Assassin’s Creed in your genes
I’m a big fan of the Assassin’s Creed games, they’re top notch murder simulators. The premise behind them is that the memories of our ancestors are encoded into our DNA which can […]
Category Archives: Science
When did humans leave Africa?
Fossil evidence indicates that modern humans evolved in Africa around 195,000 years ago (McDougall et al., 2005). Genetic data confirms this, showing that all living people share an African ancestor […]
The birth of farming
The advent of farming was a key moment in human history. By intensively exploiting the surrounding land early farmers could gather enough food to stay in one place all year round, allowing […]
Fitting the ice age into creationism – Misguided Mondays
Over the past week or so several creationist sites have written about how the ice age fits into the Biblical chronology. The most prominent of these being Answers in Genesis, […]
Monkeys and mirrors: are monkeys self-aware?
Being able to recognise yourself in the mirror is a sign you’re self-aware, which is a key step on the road towards theory of mind and other complex thought processes. It has long been thought that monkeys cannot recognise themselves in the mirror, or can they?
Are Australopiths our ancestors?
Today’s question allows me to win the award for “starting the most words in a title with a vowel.” It comes from Jose who asked (a while ago, I’m a […]
How smart were our fire-taming ancestors?
The discovery of fire was a key moment in the human prehistory. With fire our ancestors would’ve been able to cook food, making digestion more efficient. The benefits of this […]
Our ancestors didn’t innovate – Misguided Mondays
It’s a common creationist mantra that with the same evidence you can arrive at very different conclusions based on the “assumptions” through which you interpret the evidence. The unstated conclusion […]
When did we become good at running
The story of human evolution is that of a tree-dwelling ape spending more time on the ground. This change in lifestyle presented us with new opportunities and exposed us to […]
Could Neanderthals Throw #2
Neanderthals were very similar to us; even being so close genetically that we were able to interbreed. But it’s their differences that are fascinating because they suggest that all it […]
