Humans

They’re incredible. Amazing. Magical. But perhaps the most fantastic thing about lucid dreams – in which the dreamer becomes aware they’re dreaming – is how realistic they seem. Sadly, only about half of us ever experience lucid dreams in our lives, and efforts to trigger the phenomenon have delivered mixed results. But a study published

Culturally, this is an era in which people are held in high esteem when they stick with their beliefs and negatively labeled as “flip-floppers” or “wishy-washy” when they change what they think. While the courage of convictions can be a plus in situations where people are fighting for justice, sticking with beliefs in a dynamic

Nobody ever said parenting was easy, but depending on circumstances, some people can find it much harder than others. In recent years researchers have begun to recognize ‘parental burnout‘ – a condition in which exhausted parents become overwhelmed by their role as primary carers, potentially leading to emotional distance from their children, parental ineffectiveness, neglect,

A new discovery offers definitive evidence that humans were in North America far earlier than archaeologists previously thought – a whopping 7,000 years earlier. Fossil footprints found on the shore of an ancient lake bed in New Mexico’s White Sands National Park date as far back as 23,000 years ago, making them the oldest ever

Microplastics are everywhere. Even what should be untouched wildernesses – the icy plains of Antarctica, the crushing depths of the deepest ocean chasms – has been polluted by our garbage. So it’s no surprise that we ingest plastic, too; it’s been found in our feces, probably as a result of eating from plastic containers. But a

Easter Island’s famous megaliths have relatives on islands thousands of miles to the north and west – and so did the people who created them, a study said Wednesday. Research showed that over a 250-year period separate groups of people set out from tiny islands east of Tahiti to settle Easter Island, the Marquesas and

Catchy songs that ‘go viral’ are downloaded in a way that closely resembles the spread of an actual virus, according to new research out of Great Britain. The data was collected before the days of streaming music, but the findings suggest some tunes are downright infectious, jumping from one host to another in a similar

About 1,500 years ago, Maya builders crafted a massive pyramid out of rock that had been ejected by a volcano, in an eruption that was so powerful it chilled the planet, scientists recently discovered. Around 539 CE, in what is now San Andrés, El Salvador, the Ilopango caldera erupted in what was the biggest volcanic

Modern roads and developments share more similarities with ancient urban centers than we often realize – which is certainly the case with the sprawling Teotihuacan settlement, once located around 40 kilometers (25 miles) northeast of Mexico City. Researchers have used LIDAR (“light” and “radar”) scanning to reveal that the contours of Teotihuacan – much of

Researchers have rewritten Japanese history after uncovering a third, and previously unknown, group of ancestors that migrated to Japan around 2,000 years ago, of modern-day Japanese populations. Ancient Japan can be split into three key time periods: the Jomon period (13,000 BCE to 300 BCE), a time when a small population of hunter-gatherers who were

Sleep is one of the most vital things a human does, but millions of us don’t do enough of it. Some of the distractions that prevent us from getting enough sleep are obvious. Others are less so, remaining mysterious and debated – even if they’ve probably been disrupting human shut-eye for thousands of years. In

There are around 7,000 human languages that we know of worldwide, and while they’re all unique, they’re also more similar than you might have realized – particularly when it comes to the grammar, or the way that sentences can be formed and used. That might be because of certain genetic tendencies, scientists have theorized, or

Scientists have found what may be the earliest evidence of clothing manufacture in a cave in Morocco, dating back 120,000 years. It can be easy to take clothing and their origins for granted, as putting on an outfit at the start of the day is such an ingrained part of what it means to be

Dogs often seem uncannily shrewd about what we’re trying to tell them. A handful of recent studies offer surprising insights into the ways our canine companions are hard-wired to communicate with people. The most recent of those studies, published last week in the journal Scientific Reports, found that dogs can understand the difference between their owners’ accidental

Two polished stone balls shaped about 5,500 years ago – linked to a mysterious practice almost unique to Neolithic Britain – have been discovered in an ancient tomb on the island of Sanday, in the Orkney Islands north of mainland Scotland. Hundreds of similar stone balls, each about the size of a baseball, have been

Incredibly well-preserved tracks of prehistoric baby elephants have revealed a crucial, ancient stomping ground for one of the largest animals to walk on Earth’s surface since the dinosaurs. On a beach in what is now southwest Spain, archaeologists have identified 34 sets of footprints belonging to the straight-tusked elephant (Palaeoloxodon antiquus). These huge land animals

