humans news, articles and features | New Scientist

We’re not the most successful human species

David Stock — Wed, 01 Jul 2026 17:00:29 +0000

Homo sapiens have been around for about 300,000 years. Often, our big brains and intelligence are credited with making us the most successful species to have ever walked on Earth, but that isn’t entirely true. There was another species of human that survived on this very same planet for nearly 2 million years, which was the grandparent of so many other human species, including us. They explored new continents. They mastered tools. They may have controlled fire. And they did it all with a brain barely half the size of ours. Enter Homo erectus, a species that may force us to confront an uncomfortable possibility… that intelligence alone isn’t what makes a species successful.

Alice Roberts: ‘We are fundamentally, at the end of the day, animals’

Michael Marshall — Wed, 03 Jun 2026 18:00:00 +0000

Why do we have big brains? Or walk on two legs? Biological anthropologist and broadcaster Alice Roberts talks human exceptionalism, evolution and her new book Humans with Michael Marshall

New Scientist recommends a smart new account of human exceptionalism

Simon Ings — Wed, 13 May 2026 18:00:00 +0000

Why did humans decide they weren't like other animals, or animals at all? Has this exceptionalism twisted us out of shape? Michael Bond's book Animate offers a page-turning account of where we are now

Why do we feel the need to humanise everything, from dogs to cars?

Elle Hunt — Tue, 23 Dec 2025 18:00:00 +0000

Our tendency to anthropomorphise our pets and possessions reveals the baggage we bring to our relationship with the natural world, says Justin Gregg in his fascinating new book Human-ish

Hunter-gatherer groups are much less egalitarian than they seem

Sara Phillips — Fri, 05 Dec 2025 15:00:25 +0000

There is a widespread belief that altruism and equality drive social behaviour in traditional hunter-gatherer societies, but the truth is more surprising and complex

Smart new book takes an axe to the myth of human exceptionalism

Elle Hunt — Wed, 12 Nov 2025 18:00:00 +0000

Christine Webb's provocative and moving book The Arrogant Ape explores our unjustifiable sense of superiority in the living world, laying out the evidence against it, says Elle Hunt

How a surge in ancient plagues 5000 years ago shaped humanity

Laura Spinney — Tue, 28 Oct 2025 16:00:31 +0000

Plague, leprosy, smallpox and other diseases didn't jump from animals to humans when we thought. Ancient DNA is revealing where they come from and how they changed history

Your pet dog’s ancestor was a fierce, wild animal. How was it tamed?

Taylor Mitchell Brown — Wed, 06 Aug 2025 15:00:38 +0000

Unexpected archaeological discoveries are rewriting the story of how the big, bad wolf became our first and most beloved pet

Archaeologists are unearthing the most powerful women who ever lived

Laura Spinney — Wed, 30 Jul 2025 15:00:59 +0000

Astonishing new archaeological finds and ancient DNA analysis leave no doubt that throughout prehistory women were rulers, warriors, hunters and shamans

Babies start showing empathy even before they can speak

Giulia Mondaini — Fri, 16 May 2025 17:00:29 +0000

When adults pretended to be in pain, children as young as 9 months old comforted them, pushing back the earliest age when humans are known to display empathy