The False Promise of ChatGPT
ChatGPT and its brethren are constitutionally unable to balance creativity with constraint. Given the amorality, faux science and linguistic incompetence of these systems, we can only laugh or cry at their popularity.
We Are Living Through a Paradigm Shift in Our Understanding of Human Evolution
There’s a paradigm shift underway in our understanding of the past four million years of human evolution: ours is a story that includes combinations with other Homo species, spread unevenly across today’s populations—not a neat and linear evolutionary progression.
Africa | Online Blog | Science
‘On the Origins of Human Speech and Language’ Shows How it All Began on the African Continent
The transformation of modern humans from a ‘non-speaking’ to a ‘speaking’ species took place as our hunter-gatherer ancestors migrated out of Africa.
Africa | Online Blog | Science
Our Homo Sapiens Ancestors Shared the World with Neanderthals, Denisovans and Other Types of Humans Whose DNA Lives on in Our Genes
When the first modern humans arose in East Africa sometime between 200,000 and 300,000 years ago, we – meaning people of our species, Homo sapiens – were only one of several types of humans (or hominins) that simultaneously existed on Earth.
Africa | Online Blog | Science
Did Humanity Really Arise in One Place?
New evidence is prompting researchers to rethink Homo sapiens’ origin story—and what it means to be human.
Science Is Making it Possible to ‘Hear’ Nature. It Does More Talking Than We Knew
With digital bioacoustics, scientists can eavesdrop on the natural world – and they’re learning some astonishing things.
Online Blog | Racism | Science
Two Hundred Years of Mendel’s Genetic Revolution and the Fight Against Scientific Racism
While Mendel’s work is central to modern genetics, it also set off the dark side with which genetics has been inextricably linked: eugenics and racism. Eugenics has been used to argue the superiority of the elite, dominant races, and in India, a “scientific” justification for the caste system as well.
Power Dynamics? Local Healthcare Dubbed Non-Scientific, ‘Needing’ Allopathic Nod
Civil society organizations and healers’ networks have been advocating to bring the indigenous and local healthcare traditions into the main fold of healthcare provisioning. However, allopathic medicine continues to create distrust in indigenous and local healthcare tradition systems.
Scientific Capitalism
The problem of the neoliberal revolution is not, therefore, that scientists have become venal when once they were angelic. It is that while money was previously a side-effect of scientific inquiry, now it is its main purpose. And, typically, the moment scientists start profiting, they stop doing science.
Social Stress Can Speed Up Immune System Aging – New Research
As people age, their immune systems naturally begin to decline. This may be an important part of such age-related health problems as cancer and cardiovascular disease. But not all immune systems age at the same rate. A recent study found that social stress is associated with signs of accelerated immune system aging.