Archive - John Hawks

How evolution became a uniquely American controversy

Setting the stage for the battle over classroom teaching as I prepare for the centennial of the 1925 Scopes Trial.

21 hrs ago •

Members' briefing: June 10, 2025

In my first video for paid subscribers, I share my plan for the upcoming month of laboratory, fieldwork and writing.

Jun 10 •

12:29

The Olduvai effect: New questions about meat-eating in human origins

Meta-analysis of butchered animal bones from East African sites shows that long-held assumptions about early hunters may be wrong.

Jun 7 •

Dire wolves are just the beginning

The technologies used to create the multiple gene-edited puppies may show the potential for more familiar species, including humans.

Jun 1 •

May 2025

New clues about human cardiovascular evolution

Studies of the aorta and the heart anatomy of humans and living great apes show some important differences.

May 29 •

The ancient Egyptian legacy of anatomical science

The early foundations of human anatomy were built from traditions of medicine, embalming, and animal sacrifice.

May 25 •

Lucy's upcoming Prague visit brings memories of controversy

Scientists resisted the last U.S. tour of the famous fossil. I look into the reasons why some researchers still oppose public exhibit of human…

May 21 •

More hominins raised from beneath the waves

Fossils from the Madura Strait of Indonesia remind us of the expansive sunken landscapes of our ancestors.

May 18 •

Ghost populations in human origins

Genetic models are finding more and more unknown lineages. How real are they?

May 14 •

The problem when all the fossils are male

Protein data shows that most known Denisovan teeth come from male individuals, hamstringing attempts to understand the variation of this group.

May 8 •

What I told my students about the threats to evolutionary science

I was floored by the question, but it matters. With U.S. funding crashing, what will happen to the future of the field?

May 4 •

April 2025

Consilience, convergence, and consensus

A new editorial in Science questions the common understanding of “scientific consensus”, and I reflect on what makes science reliable.

Apr 27 •

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