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Venezuelan Indians dying from rabies spread by bats

Scientists from the United States say early investigations into the deaths of a number of tribal Indians in northeastern Venezuela suggest that they may have been infected by a type of rabies carried by bats.

13 Aug 2008

New research refutes myth of pure Scandinavian race

A team of forensic scientists at the University of Copenhagen has studied human remains found in two ancient Danish burial grounds dating back to the iron age, and discovered a man who appears to be of arabian origin.

10 Jun 2008

University of Pennsylvania researcher to launch drug trial in Chinese province among IDUs

David Metzger, director of the HIV/AIDS Prevention Research Division at the University of Pennsylvania, and colleagues plan to launch a trial in China among injection drug users to determine if a drug that reduces the craving for heroin also can reduce the spread of HIV through the sharing of contaminated needles, the Philadelphia Inquirer reports.

28 May 2008

New findings challenge conventional ideas on evolution of human diet, natural selection

New findings suggest that the ancient human "cousin" known as the "Nutcracker Man" wasn't regularly eating anything like nuts after all.

29 Apr 2008

You are what you eat and drink - and that is recorded in your hair

University of Utah scientists developed a new crime-fighting tool by showing that human hair reveals the general location where a person drank water, helping police track past movements of criminal suspects or unidentified murder victims.

27 Feb 2008

Dairy-free diets may put boys with autism at risk for thin bones

Results of an early study suggest that dairy-free diets and unconventional food preferences could put boys with autism and autism spectrum disorder (ASD) at higher than normal risk for thinner, less dense bones when compared to a group of boys the same age who do not have autism.

29 Jan 2008

Adapting to pregnancy played key role in human evolution

The human spine evolved differently in males and females in order to alleviate back pressure from the weight of carrying a baby, according to research spearheaded at The University of Texas at Austin.

14 Dec 2007

Human evolution in genetic fast lane

Countering a common theory that human evolution has slowed to a crawl or even stopped in modern humans, a new study examining data from an international genomics project describes the past 40,000 years as a time of supercharged evolutionary change, driven by exponential population growth and cultural shifts.

10 Dec 2007

Genetic evidence that human evolution is speeding up

Researchers discovered genetic evidence that human evolution is speeding up – and has not halted or proceeded at a constant rate, as had been thought – indicating that humans on different continents are becoming increasingly different.

10 Dec 2007

New genetic evidence supports theory migration from Siberia gave rise to native peoples of North and South America

Did a relatively small number of people from Siberia who trekked across a Bering Strait land bridge some 12,000 years ago give rise to the native peoples of North and South America?

27 Nov 2007

Computer algorithm traces ancestry using anonymous DNA samples

A group of computer scientists, mathematicians, and biologists from around the world have developed a computer algorithm that can help trace the genetic ancestry of thousands of individuals in minutes, without any prior knowledge of their background.

21 Sep 2007

Research highlights importance of starch in human beginnings

To think that world domination could have begun in the cheeks. That's one interpretation of a discovery, published online September 9 in Nature Genetics, which indicates that humans carry extra copies of the salivary amylase gene.

10 Sep 2007

Convenience' foods save little time for working families at dinner

Two-income families in Los Angeles don't live so much in a fast food nation as they do in a Hamburger Helper hamlet on the edge of a packaged lettuce greenbelt, according to the first academic study to track American families moment by moment as they make dinner.

8 Aug 2007

Why and when we started walking on two legs

Studying chimpanzees trained to use treadmills, a team of anthropologists has gathered new evidence suggesting our earliest apelike ancestors started walking on two legs because it required less energy than getting around on all fours.

24 Jul 2007

Origin of bipedal walking

While no one has an authoritative answer, anthropologists have long theorized that early humans began walking on two legs as a way to reduce locomotor energy costs.

17 Jul 2007

New evidence of very recent human adaptation

A Cornell study of genome sequences in African-Americans, European-Americans and Chinese suggests that natural selection has caused as much as 10 percent of the human genome to change in some populations in the last 15,000 to 100,000 years, when people began migrating from Africa.

12 Jul 2007

Vitamin D deficiency remains an under-recognized problem in children

Many otherwise healthy children and adolescents have low vitamin D levels, which may put them at risk for bone diseases such as rickets.

10 Jul 2007

Female reproductive function is influenced by childhood environment

This suggests there is a critical window of time from about 0-8 years of age that determines the rate at which girls physically mature and how high their reproductive hormone levels reach as adults.

15 May 2007

Humanizing approaches to dementia care may extend patients' lives

Through an intensive comparative study of two nursing home units using contrasting approaches to dementia care for elders with severely disturbed behaviors, Central Michigan University professor of anthropology Athena McLean has found that "humanizing" approaches to dementia care may not only extend quality of life for patients, but also their length of life.

25 Apr 2007

Study dispels myth that certain minority groups are genetically prone to diabetes

A study by U.S. and Australian researchers is helping dispel the 40-year-old "thrifty genotype theory," which purports that certain minority groups are genetically prone to diabetes.

17 Apr 2007