Strong fists for defending ourselves and opposable thumbs for work as fine as threading a needle — hand specialisation is widely believed to have given humans a major evolutionary advantage. On ...

The so-called “5-minute sleep.” As someone who falls asleep the moment their head hits the pillow, I felt momentarily perplexed upon receiving this book. The title, which suggests that “primitive ...

We humans have long viewed ourselves as the pinnacle of evolution. People label other species as "primitive" or "ancient" and use terms like "higher" and "lower" animals. This anthropocentric ...

On a remote Indonesian island, fossils from a population of tiny humans are forcing scientists to redraw some of the clean lines they once drew through our family tree. These remains, from a species ...

Human beings are born with innate reflexes that come from deep within our primitive brain. As the prefrontal cortex develops within the first year of life these reflexes disappear from the central ...

(The Conversation is an independent and nonprofit source of news, analysis and commentary from academic experts.) Kevin Omland, University of Maryland, Baltimore County (THE CONVERSATION) We humans ...