Humans news stories

New Johns Hopkins study explores relationship between psychedelics and consciousness
1st April 2022 | eurekalert.org | Humans, Misc.

The findings, published March 28 in Frontiers in Psychology, reveal that higher ratings of mystical-type experiences, which often include a sense that everything is alive, were associated with greater increases in the attribution of consciousness.

Image from: Air article (Wiki Commons)

Tools reveal patterns of Neandertal extinction in the Iberian Peninsula
1st April 2022 phys.org | Ancient, Humans

Neandertal populations in the Iberian Peninsula were experiencing local extinction and replacement even before Homo sapiens arrived, according to a study published March 30, 2022 in the open-access journal PLOS ONE by Joseba Rios-Garaizar of the Archaeological Museum of Bilbao, Spain and colleagues.

Assam: ‘Mysterious’ giant stone jars found in India
31st March 2022 | bbc.co.uk | Ancient, Humans

Researchers have uncovered giant “mysterious” jars in India that may have been used for ancient human burial practices.

People Are Experimenting With ‘Digital Drugs’ Delivered Via Sound… And It’s Weird
31st March 2022 | sciencealert.com | Humans, Tech, Weird

In a new study, researchers examined a relatively new way to alter minds, which makes use of digital sounds to feed conflicting frequencies into each ear. By tuning in to these ‘binaural beats‘, some people report they can drop out, reduce pain, enhance memory, and ease anxiety and depression.

Pluto’s peaks are ice volcanoes, scientists conclude
30th March 2022 | theguardian.com | Humans, Space, Tech

Existence of volcanoes makes idea that dwarf planet is inert ball of ice look increasingly improbable.

2,500-year-old burial mound found in Siberia’s ‘Valley of the Kings’
29th March 2022 | livescience.com | Ancient, Humans

The ancient tomb holds the remains of five people, including those of a woman and toddler who were buried with an array of grave goods, such as a crescent moon-shaped pendant, bronze mirror and gold earrings.

Built by an Unknown Culture, This Is The Oldest Sun Observatory in The Americas
29th March 2022 | sciencealert.com | Ancient, Humans

Long before the Incas rose to power in Peru and began to celebrate their sun god, a little known civilization was building the earliest known astronomical observatory in the Americas.

Testing the Dark Emu hypothesis
26th March 2022 cosmosmagazine.com | Ancient, Humans

One of the most interesting things going on in Australian archaeology is the idea that Aboriginal food production systems may have involved domestication of some plant species. Was there some level of food production going on in Aboriginal groups that goes well beyond hunter-gathering?

1,000-year-old oaks used to create ‘super forest’
26th March 2022 | bbc.co.uk | Ancient, Animal Life, Earth, Humans

“They’ve lived for so long; just think what they’ve seen.” Forester Nick Baimbridge is gazing fondly at a majestic oak that has stood for more than a thousand years. On this wintry afternoon, birds sing from lichen-covered branches and a deer runs through the undergrowth.

Whoa! Another asteroid whizzes past Earth hours after discovery
26th March 2022 earthsky.org | Earth, Humans, Space

Overnight on March 24-25, 2022, another small asteroid raced toward Earth, unseen until hours before its closest approach.

Digital Data Could Be Altering Earth’s Mass Just a Tiny Bit, Claims Physicist
26th March 2022 | sciencealert.com | Earth, Humans, Weird

According to calculations made a few years ago by University of Portsmouth physicist Melvin Vopson, this literal mass of visual imagery – along with half a billion tweets, countless texts, billions of WhatsApp messages, and every other bit and byte of information we’ve created – could be making our planet a touch heavier.

Rewriting the history books: Why the Vikings left Greenland
24th March 2022 phys.org | Ancient, Humans

One of the great mysteries of late medieval history is why did the Norse, who had established successful settlements in southern Greenland in 985, abandon them in the early 15th century?

Machu Picchu: Inca site ‘has gone by wrong name for over 100 years’
24th March 2022 | theguardian.com | Ancient, Humans

Peruvian historian and US archaeologist say the pre-Columbian town was called Huayna Picchu by the Inca people.

Mysterious Pictish Symbols Discovered in Scotland Are The ‘Find of a Lifetime’
24th March 2022 | sciencealert.com | Ancient, Humans

Archaeologists in Scotland shed “genuine tears” upon discovering a stone covered with geometric carvings that the Picts, the Indigenous people of the region, designed about 1,500 years ago.

People in One of World’s Oldest Cities Colored The Bones of Their Dead
22nd March 2022 | sciencealert.com | Ancient, Humans

The sprawling ruins of Çatalhöyük – a vast, ancient human settlement in what we now know as Turkey – are much like a precursor to the modern metropolis of today. Yet, over the course of 9,000 years, times have certainly changed.

Study ties present-day Native American tribe to ancestors in San Francisco Bay Area
22nd March 2022 phys.org | Ancient, Humans

A genomic study of Native peoples in the San Francisco Bay Area finds that eight present-day members of the Muwekma Ohlone Tribe share ancestry with 12 individuals who lived in the region several hundred to 2,000 years ago…the study challenges the notion that the Ohlone migrated to the area between A.D. 500-1,000…

News stories covering humans, psychology and health.