Many scientists have contended that humans have evolved very little over the past 10,000 years.

A few hundred generations was just a blink of the evolutionary eye, it seemed. Besides, our cultural evolution — our technology, agriculture and the rest — must have overwhelmed our biological evolution by now.

A vast study, published on Wednesday in the journal Nature, suggests the opposite. Examining DNA from 15,836 ancient human remains, scientists found 479 genetic variants that appeared to have been favored by natural selection in just the past 10,000 years.

Continue reading “Nature Is Still Molding Human Genes, Study Finds” →

Since 1995, scientists have tracked a huge group of chimpanzees living in the forests of Uganda. The sustained research, featured in the 2023 documentary “Chimp Empire,” has led to profound insights about our closest living relatives and, by extension, our own ancestors.

In one line of research, the scientists studied deep bonds among male chimpanzees in the Ngogo group, named for a hill in the Kibale National Park where they live. The males spend years hunting together and patrolling the boundaries of their range. The female Ngogo chimps, scientists discovered, may experience menopause, never previously documented in primates aside from humans.

Continue reading “These Chimps Began the Bloodiest ‘War’ on Record. No One Knows Why.” →

Scientists publish more than 10 million studies and other publications a year. Some of those findings will add to humanity’s storehouse of knowledge. But some will be wrong.

To assess a study, scientists can replicate it to see if they get the same result. But seven years ago, a team of hundreds of scientists set out to find a faster way to judge new scientific literature. They built artificial intelligence systems to predict whether studies would hold up to scrutiny.

Continue reading “Can Science Predict When a Study Won’t Hold Up?” →

In front of Esther Oluwagbenga sits an egg perched on a blue tripod. A tiny triangular window has been cut into the shell. When Dr. Oluwagbenga positions the hole under a microscope, she reveals the chick embryo inside.

In its third day of existence, the embryo has developed into a diffuse cloud, with a pinhead-size heart beating at its core. Cells course through crimson arteries in fits and starts, like rush-hour traffic.

Continue reading “How to Turn a Chicken Egg Into a Drug Factory” →

The Covid pandemic was an extraordinary moment in history. Starting at the end of 2019, a virus new to science swept across the planet, killed more than 25 million people and caused trillions of dollars in economic damage.

But as outbreaks go, Covid was pretty ordinary, a new study finds.

Scientists compared seven viral outbreaks that occurred in recent decades, including epidemics of Covid, Ebola and influenza. For the most part, the researchers found, the outbreaks were not preceded by any unusual genetic changes in the viruses. In all but one case, in 1977, the viruses circulated in animals and gained the ability to spread to and among people only by unfortunate coincidence.

Continue reading “Scientists Get a Glimpse of How New Pandemics Are Made” →