News

Harvard Crimson: Marathon-ready Daniel Lieberman offers evolutionary perspective on Bannister 4-minute mile, human speed limits, and ‘Man Against Horse’

April 13, 2018

The Harvard Crimson featured an interview with HEB Professor Daniel Lieberman on the past, present, and future of speed. The full interview is linked here. Read more about Harvard Crimson: Marathon-ready Daniel Lieberman offers evolutionary perspective on Bannister 4-minute mile, human speed limits, and ‘Man Against Horse’

New Research Publication in 'Nature: Ecology & Evolution'

February 7, 2018

Professor Noreen Tuross has contributed to a new research publication in 'Nature Ecology & Evolution' on the topic of Salmonella enterica genomes from victims of a major sixteenth-century epidemic in Mexico. Professor Tuross and colleagues Ashild J. Vagene, Alexander Herbig, Michael G. Campana, Nelly Robles Garcia, Christina Warriner, Susanna Sabin, Maria A. Spyrou, Aida Andrades Valtuena, Daniel Huson, Kirsten I. Bois, and... Read more about New Research Publication in 'Nature: Ecology & Evolution'

New Research Publication in 'Human Nature Behavior'

August 22, 2017

In a recent Nature Human Behavior paper, Professor Joe Henrich, along with colleagues Michael Muthukrishna (Assistant Professor at the London School of Economics), Patrick Francois, and Shayan Pourahmadi, incorporated the possibility of bribery into an institutional punishment public goods game in order to experimentally model corruption in the lab (Muthukrishna et al., 2017). The researchers examined the effects of anti-corruption strategies, cultural background, and structural factors (such as the...

Special Issue of 'Religion, Brain & Behavior'

August 22, 2017

Professor Henrich and his colleagues in the Cultural Evolution of Religion Research Consortium (CERC) recently produced a special issue of Religion, Brain & Behavior (in press) on the evolution of religion and morality. The issue contains a synthetic article detailing CERC's large, cross-cultural study on the prosocial effects of belief in moralizing, punishing gods, as well as seven additional papers focused on each individual field site (Purzycki et al., 2017). The... Read more about Special Issue of 'Religion, Brain & Behavior'

Three new faculty joining HEB in academic year 2015-16

October 8, 2014

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Professor Richard Wrangham publishes study arguing that chimpanzees are naturally violent

September 8, 2014

The results of a significant study, which was conducted in part by Ruth B. Moore Professor of Biological Anthropology Richard Wrangham, was recently published in a September 18, 2014 issue of Nature. The study collected data from a number of chimpanzee research sites and showed that there is no correlation between violent behavior and human impact in those sites. Authors of the study went on to conclude that violent and lethal behavior in chimpanzees is a natural part of their behavior.

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Heather Shattuck-Heidorn awarded the Harvard Global Health Institute Fellowship

July 28, 2014

HEB graduate student Heather Shattuck-Heidorn was one of nine recipients of the Harvard Global Health Institute Planning and Research Fellowship, awarded in July 2014. The Fellowship provides $25,000 in funding for Harvard graduate students, post-doctoral fellows and Harvard-affiliated clinical trainees from across the University to support innovative research in global health.

Heather's research focuses on understanding how the early life pathogen and nutritional...

Eric Castillo publishes an article on how and why humans use poles to carry loads

July 10, 2014

HEB graduate student Eric Castillo's article titled, "Effects of Pole Compliance and Step Frequency on the Biomechanics and Economy of Pole Carrying During Human Walking" was published in the July 2014 issue of the Journal of Applied Physiology. The article explores why humans around the world use carrying poles to transport heavy loads. Experiments suggest that people can save metabolic energy by tuning their gait cadence to the natural vibration frequency of the weighted pole.

Eric's...

Andrew Cunningham awarded Leakey Foundation grant for dissertation fieldwork

May 30, 2014

During spring term 2014, HEB graduate student Andrew Cunningham was awarded a Leakey Foundation grant for $10,800 to investigate the foraging profitability of aquatic habitats and adjacent drier ones for female foragers in the Okavango region of Northwest Botswana.

Andrew is currently collecting focal behavioral data, plant samples for nutritional analyses, heart rate and VO2 data, GPS data, and weather data. This grant, in combination with the additional funding, will allow Andrew...

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