Friday’s Elk, October 9, 2016

Posted on by Matt Kristoffersen

Thanks to Dana Ehret for taking pictures of my talk Thursday at the University of Alabama. Before speaking about human-driven evolution, I had an excellent day talking with UA biologists about turtles and death cap mushrooms and other glories of Alabama’s biodiversity.

 

Does the Human Lifespan Have a Limit?

Aging is one of those science-journalism topics that never gets old. (Sorry.) Over the years, I’ve written a number of pieces on what happens when we get old, and why we get old in the first place. You can read some of them here here here and here. Also, you can watch this Science Happens video or this lecture I gave at Stony Brook on the evolution of aging (I wrote it up here.) Continue reading “Friday’s Elk, October 9, 2016” →

As DNA reveals its secrets, scientists are assembling a new picture of humanity

Posted on by admin

STAT, October 7, 2016

Link

When Benedict Paten stares at his computer monitor, he sometimes gazes at what looks like a map of the worst subway system in the world. The screen is sprinkled with little circles that look like stations. Some are joined by straight lines — sometimes a single path from one circle to the next, sometimes a burst of spokes radiating out in many directions. And sometimes the lines bend into sweeping curves that soar off on express routes to distant stations.

A rainbow palette of colors makes it a little easier to digest the complexity. But if you stare a little too long, vertigo sets in.

Continue reading “As DNA reveals its secrets, scientists are assembling a new picture of humanity” →

What’s the Longest Humans Can Live? 115 Years, New Study Says

Posted on by admin

The New York Times, October 5, 2016

Link

On Aug. 4, 1997, Jeanne Calment passed away in a nursing home in France. The Reaper comes for us all, of course, but he was in no hurry for Mrs. Calment. She died at age 122, setting a record for human longevity.

Jan Vijg doubts we will see the likes of her again. True, people have been living to greater ages over the past few decades. But now, he says, we have reached the upper limit of human longevity.

“It seems highly likely we have reached our ceiling,” said Dr. Vijg, an expert on aging at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine. “From now on, this is it. Humans will never get older than 115.”

Continue reading “What’s the Longest Humans Can Live? 115 Years, New Study Says” →

Friday’s Elk, September 30, 2016

Posted on by Matt Kristoffersen

It was a busy week for me: a talk in Boston, a shoot for an upcoming Science Happens video, and a lot of time spent burrowing deep into my next book. On Thursday I’ll resurface in Alabama to give a lecture at UA about evolution in our own time. So, Alabamians, I hope to see you there! Here are the details about this free lecture. Continue reading “Friday’s Elk, September 30, 2016” →

Friday’s Elk, September 23, 2016

Posted on by Matt Kristoffersen
Out of Africa: What the Genomes Say

Back in December, when I was working on a profile of the geneticist Eske Willerslev, he told me off the record that he and his colleagues had a huge new genome paper in the works that would offer a lot of clues about human history. But it would take a while to come out because similar papers were going to be published at the same time by other scientists.

Well, the wheels turn slowly, but they were worth the wait. On Thursday’s front page of the New York Times, I reported on four new studies that give an unprecedented look at our origins. There was a whole lot to write about–more than can fit in one article, so I focused on one of the most contentious questions in paleoanthropology: how did humans emerge out of Africa and settle the rest of the world? Some fascinating possibilities emerge from these new studies on hundreds of genomes. Continue reading “Friday’s Elk, September 23, 2016” →