Having evolved with storytelling as a means to pass information across generations, our brains are powerfully attuned to narratives, so much so that we can recall well-told stories better than basic facts. Stories play a powerful role in shaping the world we’ve created for ourselves, and it turns out they may even be able to

Fossilized footprints, and more rarely, hand prints, can be found around the world; left as people went about their daily business, preserved by freak acts of geological preservation. In new research our international team have discovered ancient hand and footprints high on the Tibetan plateau made by children. The team argues that these traces represent

On someone’s desk, one of the little gray cubes wouldn’t raise an eyebrow. To the untrained eye, they look like paperweights. “Marie Curie‘s granddaughter has one. She uses it as a doorstop,” Miriam Hiebert, a historian and materials scientist, told Insider. The weight of the 2-inch (5 cm) objects might be surprising, though – each

Poverty Point in northern Louisiana is one of the first US civilizations on record, inhabited by a community of Native Americans as early as 1700 BCE. In a new study, researchers have shown these inhabitants to be highly skilled engineers, rather than the simpler hunter-gatherers they’re often portrayed as. The massive earthen structures put up

Archaeologists have discovered some of the oldest artifacts ever found to be associated with beer, in a haul from Qiaotou in southern China dating back 9,000 years. However, it appears the ancient drinkers in question weren’t in it simply for a buzz. The find consisted of two human skeletons surrounded by scores of ceramic pots

As far as Lower Paleolithic archaeology goes, this is quite the haul: Experts have uncovered a record 98 elephant-bone tools at a site dating back some 400,000 years. This discovery could change our thinking on how some of the early humans – such as Neanderthals – fashioned implements like these. The bones were collected from

As our world continues to heat up dangerously, researchers are investigating the past to see how climate change affected our species in previous eras. A new study has revealed several human migrations into Arabia over the last 400,000 years. These migrations were driven by the same type shift in climate: an increase in rainfall over

A 23-year-old student in Germany can shrink and enlarge his pupils on demand, according to a new case report – a feat that was previously thought to be impossible. Two tiny opposing muscles in the eye act as puppeteers of each pupil (the dark center of the eye), dilating or enlarging them in a dark environment to

Nobody would ever have thought that farming the Atacama Desert would be easy. Yet, even so, the brutal challenges of living off the land in one of the driest, harshest environments on Earth (and the driest non-polar desert) proved deadly to many, and not all of the dangers were imposed by the desert. Some of the

As anyone who has ever lived with a dog will know, it often feels like we don’t get enough time with our furry friends. Most dogs only live around ten to 14 years on average – though some may naturally live longer, while others may be predisposed to certain diseases that can limit their lifespan.

Are people in your culture are mindful of others, even if they’re total strangers? Social mindfulness differs from individual mindfulness in that money isn’t involved – there’s no reward to consider, leaving the characteristics of being friendly and helpful towards others to stand on their own. Small-scale, low-cost cooperation – the sort that’s essential to

More Americans are coming to accept Charles Darwin’s “dangerous idea” of evolution, according to thirty years’ worth of national surveys. Researchers have found that public acceptance of biological evolution has increased substantially in the last decade alone, following twenty years of relative stagnancy. Between 1985 and 2010, roughly 40 percent of surveyed adults in the

The bones of victims of the 79 CE eruption of Vesuvius in the nearby town of Herculaneum have revealed fascinating differences in the diets of the local men and women. According to an analysis of isotopes in the bones, men ate more cereals and seafood, and women ate more eggs, dairy, and meat from terrestrial

Picturing how our species might appear in the far future often invites wild speculation over stand-out features such as height, brain size, and skin complexion. Yet subtle shifts in our anatomy today demonstrate how unpredictable evolution can be. Take something as mundane as an extra blood vessel in our arms, which going by current trends could be

Nearly 2,000 years ago, the ancient people of Teotihuacan wrapped bunches of flowers into beautiful bouquets, laid them beneath a jumble of wood and set the pile ablaze. Now, archaeologists have found the remains of those surprisingly well-preserved flowers in a tunnel snaking beneath a pyramid of the ancient city, located northeast of what is now Mexico

The skeletal remains of two lovers, buried together more than 1,500 years ago in northern China, were recently discovered locked in an eternal embrace, a new study finds. It’s possible that the woman, who wore a metal ring on her left ring finger, sacrificed herself so that she could be buried with her husband, the

