Humans

The science of the human condition, from ancient human ancestors to social phenomena, psychology, the brain, and so much more.

By ScienceAlert

Humanity
Scientist Controversially Suggests The Climate Crisis May Make People Eat Human Flesh
ScienceAlert - ARIA BENDIX
Last week, behavioural scientist Magnus Söderlund posed a controversial question at a seminar in Sweden: Can you imagine eating human flesh? As global …
2 days ago
Humanity
Neuroscientists Find Our Experience of Beauty Is Linked to an Unexpected Brain Region
ScienceAlert - Carly Cassella
Neuroscientists think they have found a key area in our brains that helps us assess and respond to what we find beautiful, also known as aesthetic …
2 days ago
Humanity
This Skull Is Not Real And Never Existed. But It Could Be Your Ancestor All The Same
ScienceAlert - Carly Cassella
In the story of our species, Africa is known as the cradle of humanity. Somewhere on this vast continent, hundreds of thousands of years ago, a group …
3 days ago
Humanity
Man Allegedly Uses 'Photographic Memory' to Steal 1,300 Credit Card Numbers
ScienceAlert - LATESHIA BEACHUM
A Tokyo-based cashier allegedly stole credit card information from 1,300 customers. According to police, he used only his brain to take the …
4 days ago
Humanity
Without These Basic Math Skills, Study Finds You Can't Make Effective Life Decisions
ScienceAlert - ELLEN PETERS & BRITTANY SHOOTS-REINHARD
Almost a third of American adults don't have the math skills necessary to make effective decisions about their health and finances. These 73 million …
5 days ago
Dead Sea
We Just Found Traces of an Ancient Technology Used to Make The Dead Sea Scrolls
ScienceAlert - Carly Cassella
New research on one of the most fascinating Dead Sea Scrolls suggests there's something highly unusual about where and how it was made. Estimated to …
5 days ago
Mathematics
Mathematicians Solve '42' Problem With Planetary Supercomputer
ScienceAlert - Michelle Starr
Mathematicians have finally figured out the three cubed numbers that add up to 42. This has settled a problem that has been pondered for 65 years: …
6 days ago
Observatories
An Entire Scientific Observatory at The Bottom of The Ocean Mysteriously Vanished
ScienceAlert - Michelle Starr
When the Boknis Eck Observatory - an environmental monitoring station on the floor of the Baltic Sea off the coast of Germany - stopped sending data …
6 days ago
Humanity
Staring Into Someone's Eyes For 10 Minutes Can Induce Altered State of Consciousness
ScienceAlert - Bec Crew
In 2015, a psychologist in Italy figured out how to induce a drug-free altered state of consciousness by asking 20 volunteers to sit and stare into …
September 7
Humanity
For The First Time, We've Found Genes And Brain Differences Linked to Left-Handedness
ScienceAlert - David Nield
For the first time, researchers have been able to highlight specific gene regions that appear to have some influence over left-handedness – and …
September 6
Humanity
First DNA From This Ancient Civilization Reveals Ancestry of Modern South Asians
ScienceAlert - Tessa Koumoundouros
Long before climate change drove them to abandon their thriving cities, a group of hunter-gatherers settled in the Indus River Valley as farmers, …
September 5
Androgens
A Controversial Autism Hypothesis Was Just Dented by a Major New Study
ScienceAlert - Carly Cassella
A compelling new study has found no link between testosterone in men and reduced cognitive empathy, a trait that is characteristically impaired in …
September 5
Humanity
Unique Case of a Stroke Patient Just Changed Our Understanding of Colour Perception
ScienceAlert - David Nield
How do we name and categorise colours? Scientists aren't certain how these processes work in the brain, but a new case study of a stroke patient …
September 3
Instagram
CERN's Instagram Has Everyone Excited, So Here Are 5 Other Science Accounts to Follow
ScienceAlert - Jacinta Bowler
The social media team over at the European Organisation for Nuclear Research (CERN) is having a bit of a moment. People have discovered just how …
September 2
Humanity
