What Genetics Tell Us

How breakthroughs in genomic analysis provide new clarity about our history.

Illustration of a man being freed from debtors prison

Debt Forgiveness

Some 5,000 years ago, personal debts were wiped out from time to time and social relations would begin anew – a regular practice that continued for millennia. Is it time for a new “Jubilee?”

2 boys on cellphones

More Fake News

False news spreads faster far more extensively than the truth. Is it the bots or is it us?

Malta’s Ħal-Saflieni Hypogeum

Discover this amazing example of extraordinary audiology, created a thousand years before the Egyptian pyramids.

Illustration of Neanderthals near a cave entrance

Sex with Neanderthals

If so, did that early interbreeding aid our survival? Why did we survive and not the Neanderthals?

Earth from space with Africa

Leaving Africa

Africa is where we first evolved and have spent the majority of our time on earth. All non-Africans today are descendants of a single group that left some 60,000 years ago.

Man laying out meat to share with other members of the tribe

Hunter-Gatherers – a Better Life?

Are there advantages to life in a radically egalitarian society that’s not under a ruling class?

The Rocky Road to a Sustainable Future

Mysteries of Cave Art

Over a 25,000-year period toward the end of the last major Ice Age, Cro-Magnon’s artistic expression reached a critical mass as seen in cave paintings all over the world. What does it all mean?

Western depiction of God

Judaism, Christianity and Islam

Much more unites than divides these traditions of seeking the “straight path” of Truth transmitted through teachers and prophets throughout human history.

Teenagers diving off a rocky cliff

Second Growth Spurt

As their pre-frontal cortex begins a rapid phase of development, adolescents have the same response to the sensation of risk as they do to the sensation of reward.

group of friends

How Many Friends

Our mental capacity for managing information appears to limit our social relationships to a specific number.