Maybe you’ve seen the T-shirts or the mugs, the silhouette of an ape standing up straighter and straighter, finally morphing into a modern coffee-drinking man. Scientists have long known human evolution was not so straightforward. NPR’s Nate Rott reports on a new study that shows just how complicated it was.
NATE ROTT, BYLINE: Kaye Reed was walking across some northeastern Ethiopian badlands with colleagues back in 2018 when they found the first tooth, a premolar.
KAYE REED: And it was beautiful. And we could tell it was a hominin, meaning that it’s something that walks on two legs and looks kind of like us.
ROTT: Reed is a paleoanthropologist and professor emerita at Arizona State University.
REED: And then suddenly, one of the Afar went, oh, my goodness.
ROTT: One of her Ethiopian colleagues had found another, and then they found another.
REED: And then I stood up ’cause we were down there looking, and I was sitting on a tooth.
ROTT: By the end of the search, they found 10 teeth, ancient teeth at more than 2.6 million years old. But Reed says they didn’t match up well with any other known hominin teeth from that era.
REED: Obviously, science is a bunch of hypotheses that you put together. And our hypothesis is that this is likely a new species.
ROTT: A new species of Australopithecus, the genus that, for those of you who don’t dabble in ancient human history, is believed to be distant, let’s say, cousins to us. Even more exciting, Reed said, is a week later they found three more smaller teeth from roughly the same time period.
REED: And all three of those belong to the genus Homo.
ROTT: And genus Homo, for people who don’t know, is?
REED: Is us. I mean, we are Homo sapiens.
ROTT: Reed and her colleagues’ findings, published in the journal Nature, suggests that these different types of human ancestors were coexisting in this part of Africa millions of years ago. It’s not the first documented case of hominin coexistence. But it raises a lot of questions, like was there interbreeding between the two groups, competition for resources, cooperation? Coauthor Brian Villmoare, a paleoanthropologist at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, says they hope to learn more by further analyzing the teeth and doing more fieldwork. More broadly, though, he says the findings confirm what scientists have been saying for a long time.
BRIAN VILLMOARE: The human lineage is not unique.
ROTT: No species evolves in a straight, made-for-T-shirt line, Villmoare says. Evolution is more bushy, like a family tree.
VILLMOARE: You know, if you look at, like, apes now, so there are multiple species of ape alive all at the same time, you know? And monkeys and cats and dogs and all these things, right? So the point is that humans are not really special in the way we evolved.
ROTT: For example, he says roughly 2 million years ago, there were as many as seven species of hominins across Africa all living at once.
VILLMOARE: Even though there’s only one species alive now, that’s a fairly recent thing.
ROTT: Recent, at least in evolutionary terms. Nate Rott, NPR News. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.
Maybe you’ve seen the T-shirts or the mugs, the silhouette of an ape standing up straighter and straighter, finally morphing into a modern coffee-drinking man. Scientists have long known human evolution was not so straightforward. NPR’s Nate Rott reports on a new study that shows just how complicated it was.
NATE ROTT, BYLINE: Kaye Reed was walking across some northeastern Ethiopian badlands with colleagues back in 2018 when they found the first tooth, a premolar.
KAYE REED: And it was beautiful. And we could tell it was a hominin, meaning that it’s something that walks on two legs and looks kind of like us.
ROTT: Reed is a paleoanthropologist and professor emerita at Arizona State University.
REED: And then suddenly, one of the Afar went, oh, my goodness.
ROTT: One of her Ethiopian colleagues had found another, and then they found another.
REED: And then I stood up ’cause we were down there looking, and I was sitting on a tooth.
ROTT: By the end of the search, they found 10 teeth, ancient teeth at more than 2.6 million years old. But Reed says they didn’t match up well with any other known hominin teeth from that era.
REED: Obviously, science is a bunch of hypotheses that you put together. And our hypothesis is that this is likely a new species.
ROTT: A new species of Australopithecus, the genus that, for those of you who don’t dabble in ancient human history, is believed to be distant, let’s say, cousins to us. Even more exciting, Reed said, is a week later they found three more smaller teeth from roughly the same time period.
REED: And all three of those belong to the genus Homo.
ROTT: And genus Homo, for people who don’t know, is?
REED: Is us. I mean, we are Homo sapiens.
