More than 2000 people died when an earthquake in Indonesia triggered a tsunami last year. We now have a better idea of why the event was so devastating — Earth’s crust ruptured so quickly that it effectively broke the sound barrier for earthquakes and generated a seismic boom. Image: m_kihr
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Almost a decade ago, researchers sequenced DNA from an ancient bone fragment to reveal that it belonged to a woman from an entirely new group of humans. After years of waiting, we are now getting our first glimpse of the only confirmed home of the Denisovans. Imagine: Katerina Douka
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The lack of consensus on what a species is has big implications for how we think about the natural world and for our efforts to conserve it. What’s more, how we define a species has become a question at the very heart of human identity. Image: Mandy_Jansen
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Married men and women can grip objects more firmly than their unmarried counterparts. Among married men, it is those who have had more than one wife who have the strongest grip of all — and we don’t really know why. Image: cogdogblog
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We used to think the Iberian Peninsula was the Neanderthals’ final stronghold. It appeared that our species somehow failed to find a way into the region until about 35,000 years ago, leaving the last remaining Neanderthal population untouched. But stone tools from a cave in southern Spain may now sink that idea once and for all. Image: edenpictures
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