How swarming animals can help humans and AI make better decisions: Starling murmurations form as daylight fades over their roosting sites. Shutterstock / Albert Beukhof The word swarm often carries negative connotations – think biblical plagues of locusts or high streets full of last-minute shoppers during the Christmas rush. However, swarming is essential for the …
We found coronaviruses in UK bats — so far the danger’s minimal but we need to know more about viruses that can spread to humans: Agami Photo Agency/Shutterstock Most emerging infectious diseases are caused by zoonotic pathogens – viruses and bacteria which circulate in wild and domestic animals but are also capable of infecting humans. …
The materials used by humans now weigh more than all life on Earth – here’s four graphs that reveal our staggering impact on the planet: Yantian Port, Shenzhen City, China. Weiming Xie/Shutterstock The extent of humanity’s influence on the planet has become increasingly clear in recent years. From the alarming accumulation of plastic waste in …
While humans were in strict lockdown, wild mammals roamed further – new research: At one point in 2020, 4.4 billion people – more than half of the world’s population – were under lockdown restrictions to stem the spread of COVID-19. This was such a sudden and substantial event that it has become known as the …
Humans were using fire in Europe 50,000 years earlier than we thought – new research: The control of fire by humans probably developed gradually over thousands of years. matsiukpavel / Shutterstock Human history is intimately entwined with the use and control of fire. However, working out when our relationship with fire began and how it subsequently …
Some Neanderthals hunted bigger animals, across a larger range, than modern humans: Neanderthals were evolutionary cousins to our species, Homo sapiens. Chettaprin.P / Shutterstock The region of Estremadura in Portugal was home to a band of Neanderthals – an ancient evolutionary relative of modern humans – about 95,000 years ago. They made use of the …
Let’s protect nature, but not merely for the sake of humans: kasakphoto / shutterstock Environmentalists rightly urge us to consider the long-term effects of our actions. Plastic bags, they point out, can take hundreds of years to decompose, while radioactive waste can remain dangerous for hundreds of thousands of years. It could take the Earth’s …
AI can process more information than humans – so will it stop us repeating our mistakes?: Napoleon could have learned from the past. painting by Adolph Northen/wikipedia It is a cliche that not knowing history makes one repeat it. As many people have also pointed out, the only thing we learn from history is that …
Humans weren’t the first engineers, doctors and farmers – bacteria, plants and animals have lots to teach us: There are hidden worlds in nature PeopleImages.com/Yuri A/Shutterstock Life existed without human beings for more than 99.9% of Earth’s history. Yet we often ignore the achievements of species that preceded us by billions of years. I explore …
Bonobos and chimps: what our closest relatives tell us about humans: Oleg Senkov/Shutterstock Humans are an interesting mixture of altruism and competition. We work together well at times and at others we will fight to get our own way. To try to explain these conflicting tendencies, researchers have turned to the chimpanzees and the bonobos …
AI will soon become impossible for humans to comprehend – the story of neural networks tells us why: Shutterstock/Valentyn640 In 1956, during a year-long trip to London and in his early 20s, the mathematician and theoretical biologist Jack D. Cowan visited Wilfred Taylor and his strange new “learning machine”. On his arrival he was baffled …
How we discovered flamingos form cliques, just like humans: Brendt A Petersen/Shutterstock As social animals we have an innate understanding of the joy a good friendship can bring. So it’s unsurprising humans delight in seeing such closeness between animals. We can see ourselves reflected in the behaviour of cuddling chimpanzees, but a new wave of …
How fish evolved to walk – and in one case, turned into humans: 3D rendering of the tiktaalik, an extinct walking fish Dotted Yeti/Shutterstock When you think about human evolution, there’s a good chance you’re imagining chimpanzees exploring ancient forests or early humans daubing woolly mammoths on to cave walls. But we humans, along with …
Bird flu continues to spread in mammals – what this means for humans and wildlife: As bird flu continues to decimate poultry and wild bird populations around the world, the virus – a deadly strain called H5N1 – appears to be spreading to mammals. The virus has already been confirmed in foxes and otters in …
Large mammals shaped the evolution of humans: here’s why it happened in Africa: That humans originated in Africa is widely accepted. But it’s not generally recognised how unique features of Africa’s ecology were responsible for the crucial evolutionary transitions from forest-inhabiting fruit-eater to savanna-dwelling hunter. These were founded on earth movements and aided physically by …
Neanderthals: the oldest art in the world wasn’t made by humans: Maltravieso Cave replica with Neanderthals four fingers hand-prints, Caceres, Spain WH_Pics/Shutterstock One of the most hotly debated questions in the history of Neanderthal research has been whether they created art. In the past few years, the consensus has become that they did, sometimes. But, …
Most humans haven’t evolved to cope with the cold, yet we dominate northern climates – here’s why: Humans have used technology to adapt to the cold Yvette Cardozo / Alamy Stock Photo Humans are a tropical species. We have lived in warm climates for most of our evolutionary history, which might explain why so many …
Four ways winter heatwaves affect humans and nature: Temperature anomaly in Europe, Jan 1. Much of the continent was 10°C or more (dark red and grey) above the long-term average. WX Charts, CC BY-NC An extreme winter heatwave meant countries across Europe experienced a record-breaking New Year’s Day. New daily temperature records for the month …