ROTT: Reed and her colleagues’ findings, published in the journal Nature, suggests that these different types of human ancestors were coexisting in this part of Africa millions of years ago. It’s not the first documented case of hominin coexistence. But it raises a lot of questions, like was there interbreeding between the two groups, competition for resources, cooperation? Coauthor Brian Villmoare, a paleoanthropologist at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, says they hope to learn more by further analyzing the teeth and doing more fieldwork. More broadly, though, he says the findings confirm what scientists have been saying for a long time.
BRIAN VILLMOARE: The human lineage is not unique.
ROTT: No species evolves in a straight, made-for-T-shirt line, Villmoare says. Evolution is more bushy, like a family tree.
VILLMOARE: You know, if you look at, like, apes now, so there are multiple species of ape alive all at the same time, you know? And monkeys and cats and dogs and all these things, right? So the point is that humans are not really special in the way we evolved.
ROTT: For example, he says roughly 2 million years ago, there were as many as seven species of hominins across Africa all living at once.
VILLMOARE: Even though there’s only one species alive now, that’s a fairly recent thing.
ROTT: Recent, at least in evolutionary terms. Nate Rott, NPR News.
Accuracy and availability of NPR transcripts may vary. Transcript text may be revised to correct errors or match updates to audio. Audio on npr.org may be edited after its original broadcast or publication. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.
Celtic Sea Salt Benefits for Weight Loss, Energy and More | Woman’s World
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Google LLC today unveiled its new Google Pixel 10 lineup of smartphones, a lighter pair of Pixel Buds, and more proactive artificial intelligence assistant capabilities.
Among the lineup revealed at the Made By Google 2025 conference, Google included the Pixel 10, the 10 Pro and Pro XL, and a foldable version called the Pro Fold that now includes dust and water resistance. Alongside them the company revealed the Pixel Watch 4.
To power the new phones, the company announced a new generation of its Tensor chips, the Tensor G5. The company said this is the most powerful custom-designed mobile processor yet since the company introduced the Tensor series five years ago.
According to Google, the G5 delivers a 60% more powerful tensor processing unit for accelerating AI tasks and 34% Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., a manufacturing technology that allows the company to pack more tiny transistors into the chip to make it more powerful and efficient.
Google Pixel 10 lineup
Google’s 10th-generation Pixel phones continue to maintain the same sleek design with rounded corners and a “camera-bar” that we’ve seen in the previous incarnations. In addition, the company has provided four colors: moonstone, jade, porcelain and obsidian.
The Pixel 10 comes with a 6.3-inch Actua display and the 10 Pro has the same size with a Super Actua display; the Pro XL pushes its size up to 6.8 inches. All of the phones provide a 24-hour battery life with the capability of fast charging a portion in about 30 minutes; the standard phone can charge 70% and the Pro about 55% in that time.
Pixel 10 Pro phones can also be charged wirelessly using an accessory called Pixelsnap, a magnetic add-on that lets people “snap on” a Qi2 wireless charger. There are also various ways to attach the phone to things using magnetic accessories, using stands, grips, wallets and more.
Storage options for the 10 range from 128 to 256 gigabytes, whereas the 10 Pro and XL push all the way up to 1 terabyte.
The Pixel 10 Fold Pro is an altogether different device from the ordinary smartphone, providing a slim, sandwich phone that folds to 6.4 inches and opens to an eight-inch internal display, making it the largest foldable phone from Google yet.
According to the company, it can handle over 10 years of folding. It is also the first foldable phone from the company to feature IP68 dust and water resistance, meaning it can stand up to greater amounts of abuse than previous models.
The phone features a robust battery for a foldable device that can last over 30 hours. When a quick charge is needed, it can reach 50% in just 30 minutes. Additionally, it’s compatible with the magnetic Pixelsnap.
Pixel Watch 4 and Pixel Buds 2a
Today, Google introduced Pixel Watch 4, which redesigned the look while maintaining the soft circular shape, but with a heavily domed display.
The company said this is a first-of-its-kind Actua 360-display that’s physically curved, allowing a 10% larger effective area and an effectively edgeless appearance. It is also easier to see even in direct sunlight with a 50% brighter 3,000 nit display.
It also has a 25% longer battery life than the previous model, supporting 30 hours on the smaller 41-millimeter model and 40 hours on the 45-millimeter model. This can go even longer on battery saver with two or three days, respectively.
The new watch provides better sleep tracking, enhanced skin temperature sensing, heartbeat detection, more accurate route tracking and new automatic tracking for workouts.
