Cumulative culture — the accumulation of technological modifications and improvements over generations — allowed humans to adapt to a diversity of environments and challenges. But, it is unclear when cumulative culture first developed during hominin evolution. A new study concludes that humans began to rapidly accumulate technological knowledge through social learning around 600,000 years ago. […]

The ketogenic diet has its fanatics and detractors among dieters, but either way, the diet has a scientifically documented impact on memory in mice. While uncovering how the high fat, low carbohydrate diet boosts memory in older mice, scientists identified a new molecular signaling pathway that improves synapse function and helps explain the diet’s benefit […]

Opera singers have to use the extreme limits of their voice range. Many pedagogical and scientific sources suggest that the highest pitches reached in classical singing can only be produced with a so-called ‘whistle’ voice register, in analogy to ultrasonic vocalizations of mice and rats. An international research team has now rejected this assumption. In […]