Why Some Brains Don’t Rot and Other Wild Things We Learned about the Human Body in 2024
From periods of rapid aging in our 40s and 60s to ancient brains that don’t decompose, here are some of the year’s most intriguing stories about human biology
When Did Neandertals and Humans Interbreed? Genomics Closes In on a Date
The oldest human genomes ever sequenced reveal that our Neandertal ancestry came from one “pulse” of interbreeding and pins down the timing
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Some Brains Don’t Rot. Here’s Why
Misfolded proteins may preserve postmortem brains well after other tissues have decayed
Fossil Footprints Suggest Two Early Human Species Crossed Paths within Hours
Two sets of fossilized footprints from early human species were made within a few hours of each other about 1.5 million years ago, researchers suggest
When Did Human Ancestors Start Using Tools?
The 3.2-million-year-old human ancestor known as Lucy sparked a revolution in scientists’ understanding of the origins of clever hands and stone tools
Bury Me on the Moon—Preferably on the Far Side
The far side of the moon offers grounds for compromise between advocates and opponents of lunar development
The Arecibo Message, Earth’s First Interstellar Transmission, Turns 50
In 1974 we beamed a radio transmission into space that changed the way we think about our place in the cosmos
The Lucy Fossil’s Extraordinary Journey to Becoming an Icon of Human Evolution
The 3.2-million-year-old human ancestor known as Lucy rose to fame through an incredible combination of circumstances
Traditional Music Shows Global Similarities in How We Sing
What can singing tell us about how we’re wired—and how our ancestors evolved?
Massive Megalith That Predates Stonehenge Shows Science Savvy of Neolithic Humans
A survey of the Dolmen of Menga suggests that the stone tomb’s Neolithic builders had an understanding of science
What Does the ‘Hobbit’ Fossil Discovery Teach Us about Our Tiny Human Relatives?
A tiny human relative called the hobbit, or Homo floresiensis, may have evolved from a larger ancestor that shrunk upon arriving on the Indonesian island of Flores, a new fossil suggests
Popcorn, the Ultimate Snack, May Have Truly Ancient Origins
Popcorn might be more than 6,000 years old, an anthropologist explains