While it recently became quite popular to address the study of the origins of music from an evolutionary perspective, there is still little agreement on the idea that music is in fact an adaptation, that it influenced our survival, or that it made us sexually more attractive. Music appears to be of little use. It doesn't quell our hunger, nor do we live a day longer because of it. >>Read More

A mere computer program can transform a racket of clangs, hums and beeps into a pleasing melody, and all humans have to do is offer feedback with the click of a mouse. >>Read More

European cave paintings are older than previously thought, raising the possibility that Neanderthals rather than Homo sapiens were the earliest painters. >>Read More

Music that shares aural characteristics with the vocalizations of distressed animals captures human attention and is uniquely arousing >>Read More

The connection between music and the brain is the subject of a symposium at the Association for Psychological Science conference in Chicago this weekend, featuring prominent scientists and Grammy-winning bassist Victor Wooten. >>Read More

Recently, we at Evolution: This View of Life had the pleasure of attending and covering the first annual conference on “Consilience”—or the unity of the sciences, social sciences, and the humanities. The conference, of which we at ETVOL hope to see many future iterations, was organized and hosted by Joseph Carroll of the University of Missouri in St. Louis. >>Read More

Is fiction good for us? We spend huge chunks of our lives immersed in novels, films, TV shows, and other forms of fiction. Some see this as a positive thing, arguing that made-up stories cultivate our mental and moral development. But others have argued that fiction is mentally and ethically corrosive. >>Read More