Cain and Abel. Palma il Giovane When modern humans arrived in Europe around 40,000 years ago, they made a discovery that was to change the course of history. The continent was already populated by our evolutionary cousins, the Neanderthals, which recent evidence suggests had their own relatively sophisticated culture andContinue Reading
It might be assumed that this publication is tied to the elections in the United States, which are in the heat of the moment. By no means, just the stars are so aligned that the figure of Donald Trump is featured in the book “The Swaying Scene” published October, 25,Continue Reading
_P. poncetii_ in South Georgia. Gemma Clucas When you think of scientists discovering new species, you might imagine searching the Amazon rainforest for new types of insect or the depths of the ocean for undiscovered crustaceans. But these days most new species we discover are found hiding in plain sight.Continue Reading
Reconstruction Yuan Zhang When fossils of the oldest known bird, Archaeopteryx, were first discovered almost 160 years ago, the find created a puzzle that has troubled palaeontologists ever since. These fossils were celebrated for their chimera-like combination of supposedly reptilian features (such as a bony tail and jaws with teeth)Continue Reading
Artist impression of a prehistoric woman hunting. Matthew Verdolivo (UC Davis IET Academic Technology Services) For a long time, it was assumed that hunting in prehistoric societies was primarily carried out by men. Now a new study adds to a body of evidence challenging this idea. The research reports theContinue Reading
El Nariz/Shutterstock The small town of Watton, Norfolk recently held the unfortunate title of having England’s highest rate of infection with COVID-19 relative to population size, following an outbreak at a food factory. Despite varying degrees of lockdown restrictions due to the pandemic, many people in the UK are stillContinue Reading
Charles R Knight/Wikimedia Around 600,000 years ago, humanity split in two. One group stayed in Africa, evolving into us. The other struck out overland, into Asia, then Europe, becoming Homo neanderthalensis – the Neanderthals. They weren’t our ancestors, but a sister species, evolving in parallel. Neanderthals fascinate us because ofContinue Reading
We all love a happy ending. Romanno/Shutterstock All’s well that ends well, wrote William Shakespeare in 1623. The words may still seem to ring true today, but turns out they don’t. We have just busted the old myth in a recent brain imaging experiment, published in the Journal of Neuroscience.Continue Reading
Shutterstock Whisky is big business in Scotland. In 2019, the golden liquid accounted for 75% of the nation’s food and drink exports, with a value of almost £5 billion to the Scottish economy. Iconic bottles have sold at auction for over £1 million. But if you are the lucky ownerContinue Reading
Denys Niezhientsev/Shutterstock Wouldn’t it be great if chocolate were good for you? It’s no wonder many news outlets leap on any scrap of research that appears to show potential benefits to eating the tasty treat. But the history of such coverage provides a cautionary tale about why we should beContinue Reading
