Hacker News with Generative AI: Human Biology

Why some people can get away with only a little sleep every night (pbs.org)
Everyone has heard that it’s vital to get seven to nine hours of sleep a night, a recommendation repeated so often it has become gospel. Get anything less, and you are more likely to suffer from poor health in the short and long term — memory problems, metabolic issues, depression, dementia, heart disease, a weakened immune system.

Sleep, Health, Science, Human Biology

5 points by giuliomagnifico 22 days ago | 1 comments

Could Humans Hibernate? (aeon.co)
The conventional view is that humans and other creatures around us live between periods of waking and sleeping. But it is not true. Many have mastered the art of hibernating, which allows them to spend quite a lot of their life in a mysterious state of suspended animation – sometimes more than half of it. What is hibernation, and is it something that humans might be capable of?

Biology, Science, Human Biology, Sleep

14 points by gmays 58 days ago | 11 comments

What's so special about the human brain? (nature.com)
Torrents of data from cell atlases, brain organoids and other methods are finally delivering answers to an age-old question.

Neuroscience, Human Biology, Research, Science

5 points by bryanrasmussen 80 days ago | 0 comments

The mystery of why left-handers are so much rarer (2016) (bbc.com)
Relatively few people are lefties, and it’s a puzzle why. Still, the science of handedness is revealing fascinating insights about you – from how it could change the way you think, to the fact that you might be ‘left-eared’.

Science, Genetics, Human Biology

103 points by blubbb 104 days ago | 279 comments

The human heart shows signs of ageing after just a month in space (nature.com)
Over the course of just one month in space, engineered human heart tissue got weaker, its ‘beating’ patterns became irregular and it underwent molecular and genetic changes that mimicked the effect of ageing1.

Space Exploration, Human Biology, Aging, Health

19 points by belter 115 days ago | 6 comments

Puberty Hasn't Changed Since the Ice Age (nautil.us)
The blueprint was set at least 25,000 years ago.

Human Biology, Evolution, Science

21 points by dnetesn 119 days ago | 7 comments

Scientists find humans age dramatically in two bursts – at 44, then 60 (theguardian.com)

Human Biology, Aging, Science, Health

77 points by nemoniac 157 days ago | 11 comments

Evidence for ~12-h ultradian gene programs in humans (nature.com)

Science, Human Biology, Genetics, Circadian Rhythms

67 points by XzetaU8 161 days ago | 11 comments

Human reproduction comes at the expense of faster aging and a shorter life (biorxiv.org)