Reprieve

LATEST ARTICLES ( 510 )

• How Old is Throwing?

  

  A chimp eating prey she killed with a (thankfully) non-thrown spearHumans aren’t particularly fast or strong, but we aren’t completely devoid of physical skills... Read more

  Posted on 20 November 2014 BIOLOGY, SCIENCE

• Can We Predict Cultural Change?

  

  In 1492 Columbus sailed the ocean blue. But why wasn’t there a Native American explorer sailing in the opposite direction? 35,000 years before all that modern... Read more

  Posted on 18 November 2014 BIOLOGY, SCIENCE

• Venus Figurines, Indonesian Art and the Interconnectedness of the Stone Age

  

  Scientists recently discovered 39,000 year old cave art in Indonesia. This makes it older than most other stone age cave art, and located around 17,000 km away... Read more

  Posted on 04 November 2014 BIOLOGY, SCIENCE

• Human Evolution Weekly Update: Old DNA, Old Art & Sexy Men

  

  It’s the human evolution weekly update. No, this isn’t a review of how much we’ve evolved in the past week; but a review of cool discoveries about our... Read more

  Posted on 24 October 2014 BIOLOGY, SCIENCE

• Ancient DNA Reveals How Often and When Humans & Neanderthals Interbred

  

  Modern humans evolved in Africa around 195,000 years ago, but soon spread across the world. However, we weren’t the first species of human to leave Africa and w... Read more

  Posted on 23 October 2014 BIOLOGY, SCIENCE

• First non-European Palaeolithic Cave Art Discovered. It’s Kinda Boring (which...

  

  In 1879 palaeolithic cave art was discovered in Altamira Cave, Spain. This marked the start of the scientific study of cave art in Europe; resulting in... Read more

  Posted on 21 October 2014 BIOLOGY, SCIENCE

• Our Big Brains Evolved to Make Tools

  

  Humans have very, very big brains. Bananas seem to be the standard unit of measurement on the internet now; and you’d need to eat about six of them a day just t... Read more

  Posted on 07 October 2014 BIOLOGY, SCIENCE

• Chimps Seen Learning from One Another; Scientists Seen Running in Fear

  

  BEHOLD THE FACE OF YOUR DOOMSo now we’re all doomed.About a month ago I explained why chimps couldn’t take over the world. The crux of the issue was that they... Read more

  Posted on 05 October 2014 BIOLOGY, SCIENCE

• Climate Change Made Humans Successful

  

  Humans have absurdly large brains. It takes almost 1/5 of our daily calories1 (the equivalent of a big mac) just to keep it running; but the benefits of having... Read more

  Posted on 02 October 2014 BIOLOGY, SCIENCE

• What Did Prehistoric People Wear?

  

  It’s Wednesday, which means it’s the day I answer questions from you lovely focus. Today’s question comes from Laura, an English teacher who asks whether there... Read more

  Posted on 01 October 2014 BIOLOGY, SCIENCE

• Scientists “abused” Peer Review System to Get Research on the Hobbit Published

  

  Last month I wrote about a new round of controversy surrounding the hobbit. Not the series of films (although I think the decision to split it into 3 films... Read more

  Posted on 30 September 2014 BIOLOGY, SCIENCE

• Creationists Omit Facts from Research to “disprove” Evolution, Nobody is Suprised

  

  Taung childThe Institute for Creation Research (ICR) probably spends more of their time basing evolution than actually researching creationism. Which is quite... Read more

  Posted on 29 September 2014 BIOLOGY, SCIENCE

• Chimps Beat Humans in Game, Even Match Computer Performance

  

  “Troglodyte” is a term used to insult someone’s intelligence. It’s also the technical term for a chimpanzee – whose species name is Pan troglodytes – and sure... Read more

  Posted on 17 August 2014 BIOLOGY, SCIENCE

• This Week in Human Evolution: Climate Changing Meteors, the First Europeans &...

  No preamble this week; we’re straight down to business with this weeks biggest discoveries about our ancestors. Does everyone remember Atapuerca? No? Click here... Read more

  Posted on 15 August 2014 BIOLOGY, SCIENCE

• How Were Leaders Born?

  For most of our history humans appear to have lived in egalitarian groups, without a leader commanding obedience. However, at some point in the last 15,000 year... Read more

  Posted on 14 August 2014 BIOLOGY, SCIENCE

• Was “the Hobbit” a Human with Down Syndrome? Probably Not

  

  The human family once cintained a lot more than just humans, with all sorts of weird off-shoots developing over the course of our evolution. Like humans with th... Read more

  Posted on 12 August 2014 BIOLOGY, SCIENCE

• Avoiding Prince Joffrey: Primates Have Newly Discovered Ability That Stops...

  

  Chimps are very, very clever. So clever, in fact, that they engage in politics; building alliances to take on other chimps and claw their way up the social... Read more

  Posted on 10 August 2014 BIOLOGY, SCIENCE

• This Week in Human Evolution (4/8/14): Prehistoric Violence in the Middle East,...

  

  On Friday I write shorter posts about research into human evolution that is interesting, but doesn’t contain quite enough content to sustain a longer article. Read more

  Posted on 08 August 2014 BIOLOGY, SCIENCE

• Does Buying Your Date Dinner Work? (or, “the Second Big Reason You Shouldn’t...

  

  It’s often said that “the way to a man’s heart is through his stomach”, but is there any scientific merit to this idea? And what of the reverse? After all, men... Read more

  Posted on 07 August 2014 BIOLOGY, SCIENCE

• Where Did All the Mammoths Go?

  

  Roll back the clock 50,000 years and the world was a very different place. Up to 5 species of human were living side by side, including the Neanderthals and... Read more

  Posted on 05 August 2014 BIOLOGY, SCIENCE