bone from a Siberian cave, anthropologists have discovered the direct descendant of a Neanderthal and a Denisovan.

Genetic analysis on an ancient bone fragment has revealed the direct descendant of a Neanderthal and ...

Computers

Biometric Mirror starkly demonstrates how facial recognition systems amplify human bias

Rich Haridy July 31, 2018

The Biotmetric Mirror is a unique, interactive installation incorporating AI technologies and facial recognition systems to demonstrate how flawed and influenced by human bias these devices are. I tried it, and it concluded I am weird and aggressive.

The Biometric Mirror demonstrates how human bias can dramatically influence facial recognition systems

Science

Stone tools suggest North America was settled 20,000 years ago

Michael Irving July 24, 2018

The story of how humans spread across the globe is constantly being rewritten. Dating back to about 13,000 years ago, the “Clovis culture” was long thought to be the earliest humans in North America. Now archaeologists have uncovered stone tools in Texas that could be as old as 20,000 years.

Archaeologists have uncovered stone tools dating back between 16,000 and 20,000 years

Science

World's oldest bread is over 14,000 years old and predates farming

Michael Irving July 16, 2018

Archaeologists have discovered the oldest direct evidence of bread ever found, dating back over 14,000 years. It predates farming, leading researchers to suggest that the realization that cereals can be cultivated might have helped humans transition from hunting and gathering to agriculture.

An archaeological site in Jordan, where traces of the oldest bread were found in the 14,400-year ...