The Human Dynasty

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. — Recognizing faces is an important social skill, but not all of us are equally good at it. Some people are unable to recognize even their closest friends (a condition called prosopagnosia), while others have a near-photographic memory for large numbers of faces. Now a twin study by collaborators at MIT and in Beijing, China shows that face recognition is heritable, and that it is inherited separately from general intelligence or IQ.

Read more at http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2010-01/miot-fra011910.php

The Alien Arrivals Collection documents the arrival of more than 610,000 immigrants into the UK between the late 18th and early 20th centuries.   The collection includes some of the earliest surviving records of immigrants recorded under the Aliens Act 1793.  The records go online for the first time at Ancestry.co.uk see full story @ Trace your immigrant ancestry [...]

A Genetic tests indicate that a 2,000-year-old skeleton unearthed in eastern Mongolia was a man of European or western Asian descent. “We don’t know if this 60- to 70-year-old man reached Mongolia on his own or if his family had already lived there for many generations,” said DNA analyst Charles Brenner.

(Association for Psychological Science) Male homosexuality doesn’t make complete sense from an evolutionary point of view. One possible explanation is what evolutionary psychologists call the “kin selection hypothesis.” What that means is that homosexuality may convey an indirect benefit by enhancing the survival prospects of close relatives.

Trails found in rocks dating back 565 million years are thought to be the earliest evidence of animal locomotion ever found, Oxford University scientists report.

Darwin was only half-right about evolution: evidence against natural selection is mounting up, argue Jerry Fodor and Massimo Piattelli-Palmarini

Gallow, Wheel, and Stake – Insights into Places of Horror is a special exhibit and rare examination of the history of executions. (PRWeb Feb 2, 2010) Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/2010/02/prweb3553124.htm

By watching fish rot, scientists discover patterns that could help interpret some of the most important fossils in the record.