If Hollywood’s right, the apocalypse will be brutal. Aliens, nuclear war, zombies, plague, enslavement by supersmart robots — none of them are good endings. Some archaeologists, however, believe an apocalypse has already come and gone. About 75,000 years ago, they say, a monster volcanic eruption nearly wiped out humankind, leaving behind only a few thousand people to repopulate the world. The explosion of Indonesia’s Toba volcano was the largest eruption of the last 2 million years. The volcano coughed up some 2,000 to 3,000 cubic kilometers of ash, enough to fill almost three-quar...

In a new study, a popular style of memory workout leaves reasoning and mental agility flat. (p. 12)

Continent's ancestry merges about 30 generations ago, genetic study finds (p. 8)

Once you hit a certain age, visiting a doctor is basically a guilt trip. All that satisfying stuff you eat, drink or smoke is killing you, a white-coated overachiever tells you. You need to exercise and lose weight, or the grim reaper will be at your door long before you’re ready. And it will all be your fault. There’s truth in that message. The primary causes of death in Western society today are cardio­vascular disease and cancer, two diseases that are very much tied up with what we put in our bodies and how we use and abuse them. If you eat a healthy diet, exercise regularly and absta...

Being toted around calms and quiets babies of both species. (p. 13)