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Human evolution

Essays and videos exploring physics, evolution, cosmology and other frontiers in science

Astronomy Biology Biotechnology Chemistry Complexity Computing and artificial intelligence Cosmology Deep time Earth science and climate Ecology and environmental sciences Engineering Evolution Genetics History of science Human evolution Human reproduction Illness and disease Mathematics Medicine Oceans and water Palaeontology Physics Quantum theory Space exploration

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A rocky cliff with natural caves and green vegetation growing on the surface.

essayHuman evolution

The other Homo sapiens

We are just one branch of a diverse human family tree. Aside from Neanderthals, who were they – and why did we replace them?

Nick Longrich

A murmuration of starlings forming a large, swirling shape in the early evening sky above silhouetted trees.

essayNeuroscience

The entangled brain

The brain is much less like a machine than it is like the murmurations of a flock of starlings or an orchestral symphony

Luiz Pessoa

Photo of fishermen in a circle on a lake using large nets at sunrise with a distant island and hills in the background.

essayHuman evolution

The commitment to collaborate

Though natural selection favours self-interest, humans are extraordinarily good at cooperating with one another. Why?

Saira Khan

Black-and-white photo of a man in a suit holding a mug, sitting next to a chimpanzee in an enclosure.

essayHuman evolution

The eugenicist of UNESCO

Why did Julian S Huxley, first director of the UN agency, think eugenics held the key to a more evolved, harmonious world?

Stefan Bernhardt-Radu

Illustration of a dodo bird with grey feathers, brown beak, and stubby wings, standing on a grassy, sandy ground.

videoEvolution

How – and how not – to think about the role randomness plays in evolution

60 minutes

Newborn baby being held by a person wearing blue gloves, with another masked individual looking at the baby in a medical setting.

essayHuman reproduction

Baby talk

When babies are born, they cry in the accent of their mother tongue: how does language begin in the womb?

Darshana Narayanan

Three children in colourful clothing walk through a dense, leafy forest with sunlight filtering through the canopy.

essayAnthropology

Societies of perpetual movement

Why do hunter-gatherers refuse to be sedentary? New answers are emerging from the depths of the Congolese rainforest

Cecilia Padilla-Iglesias

Three colourful cell spheres with glowing pink and blue nuclei on a black background, showing cellular structures in vibrant detail.

videoBiology

Explore a bioluminescent world of cellular life via cutting-edge microscopy

27 minutes

A person in a lab coat holds an alligator hand puppet and a mouse hand puppet, mimicking an interaction between them.

videoDeath

Even in modern secular societies, belief in an afterlife persists. Why?

9 minutes

A baby in a high chair waves a yellow toy while a woman in a pink top opens a sauce bottle at a table with plates of food.

essayHuman evolution

How to grow a human

Our childhood is preposterously long compared to other animals. Is it the secret to our evolutionary success?

Brenna Hassett

Cartoon of a yellow character with pink hair buns, holding a small blue puppy, set against a light blue background.

videoHuman evolution

Far from frivolous, cuteness is a powerful – and still mysterious – force of nature

6 minutes

Close-up of a kiwi bird with a long beak and shaggy brown feathers, standing against a white background.

essayHuman evolution

How like the kiwi we are

To understand helpless human babies, our big brains and oddly involved dads, look to the evolution of birds not mammals

Antone Martinho-Truswell

Two people in dark clothing walking through tall grass with trees in the background, one carrying a hunting bow and arrows in a sunny setting.

essayAnthropology

Lessons from the foragers

Hunter-gatherers don’t live in an economic idyll but their deep appreciation of rest puts industrialised work to shame

Vivek V Venkataraman

A group of four people in primitive clothing, standing in a rocky landscape with large animal bones in the background.

essayArchaeology

Children of the Ice Age

With the help of new archaeological approaches, our picture of young lives in the Palaeolithic is now marvellously vivid

April Nowell

View of a misty forest with green trees seen from inside a dark cave, with stalactites hanging from the cave ceiling.

essayHuman evolution

Out of the forest

We have thought of humans for a century or more as creatures of the savannah, shaped in every way by grassland life. Not so

Patrick Roberts

A woman in a navy blouse speaks animatedly with hands outstretched, seated in a library with bookshelves and a wooden table in the background.

videoNeuroscience

The brain repurposed our sense of physical distance to understand social closeness

5 minutes

Victorian-era portrait of a man and woman; the woman holds a small framed photograph, in an ornate gold oval frame.

essayLove and friendship

Tainted love

Love is both a wonderful thing and a cunning evolutionary trick to control us. A dangerous cocktail in the wrong hands

Anna Machin

Illustration of an African village with thatched huts, people gathered around a fire, and a scenic mountainous background.

essayAnthropology

Primitive communism

Marx’s idea that societies were naturally egalitarian and communal before farming is widely influential and quite wrong

Manvir Singh

Three people in dinosaur costumes hold “Go Vegan” signs while walking across a busy city intersection.

essayVirtues and vices

Is virtue signalling a vice?

Proclaiming one’s own goodness is deeply annoying. Yet signalling theory explains why it’s a peculiarly powerful manoeuvre

Tadeg Quillien

A girl in a red outfit playfully poses in front of 3D art as though emerging from a giant whale-like creature’s mouth.

essayHuman evolution

Homo imaginatus

Imagination isn’t just a spillover from our problem-solving prowess. It might be the core of what human brains evolved to do

Philip Ball

Black and white image of a woman singing passionately into a microphone, with hand raised, against a dark background.

essayMusic

Music and sex

A song can take you on a journey of ecstatic arousal. Is music imitating sex, inviting it, or something else altogether?

Michael Spitzer

Abstract illustration of a woman holding hands with a child, walking down a path, surrounded by colourful shapes.

videoPhilosophy of mind

Caring for the vulnerable opens gateways to our richest, deepest brain states

7 minutes

A child lying on a boat surrounded by corals, large shells, and handmade jewellery, with blue water in the background.

essaySleep and dreams

Why do we sleep?

Adults sleep less than babies. Sperm whales sleep less again. A new mathematical theory unlocks the mysteries of slumber

Van Savage & Geoffrey West

A tribal man wearing traditional attire holds hands with another as two tribe members work near a thatched hut.

essayAnthropology

How equality slipped away

For 97 per cent of human history, all people had about the same power and access to goods. How did inequality ratchet up?

Kim Sterelny