The post The amazing story of adaptation and survival in our species, Homo sapiens. appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

Some schools of thought suggest that the eruption pushed Earth into volcanic winter that lasted as long as six years and the planet Earth had to endure a longish cooling period of a thousand years.

Based on fossils and artifacts, archaeologists try to understand the differences between Neanderthals and Homo sapiens.

This week we have stories on what body cams reveal about interactions between black drivers and U.S. police officers, the world’s oldest Homo sapiens fossils, and how modern astronomers measured the mass of a star—thanks to an old tip from Einstein—with Online News Intern Ryan Cross. Sarah Crespi talks to Eyal Ben-David about a pair of selfish genes—one toxin and one antidote—that have been masquerading as essential developmental genes in a nematode worm. She asks how many more so-called “essential genes” are really just self-perpetuating freeloaders? Science Careers Editor Rachel Bernstein is also here to talk about stress and work-life balance for researchers and science students. Listen to previous podcasts. [Image: Chris Burns/Science; Music: Jeffrey Cook]