The skeleton of an ancient woman, discovered in an Indonesian cave in 2015, appears to have ancestry unlike any other human found to date. Her remains have now provided archaeologists with a rare glimpse of the earliest settlers to leave mainland Asia and begin the journey to New Guinea and Australia. The roughly 7,200-year-old human,

What makes a ‘good’ life? And how do we measure it? These are questions as old as humanity itself – with many potential answers – but a new study places the emphasis on living in a way that’s ‘psychologically rich’. That richness is defined by experiences that are out of the ordinary, varied, complex and

The human mind is more resistant to the march of time than conventional wisdom suggests. Like a fine wine, some parts even get better with age. As our brains inevitably grow older, some of our mental power is destined to fade, like spatial visualization or our mind’s processing speed. Yet research has found there are

What is the baby lion’s name in Disney’s The Lion King? If you feel sure that you know it, and it is on the verge of coming back to you but you can’t quite remember it right now, then you’re experiencing a tip-of-the-tongue feeling. Tip-of-the-tongue feelings can also occur when people try to remember things

The antique violins made by Antonio Stradivari and Giuseppe Guarneri in the 17th and 18th centuries are still very much sought after by modern-day musicians. Now, a new study reveals one of the hidden reasons why: the chemical treatments applied to the wood of the instruments. As it turns out, it’s not just the quality

Having the same dream again and again is a well-known phenomenon — nearly two-thirds of the population report having recurring dreams. Being chased, finding yourself naked in a public place or in the middle of a natural disaster, losing your teeth or forgetting to go to class for an entire semester are typical recurring scenarios

The partially mummified remains of an urbane Pompeii resident have been discovered in a tomb outside the city center erected before the famous eruption that buried the town in ash. According to the inscriptions on the tomb, the deceased was a man named Marcus Venerius Secundio, who was in his 60s when he died and was, at

Mini brains grown in a lab from stem cells have spontaneously developed rudimentary eye structures, scientists report in a fascinating new paper. On tiny, human-derived brain organoids grown in dishes, two bilaterally symmetrical optic cups were seen to grow, mirroring the development of eye structures in human embryos. This incredible result will help us to

From ancient catacombs to modern subways, humans have always traveled underground for brief amounts of time. But have entire societies of people ever lived underground? Yes, but historically only during emergencies and when they have had no other option. In recent decades, however, that has begun to change. “The thing that is important to know

The mysterious Denisovans were only formally identified about a decade ago, when a single finger bone unearthed from a cave in Siberia clued scientists in to the ancient existence of a kind of archaic hominin we’d never before seen. But that’s only one side of the story. The truth is, modern humans had in fact

Archaeologists have finally figured out how Arthur’s Stone, the famous Neolithic monument that inspired the ‘stone table’ in The Chronicles of Narnia, came to be. Ever since the large quartz conglomerate rocks were first assembled, sometime around 3,700 BCE, this double-chambered tomb has remained a mysterious beacon of the past, perched on a Welsh hillside all

The enteric nervous system (ENS) in our gut operates a lot like other neural networks in the brain and the spinal cord – so much so that it’s often called the ‘second brain’. Now a new study has revealed more about how exactly the ENS works. Using a recently developed technique combining high-resolution video recordings

Since the 1970s, sex-selective abortions in China, India, and ten other nations have caused between 23 and 45 million women to go ‘missing’. By 2030, a new study predicts those very same nations will ‘lose’ another 4.7 million female births, skewing their sex ratios even more. This study uses a model based on 3.26 billion

The history of the Incas was written by their conquerors, and as we’re coming to find out, the story we know is not necessarily accurate. Modern radiocarbon dating now suggests Machu Picchu is at least two decades older than historical records have indicated. According to interpretations of 16th century documents by the American archaeologist and

An ancient fragment of clay tablet dating back to 3,700 years ago, during the Old Babylonian period, contains what is now the oldest known example of applied geometry, a mathematician has discovered. That’s more than a millennium prior to the birth of Pythagoras. And this history-altering artifact, known as Si.427, had just been sitting in

Childbirth can trigger a number of odd body changes, but for a woman in Portugal, post-pregnancy symptoms were particularly curious: She started to lactate from her armpit, according to a new report. The 26-year-old woman told doctors that she developed pain in her right armpit two days after giving birth, according to the report, published July