science relevant to history

Why we’ve been looking at human evolution in the wrong way

by Robert A. Foley

Why being human can't be traced back to hunting, fire or any other single event.

Yuval Noah Harari turns to fiction

In the novel, "Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow,” the historian warns that Artificial Intelligence will lead to a future class of useless humans.

The brain is not a computer

by Robert Epstein

Each age reinterprets the brain in terms of its prevailing technology. This is an error.

The scientist as historian: Eske Willerslev Is Rewriting History With DNA

As the director of the Center for GeoGenetics at the University of Copenhagen, Dr. Willerslev uses ancient DNA to reconstruct the past 50,000 years of human history.

European Destruction of Early Americans Shown in DNA

“This closely matches the historical reports of a major demographic collapse immediately after the Spaniards arrived in the late 1400s.”

If we’re not careful, epigenetics may bring back eugenic thinking

by Maurizio Meloni

Today, we generally are educated about the dangers of eugenics. But it is important to keep talking about these issues, before minority groups such as racists try to hijack epigenetics to further their cause.

How Eating Meat Made Us Human. Sorry Vegans.

Report on a new study in “Nature."

The brain privileges storytelling

by Michael S. Gazzaniga

How an experiment on split brain patients led to a breakthrough finding, as told by the scientist who conducted the experiment.

Infographic: The evolution of humans

To celebrate his birthday and Darwin Day, the University Press Scholarship Online (UPSO) team has read through the hundreds of academic works available to delve into the history of humanity. View their infographic and find out for yourself how we became human.

The Story Trap

by Philip Ball

We use neat stories to explain everything from sports matches to symphonies. Is it time to leave the nursery of the mind?

Debate: Be it resolved humankind’s best days lie ahead...

Steven Pinker debates Malcolm Gladwell.

Video of the Week: Empathy, Neurochemistry, and the Dramatic Arc: Paul Zak at the Future of StoryTelling 2012

by Paul Zak

Neuroscientist Paul Zak explains  how the human brain responds to effective storytelling. 

It's Too Soon to Call This the Anthropocene

by Vaclav Smil

"Next year the International Geological Congress will consider recognizing this name as the latest addition to the standard geological time scales. My reaction, echoing the Romans: Festina lente. Make haste slowly."

Paradigms Lost

by David P. Barash

Science is not a ‘body of knowledge’ – it’s a dynamic, ongoing reconfiguration of knowledge and must be free to change.

The Long Frightening History of White Police Officers Shooting Innocent Black Suspects

by Edward Freedman

Officers’ tendency to see what they fear can make them dangerously fallible. A society that shares this conditioning is inclined to dismiss their mistakes.

Study: Scientists using Holocaust survivor stories to examine brain function

by Dr. Jeremy Dean

Neuroscientists have gained insights into how gratitude operates from an unexpected source.

Geneticists Reconstruct Population History Of New York City

By Combining Genetic Data, Ancestry Information, And Electronic Health Records, Scientists Are Able To Identify Neighborhood-Level Patterns Of Migration In The New York City Area, According To Research Presented At The American Society Of Human Genetics (Ashg) 2015 Annual Meeting In Baltimore.

A new study uses genetic data from living people to trace millennia-old migration patterns

The research confirms what historians already knew -- that the first millennium saw the greatest mixing of separate groups in western Europe -- but also discovered evidence for an influx of Mongolians into Europe that predated the reign of Ghengis Khan.

Humans Have Burned Up Half the World’s Biomass

It took millions, even billions, of years for these fuels to accumulate, and we’re running through them at a startlingly fast pace.

Now it's a real movie: The Stanford Prison Experiment

What happens when a college psych study goes shockingly wrong?