Users can also use gestures to activate Gemini instead of trigger words such as “Hey Google,” by pulling the watch up to their mouth to speak.
Pixel Buds 2a are the latest addition to the A-series of buds, which are smaller and lighter than Pixel Buds 2. They’re designed with a set of different eartips so they can be fit comfortably for different individuals and come in two colors, iris and hazel.
The devices are built around the Tensor A1, a chip purpose-built for audio processing that brings active noise cancelling and other audio performance to the buds. Google added that with the chip’s efficiency, the earbuds can go for seven hours of listening on a single charge, extending to 20 hours total with a charging case.
Paired with a phone, users can say “Hey Google,” and get their Gemini assistant on the line. They can also detect more head movements, such as shaking the head to refuse a call or nodding to accept.
“Google’s wide-ranging hardware refresh further develops its position as a leader in the smartphone and wearables categories, and the company is arguably positioning on-device AI more effectively than any of its rivals,” Leo Gebbie, principal analyst at CCS Insight, told SiliconANGLE. “This was Google’s most comprehensive and wide-ranging hardware update ever, and speaks to the strength of the Pixel team that it can deliver so many updates at the same time.”
A more proactive AI assistant
As with every other Pixel showcase, Google leaned into AI heavily during its demonstration and this time it revealed Magic Cue — a helpful and proactive AI assistant that lives on smartphones.
Magic Cue, powered by Gemini, meets users across their phone and uses information from their various apps to deliver on-time information when they need it. It doesn’t just wait for them to ask it to pull data for them; it offers it right when they need it.
For example, someone could ask a question in Messages, such as “Where should we go out for dinner?” and it could offer up a potential suggestion they could post back from a list of nearby restaurants. Or someone could ask about an old photo and it could allow them to click a button to find that photo in their images on the phone.
In another case, when calling an airline, it could automatically surface flight details from an email and display them during a phone call. Cue is designed to operate in the background and only come to the surface to help users recall information when they need it most.
Gebbie praised Cue, saying that it looks extremely useful. “Google can take advantage of the fact that most Android users will already have heavily populated apps like Gmail, Calendar and Maps with their personal information,” he said. “The critical question is how third-party apps will be able to leverage Magic Cue.”
Google stressed that it only runs when opted-in and it also works on-device, privately and securely with apps, never sending any data off the phone.
Images: Google
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NYT The Playbook Used to ‘Prove’ Vaccines Cause Autism. The health secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., says he wants to understand what causes autism. It’s a perfectly laudable goal and one that scientists have been pursuing for decades. But after announcing a large new federal study on the topic, he made a shocking choice by bringing in the vaccine critic David Geier as a researcher.
In the scientific community, Mr. Geier is infamous for the deeply flawed studies he conducted with his father, Mark Geier, claiming that vaccines cause autism. Researchers have long called attention to the serious methodological and ethical defects in their work. The Geiers once created an illegitimate review board for their research, composed of themselves, family members and business associates. They also promoted the drug Lupron, used for chemical castration and prostate cancer, as a supposed treatment for autism, charging $5,000 to $6,000 monthly for unproven therapies. As a result, Mark Geier’s medical license was ultimately revoked or suspended by all 12 states in which he was licensed, and David Geier was fined for practicing medicine without a license.
Looking for the most recent Strands answer? Click here for our daily Strands hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Mini Crossword, Wordle, Connections and Connections: Sports Edition puzzles.
Finally, a NYT Strands puzzle I can ace! If you know major superheroes, this will be a fun and easy one for you today. And the spangram makes a related and cool shape! If you need hints and answers, read on.
I go into depth about the rules for Strands in this story.
If you’re looking for today’s Wordle, Connections and Mini Crossword answers, you can visit CNET’s NYT puzzle hints page.
Read more: NYT Connections Turns 1: These Are the 5 Toughest Puzzles So Far
Hint for today’s Strands puzzle
Today’s Strands theme is: Marvel-ous and then some.
If that doesn’t help you, here’s a clue: So super.
