Explore the Human Science section of The Pulse for insights into human biology, behavior and adaptation in a changing world.
For decades, circular RNA was treated as little more than molecular background noise — stable fragments that accumulated in aging cells but appeared to cause no…
What you’re perceiving right now — the weight of this device in your hand, the light on the screen, the ambient sounds around you — is…
For many people, checking the phone doesn’t feel like a decision. It just happens. You unlock it without thinking, scroll for a few seconds, close it—and…
For many women, menopause is described in physical terms. Hot flashes, sleep changes, shifts in energy. These are the symptoms most people expect, the ones that…
Seeing through the eyes of an animal sounds like a superpower. This may soon be a reality. Scientists are working on a camera that translates colors…
For a long time, it felt like growing up in the 90s was simple. No constant notifications, more freedom, less pressure—at least on the surface. People…
For a long time, people believed that protecting the brain in later life was mostly about physical health. Eat well, stay active, maybe do a few…
In this lifetime, you may witness a fresh era of human perception with the “installation” of a new sense. Right now, engineers and researchers are collaborating…
For many people, grandparenting is seen as something emotional, something meaningful, something that benefits the younger generation. It’s about family, connection, and being present. But new…
A 20-year-old paradox has finally been solved. Over the last decade, the world has come to better understand how some diseases and infections spread. But a…
There’s a 50% chance your body has a weapon against ill health that you never knew you could draw on. A new biological line of defense…
Life on Earth feels inevitable when you look around. Oceans, forests, living creatures—it all seems like it was meant to happen. As if the planet was…
We may have stumbled upon what makes human beings so unique. The evolution of mankind has taken many avenues to get where we are today. However,…
We use our eyes constantly without ever questioning how they came to be — two forward-facing windows that feel like the most natural arrangement imaginable. But…
Keratin is the tough, fibrous protein that gives fingernails their hardness, hair its strength, and skin its outermost armor. For most of its scientific history, that…
We may have been calculating the aging process incorrectly all along. Science has developed a world of methods to accurately determine how we age and how…
Winning the lottery is a dream that most of us share. However, for the vast majority of people, the occasional lottery ticket is just that, occasional.…
Obesity has become the most significant health issue in modern society. Over the past few decades, we have seen several treatments for obesity being developed, some…
We may have been searching for our common ancestor in the wrong places. We have developed an astonishing ability to study ancient fossils to better understand…
Alex Childress was 17 when he did something he’d done dozens of times before — trimming overgrowth outside a Virginia factory. One of the plants he…
The secrets of our history can appear and disappear without warning. A team of researchers found ancient footprints on a desolate beach, and before they could…
A tiny bone fragment pulled from Denisova Cave in Siberia’s Altai Mountains has yielded only the fourth complete Neanderthal genome ever sequenced — and it’s already…
Winter may reveal a significant part of your DNA. Whenever the icy cold weather rears its ugly head, most of us struggle to keep warm. But…
We have found fossils that rewrite our history and lineage in recent years. Researchers and paleontologists have recently found an odd set of teeth that they…
Our bodies have several unique traits that science is only now beginning to understand. Over the past few decades, science has made several discoveries about our…
The human brain is a complex and often misunderstood organ. Most of us close our eyes when trying to focus on a specific sound and filter…
Your ability to deal with the flu may come from your DNA. As our scientific prowess has developed, we are making revolutionary findings about the world…
Telepathy is a dream as old as human thought. In a world that has become smaller than ever due to the digital revolution closing the gap…
Archaeology has changed the way we view our ancestors. For generations, we have dug up certain parts of the world to find evidence of how we…
Negative thinking has a direct impact on our health. As our scientific prowess enhances, we are making revolutionary discoveries that will impact our overall health and…
Our human family tree has grown over the past few years. For generations, we have studied our lineage in an attempt to paint a much clearer…
Scientists have found a long-lost DNA puzzle in our lineage. For decades, we believed that our species evolved from one singular ancestor. But recent expeditions have…
Getting enough sleep can be a challenge for many of us. As our scientific knowledge improves, researchers are making remarkable findings about the human brain and…
The human brain is truly an astonishing creation. For decades, researchers have been developing new theories that attempt to answer some of the most complex questions…
Human brains are remarkable and mysterious. For generations, biologists and scientists have been studying our brains to get to the bottom of several intriguing questions. As…
Adults may consume roughly 250 grams of microplastic particles each year — enough to cover a dinner plate. These fragments enter the body through seafood, bottled…
Our lineage is becoming much clearer as science progresses. Over the past century, scientists have been working diligently to find the missing pieces in our family…
Humans can eat almost anything on this planet. But recent studies have found that our ancestors may have eaten foods much more similar to the food…
For generations, we believed that Africa was the birthplace of humans. How wrong we were. Archaeology has revealed the astonishing truths about our lineage. For the…
A team of scientists has given the world a shock. As humans, our brains are hardwired to think and feel in certain ways. Every single one…
Humanity’s ancient ancestor has been unearthed in the Moroccan desert. Over the past century, we have developed our collective set of knowledge as to how we…
A third control center exists within us that plays a vital role in our body’s ability to communicate with our brains. For generations, we thought that…
Thousands of years before the Black Death, an early form of plague was already moving across Eurasia — infecting people from the steppes to the far…
Microplastics have become a major concern for millions of us around the world. The basis of any set of scientific knowledge is that when you are…
Scientists have found that our brain decline is not as simple as previously thought. For decades, science taught us that our brains congnitive ability slowly declines…
For more than three months, the ocean quietly hid a strange human experiment. Far below the waves, inside a small metal pod not much bigger than…
Scientists may have discovered enigmatic symbols from 40,000 years ago that will reshape our understanding of human communication. Communication has been the main focal point in…
For thousands of years, the shoreline looked completely normal. Waves came and went. Forests grew thick along the coast. Storms slowly changed the shape of the…
A quiet plant growing in water might not seem like the beginning of a medical innovation. Yet in a design lab at the University of the…
While we know this might sound strange, but its true. One American family has proven that blue blood does indeed exist. Human beings are complex creatures…
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