Scientists Find Evidence The Human Brain Can Create Structures in Up to 11 Dimensions
ScienceAlert - Signe Dean
Back in 2017, neuroscientists used a classic branch of maths in a totally new way to peer into the structure of our brains. What they discovered is …
August 31
Humanity
Some of The World's Most-Cited Scientists Have a Secret That's Just Been Exposed
ScienceAlert - Peter Dockrill
A new study has revealed an unsettling truth about the citation metrics that are commonly used to gauge scientists' level of impact and influence in …
August 29
Humanity
Brainwaves Have Been Detected Coming From 'Mini Brains' Grown in The Lab
ScienceAlert - Michelle Starr
For the first time, brain tissue grown in a lab has spontaneously exhibited electrical activity, and it looks startlingly similar to human brain …
August 29
Humanity
Researcher Finds Evidence of Ancient Greek Lifting Mechanism That Predated The Crane
ScienceAlert - David Nield
Fundamentally, the cranes that dot city skylines today aren't hugely different from the ones that the Greeks invented sometime around the late sixth …
August 28
Humanity
We've Finally Uncovered The Face of One of Our Most Elusive Early Human Ancestors
ScienceAlert - Tessa Koumoundouros
Another face of our Australopithecus ancestors can now peer at us from further back in time than ever before, after its recovery from Earth's clutches …
August 28
Inca Empire
Grisly Discovery Suggests The Inca Ritually Mounted 'Trophy Heads' as Display of Power
ScienceAlert - Peter Dockrill
It was the largest, most elaborate society the Americas had ever seen. And it was about to come to an abrupt end. By the Late Horizon of the Inca …
August 27
Humanity
You're Still The Same Person Morally When You're Drunk, Says Study
ScienceAlert - KATHRYN FRANCIS
Many of us know that feeling of waking up, headache in tow, struggling to remember what we said and did after that extra drink the night before. And …
August 26
Humanity
No Boys Have Been Born in This Polish Village For 10 Years. Here's What's Going On
ScienceAlert - CRAIG ANDERSON
The tiny Polish village of Miejsce Odrzanskie has become the unlikely source of international media attention over the past fortnight as a result of …
August 23
Selfies
Psychologists Reveal What People Really Think About Your Selfies
ScienceAlert - Carly Cassella
No matter how good you think you look, there's something about posting a selfie that might frame you in a bad light. An experiment on hundreds of real …
August 23
Titanic
New Images of The Titanic Reveal How The Wreck Is Being 'Consumed' by Ocean Microbes
ScienceAlert - Peter Dockrill
The wreck of what may be the most famous and infamous sea vessel in history has been visited by humans for the first time in almost 15 years – …
August 22
Humanity
Practising For 10,000 Hours May Not Turn You Into a Star After All, Says New Study
ScienceAlert - David Nield
You might have heard the maxim that with 10,000 hours of practice you can become an expert at anything. Well, according to a new study of 39 …
August 21
DNA
DNA Analysis Just Made The Eerie Mystery of Himalayan 'Skeleton Lake' Even Stranger
ScienceAlert - Michelle Starr
High in the Himalayas of India, amid the snow-capped peaks, nestles a mystery. Roopkund Lake is a shallow body of water filled with human bones - the …
August 21
Humanity
Why Do Humans Hardly Engage in Cannibalism, if It's So Common in Animals?
ScienceAlert - JARED PIAZZA & NEIL MCLATCHIE
Vulnerable spadefoot tadpoles eat their smaller competitors to speed towards toadhood as quickly as possible. Gulls and pelicans are among bird …
August 21
Humanity
Welcome to The Deepest Hole on The Entire Planet
ScienceAlert - Bec Crew
Deep in western Russia, if you know where to look, you'll find a small collection of ragged scrap metal and crumbled concrete. Which isn't that …
August 21
Humanity
Turns Out Storytelling Isn't Always The Best Way to Get People to Believe Facts
ScienceAlert - Carly Cassella
Storytelling is one of humanity's most powerful tools. Commonly used by educators, politicians and advertisers, stories have the power to influence …
August 20