Clue words to unlock in-game hints
Your goal is to find hidden words that fit the puzzle’s theme. If you’re stuck, find any words you can. Every time you find three words of four letters or more, Strands will reveal one of the theme words. These are the words I used to get those hints, but any words of four or more letters that you find will work:
These are the answers that tie into the theme. The goal of the puzzle is to find them all, including the spangram, a theme word that reaches from one side of the puzzle to the other. When you have all of them (I originally thought there were always eight, but learned that the number can vary), every letter on the board will be used. Here are the nonspangram answers:
HULK, ROGUE, STORM, THING, DAREDEVIL, WOLVERINE
Today’s Strands spangram
The completed NYT Strands puzzle for Aug. 21, 2025, #536.
NYT/Screenshot by CNET
Today’s Strands spangram is SUPERHEROES. To find it, look for the S that is five rows to the right and two down, and then start going backward and make an S (for superheroes)!
Things just keep going wrong for Analogue’s take on the Nintendo 64. The company announced today that the shipping date for its next console, the Analogue 3D, has been delayed until sometime in Q4 of this year. The announcement comes a little over a month after the console’s previous delay, which would’ve seen it ship at the end of August.
While the July announcement cited the ongoing mess around tariffs as the reason for that delay, the cause for the current delay is less clear.
“Analogue has been moving at maximum pace, processing shipping to everyone who has been patiently waiting,” the company wrote in a statement. “Unexpected, uncommon issues are rare. Especially in a negligible degree under esoteric circumstances. We’re ensuring every detail meets our standard.” The statement added that the launch is “at 99% percent. Hardware, system, packaging — the full kit — been set for months. The last one percent is where we’re focused.”
The company also says that the currently vague Q4 timing is “intentionally set conservatively,” presumably to avoid having to announce another delay. Full refunds are available for those who pre-ordered.
To say that Sony is conservative about changing the design of its smartphones would be a laughable understatement – for anyone but the biggest Sony fans it’s almost impossible to tell different generations apart.
This, however, may change for its next mid-ranger, the Xperia 10 VII. According to a case maker on Amazon, Sony will be switching things up this time, with a different arrangement of its camera sensors compared to its predecessor which launched last year.
Sony Xperia 10 VII new design
Whereas the Xperia 10 VI has the two cameras arranged vertically, the Xperia 10 VII goes with a horizontal arrangement instead. Sure, it’s not the biggest design change ever, but for Sony it’s pretty significant.
The images in this article come from a case listing on Amazon. The fact that this went up might mean that Sony is getting ready to unveil the Xperia 10 VII – after all, it’s very late compared to the 10 VI, which was released last June. The original Xperia 10 from 2019 was the last internationally available Sony smartphone to come with a horizontal camera island, so it’s been a while.
Sony Xperia 10 VI
Unfortunately, the Xperia 10 VII’s specs are still a mystery. We’ll let you know when we find out more.
Oblique Seville scorched to an impressive win on Wednesday (20 August) at the 2025 Athletissima Lausanne meet, the 13th stop on this season’s Diamond League athletics circuit, beating Olympic champion Noah Lyles for a second time this season.
Seville started fast out of the blocks in wet conditions and quickly opened up a big gap to the field, never looking back as he posted an impressive 9.87-second time into a -0.3m/s headwind.
“Yeah, I’m back, but to be honest in these conditions, it’s very difficult even to run that fast, and to come out here and I’m the only person who managed to show my dominance,” Seville said to Olympics.com’s Evelyn Watta.
As usual, Lyles had a slow move out of the blocks, but managed to move up a spot past Seville’s Jamaican teammate Ackeem Blake to finish second in 10.02, with Blake sharing that time in a photo-finish.
It was the Olympic champion’s third international race this year over the distance, having previously lost to Seville at the London Diamond League then to Kishane Thompson on Saturday at the Silesia Diamond League.
The gap between Lyles (and the field) and Seville only served to emphasise just how impressive the latter’s win was, while Lyles’s comeback from an injury-disrupted start to the season continues without a win over the short sprint.
“I love to run and compete, so this is a very odd type of season for me. I’ve never had a season like this before, where I’ve had so few races,” he had told journalists in a pre-event media huddle on Tuesday.
With the World Championships in Tokyo fast approaching, Lyles — who is also the defending world champion from Budapest in 2023 — is still trying to find his rhythm.
“I just had a really bad reaction to the gun,” Lyles told Olympics.com after his 10.02. “After that, there’s not much I can do. We all gotta run in the same thing; just because it’s bad conditions doesn’t mean fast times can’t be run.
“We’ll go to Zurich (for the Diamond League Final), and after that, Worlds.”
