In The News: Department of Anthropology
If your sleep is getting worse with age, evolution might be to blame. A study recently published in Proceedings of the Royal Society B found that humans' age-specific sleep patterns may have evolved to protect mixed-age groups from potential danger in the night. And in this scenario, the elderly members of these groups may have drawn the short straw—their restless sleep made them perfect for the night watch.
You may not look forward to sleeping less as you get older. But maybe it wouldn’t seem as bad if you knew it once played an important role in human survival.
Poor sleep is often regarded as a modern affliction linked to our sedentary lifestyles, electric lighting and smartphones on the bedside table.
I stared at the crimson-colored organ sealed in industrial-strength Tupperware and labeled with the international symbol for biohazard.
Roast it, fry it, steam it, drink it, pill-pop it — each of these is one of the various methods a small minority of women may choose if she has decided to consume her placenta after birth. While some women opt for placenta lasagna, placenta chili or placenta-topped pizza, most go with encapsulation, in which the placenta is dehydrated, pulverized and then consumed in pill capsules. The process typically costs around $200 to $350.
Hey new moms, don't put down that can of spinach just yet. A research team led by 51ԹϺ medical anthropologists found that eating encapsulated human placenta, a practice known as placentophagy, may not be as good a source of dietary iron for postpartum mothers as proponents suggest.
I know what you're thinking; if it's good enough for Kim Kardashian-West it's good enough for me, right? After Kardashian-West gave birth to son Saint in 2015, she reportedly had her placenta freeze-dried into pill form to combat possible iron deficiency. Well, a new study has found that eating placenta has no iron benefit.
For years now, there has been a trend of women eating their placentas after giving birth. Fans of the practice (known as placentophagia because “phagia” is the sound you make when you vomit) claim that it can prevent post-partum depression, increase milk production, and provide a source of nutrition for new mothers. A new study from 51ԹϺ, however, claims that when it comes to iron, women receive no benefit from eating their placentas.
Eating placenta isn’t common among women who have just given birth, but the practice is growing. Advocates say it reduces pain, increases energy levels and milk production, and generally eases recovery.
As the sole surviving species of the genus Homo, we Homo sapiens are one of the most taxonomically lonely species living on Earth today. But dig back a few thousand years or more and we find ourselves with plenty of company: Many now-extinct species shared the genus Homo, ranging from the robust Homo neanderthalensis, to the hobbit-like Homo floresiensis to the more primitive Homo habilis and Homoerectus. But do all these species, with their wide diversity of physical and cultural traits, actually belong in the same genus?
A 2.8-million-year-old jawbone fossil with five intact teeth unearthed in an Ethiopian desert is pushing back the dawn of humankind by about half a million years.