Human Evolution

Human Evolution

star vs planet vs brown dwarf
Red dwarfs are the Universe's most common star type. Their flaring now makes potentially Earth-like worlds uninhabitable, but just you wait.
Illustration of a hand holding a pen, drawing a DNA double helix made of colored dots on a dark background.
It's time to write the human genome, argues microbiologist Andrew Hessel.
A colorful, irregular galaxy with bright clusters of stars, some possibly from a generation stars before sun, and nebulae against a dark background scattered with distant stars.
Our Sun only arose after 9.2 billion years of cosmic history: with many stars living and dying first. How many prior generations were there?
From here on Earth, looking farther away in space means looking farther back in time. So what are distant Earth-watchers seeing right now?
A smiling man with short dark hair wears a button-up shirt, standing in front of a purple, splattered-texture background.
Big Think spoke with astronomer David Kipping about technosignatures, "extragalactic SETI," and being a popular science communicator in the YouTube age.
A young girl with light brown hair sits with her knees drawn up, looking down, illustrated blue teardrops on her face—capturing a quiet moment that reflects why humans cry.
In this excerpt from "When Everyone Knows That Everyone Knows...," Steven Pinker examines how crying may have evolved as part of a suite of emotional expressions aimed at strengthening social bonds.
ESO milky way
Questions about our origins, biologically, chemically, and cosmically, are the most profound ones we can ask. Here are today's best answers.
Book cover of "The Story of CO2 Is the Story of Everything" by Peter Brannen, featuring themes like fire and human evolution, alongside the text “an excerpt from” on a light blue background.
In this excerpt from "The Story of CO2," Peter Brennan explains how changes in the Earth's ecosystem led to fire, which in turn led our ancestors to become the "fire apes."
A small, irregular brown stone with holes—possibly linked to Denisovans—is shown next to a 1990 U.S. dime for size comparison.
In “The Secret History of Denisovans,” Silvana Condemi and François Savatier trace the story of our mysterious hominin ancestor.
A man slumps in a chair, eyes closed, as small monkey-like creatures torment him with various objects in a room near a fireplace and table.
In "The Headache," Tom Zeller Jr. explores one of the human brain's most enduring, and painful, enigmas.
Diagram showing human evolutionary relationships and gene flow among Khoisan, West Africans, Non-Africans, Neanderthals, and Denisovans over time, with percentages of genetic admixture indicated.
After more than a million years of separation, two branches of humanity reunited around 300,000 years ago, suggests new research.