Humans news stories

The strange sculpture reverses a recurring Stone Age motif of humans confronting dangerous predators.

Two doses of the psychedelic compound psilocybin can reverse signs of depression and anxiety in rats exposed to chronic stress. The substance appears to work by encouraging the growth of new brain cells and normalizing stress hormone levels. The research was published in Progress in Neuropsychopharmacology & Biological Psychiatry.

Anthropologists studying the hip bones of Homo floresiensis have discovered that its pelvis was human-like, raising new questions about the origin of the enigmatic species. The study was published Aug. 25 in the American Journal of Biological Anthropology.

One of the world’s favorite sweet treats, chocolate, may have been enjoyed in eastern North America much earlier than previously thought, about 1,000 years ago. New research published in the journal PLOS One suggests that people in the Mississippian city of Etowah were consuming cacao, the plant used to make chocolate, in the 11th and 12th centuries.

For decades, archaeologists have been uncovering rare and mysterious incised obsidian arrowheads across Neolithic Central Anatolia, each one bearing a unique design etched into its glassy black surface nearly 9,000 years ago. Now archaeologists have discovered 11 new pieces at Tepecik-Çiftlik in Cappadocia, bringing the grand total up to 54. The study was published in PLOS One.

The research, published online Aug. 12 in the journal Quaternary Science Reviews, hints that Neanderthals may have lived farther south than scientists thought, though more evidence is needed to confirm that conclusion.

For those living in the shadow of mental health conditions such as PTSD, anxiety, and depression, finding a way forward can sometimes feel impossible – especially when conventional treatments have offered little succor…But now, results from the first state-regulated psilocybin program in the US suggest the drug could offer a glimmer of hope beyond the confines of clinical trials. The results have been published in JAMA Network Open.

The evolutionary tree that produced Homo sapiens might contain more knots than previously thought. Researchers have identified traces of two ancient hominin species in the DNA of modern humans. One of these “ghost” ancestors interbred with H. sapiens more than 50,000 years ago, while the other contributed genetic material indirectly via Denisovans—another of our extinct cousins—more than 200,000 years ago, according to a study published on July 30 in the journal Science.

A 4,000-year-old painted stone plaque discovered on a remote Indonesian island is the first known example of portable art belonging to the Austronesian Painting Tradition (APT), providing a rare glimpse into the symbolic world of some of history’s greatest maritime voyagers. The study is published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Archaeologists aren’t sure why prehistoric people in Japan made these elaborate vessels decorated with flames.This ceramic vessel was made in prehistoric times on Honshu, the largest island in Japan. This type of pot is known as a fire-flame vessel (“ka’en doki” in Japanese), due to the stylized flames on the rim.

When you think about it, it seems remarkable that humanity is still here. Over the last few hundred thousand years, the world has changed a lot, sometimes in ways that might seem difficult for evolution to keep pace with…”Our study provides one of the first paleogenomic frameworks for investigating ancient adaptations in Upper Paleolithic East Eurasians,” the researchers write in a paper published in Science Advances, “revealing an evolutionary legacy from a colder past in present-day humans.”

Little is known about what was happening shortly after the Big Bang, but now researchers are hoping to shed fresh light on the matter by harnessing the far side of the moon.

New genetic analyses of ancient human skeletons from western Remote Oceania are shedding light on the complex history of settlement in this vast Pacific region over the past 3,000 years. The new study has been published in the journal Cell.

One of the most puzzling aspects of these ancient depictions is how they have managed to survive in such good condition for so long. The region has an extreme subtropical monsoon climate, with scorching summer heat, heavy monsoon rain and frequent typhoons. The answer, according to a new study published in the Journal of Archaeological Science, could be that the paint contains a binder made of lime mortar mixed with blood.

The rocks contained something never before found on Mars – a mineral that, here on Earth, can constitute literal treasure. The mineral was corundum, the crystalline material that forms rubies and sapphires…Now, the researchers have published their full analysis in Geophysical Research Letters – and performed laboratory comparisons that revealed striking similarities between the Martian signal and those of precious gems on Earth.

A new celestial map not only catalogs a variety of cosmic objects but also serves as a pointer for other telescopes on Earth and in space.