Humans owe our impressive intellect to our large brains, which are unusually sophisticated thanks to evolution. The first surge in our brain size occurred between 2 million and 800,000 years ago, when ...

Genes play a powerful role in shaping your health—you won’t believe how your DNA influences everything from ADHD to Parkinson’s disease. Here’s what groundbreaking research reveals about the ...

The largest animals do not have proportionally bigger brains—with humans bucking this trend—a study published in Nature Ecology & Evolution has revealed. Researchers at the University of Reading and ...

Vertebrates have extremely different brain sizes: even with the same body size, brain size can vary a hundredfold. As a rule, mammals and birds have the largest brains in relation to their body size, ...

Until Homo floresiensis was discovered, scientists assumed that the evolution of the human lineage was defined by bigger and bigger brains. Via a process called encephalization, human brains evolved ...

Robert Barton has received funding from the BBSRC and Leverhulme Trust. Joanna Baker does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit ...

In the last post, we left off with the knowledge that human brains grow for longer into adulthood compared to chimp brains. But why would that matter? Turns out, that time allows for increased ...

Over the last decades, research has proven that aging isn’t just about our years in birthdays. Instead, we may be better served by knowing how organs and cells have handled those years. This powerful ...