There’s A Megalodon Tooth In The Nature Trade Right Now And My God Do I Want It

Today's Men Carry Traces of Ancient Wars in Their Genes

Modern men’s genes suggest that something peculiar happened 5,000 to 7,000 years ago: Most of the male population across Asia, Europe and Africa seems to have died off, leaving behind just one man for every 17 women.

This so-called population “bottleneck” was first proposed in 2015, and since then, researchers have been trying to figure out what could’ve caused it. One hypothesis held that the drop-off in the male population occurred due to ecological or climatic factors that mainly affected male offspring, while another idea suggested that the die-off happened because some males had more power in society, and thus produced more children.

Now, a new paper, published May 25 in the journal Nature Communications, offers yet another explanation: People living in patrilineal clans (consisting of males from the same descent) might have fought with each other, wiping out entire male lineages at a time. Read more.

a great ally, or perhaps a great threat.

what is a god to a scientist?

creativelibra: Is the feeling of love really just a chemical reaction in your head?

Chemistry Valentine’s Cards by Nick Uhlig.

The real difference between us and chimpanzees is the mysterious glue that enables millions of humans to cooperate effectively. This mysterious glue is made of stories, not genes. We cooperate effectively with strangers because we believe in things like gods, nations, money and human rights. Yet none of these things exists outside the stories that people invent and tell one another. There are no gods in the universe, no nations, no money and no human rights—except in the common imagination of human beings.

Yuval Noah Harari (via mesogeios)

Something for my dad from the nature trade - a piece of Precambrian-era petrified wood! I thought he would enjoy it and he does, it’s a truly lovely little piece.

Linguistics takes on the “Is this a pigeon” meme. 

The best picture

I’ve learned people are made of layers and sometimes you have to wait until the next one is revealed.

@sixwordssayitall (via sixwordssayitall)