central asian empires, genetic research, new discoveries

Population Dynamics and the Formation of the Central Asian Empires

In a new study published in the journal Cell, an international research team has investigated the genetic, sociopolitical, and cultural changes that accompanied the emergence of the Central Asian empires. The team analyzed genome-wide data from 214 East Eurasian individuals spanning six millennia and discussed the changes in population and material culture that preceded the ...

Troy Oakes

A leaning Deer Stone placed in front of dozens of small stone mounds containing ritually-sacrificed horse burials at the Bronze Age monument site of Ikh Tsagaanii Am, Bayankhongor Province, central Mongolia. (Credit: William Taylor)

Origin Story: Rewriting Human History Through Our DNA

For most of our evolutionary human history — for most of the time anatomically modern humans have been on Earth — we’ve shared the planet with other species of humans. It’s only been in the last 30,000 years, the mere blink of an evolutionary eye, that modern humans have occupied the planet as the sole ...

Troy Oakes

A cave painting.

What Happens When Scientists Put Human Genes Into Monkeys?

In what seems like a real-life Planet of the Apes movie scenario, scientists from China have injected monkeys with genes from a human brain. Follow-up tests even suggest improved intelligence in the creatures! Not surprisingly, many ethical experts have criticized the experiment for breaking moral boundaries. The research was carried out by the Chinese Academy of Sciences ...

Armin Auctor

A monkey with genes from a human brain.