Curly hair may have been absolutely critical to humans evolving millions of years ago, scientists have discovered. In fact, having curly hair could have been the key reason as to why humans developed, grew taller and came to have larger brains. It’s all to do with regulating body temperature, according to a new study by researchers at Penn State University. Given that hair can help to protect the head from the sun’s rays, it’s thought that thicker, curlier hair types could have been key to human life progressing in Equatorial Africa. Scientists recreated the kinds of conditions that early humans would have experienced, using wigs featuring different hair types on models. They found that curls were most effective in keeping the models cool in an environment measuring 86 degrees Fahrenheit (30 degrees Celsius) and 60 per cent humidity. Tina Lasisi is the study's lead author. She spoke to Newsweek about the findings and said: "We hypothesized that tightly curled scalp hair would provide some benefits, but the extent of these benefits was uncertain. "Previous studies on mammalian coats have shown that hair can limit the amount of sunlight reaching the skin, but we were particularly surprised by the significant reduction in solar heat radiation impact provided by tightly coiled hair.” The reduction in heat caused by tight curls could have led to the development of larger brains. "Once humans developed large brains, they could employ other behavioral and social strategies to cope with heat, potentially diminishing the relative advantage of curly hair," she said. "This could have led to a diverse distribution of hair textures worldwide. Furthermore, since straight hair better retains heat, populations in colder environments may have experienced selective pressure for straight hair." She added: "Future research should aim to answer these questions by incorporating our data into mathematical models of human physiology or conducting experiments with human subjects who have different hair textures to examine the impact on their thermal regulation.” Sign up for our free Indy100 weekly newsletter Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings

Nearly half of all internet traffic came from bots last year, according to new research. Figures from cyber security firm Imperva revealed a significant increase in automated and malicious web activity in 2022, with the proportion of human traffic falling to its lowest level in eight years. The company noted that so-called “bad bots” were at their highest level since it started tracking the trend in 2013. Bot activity is expected to increase even further this year, the researchers claimed, due to the arrival of generative AI tools like OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Google’s Bard. “Bots have evolved rapidly since 2013, but with the advent of generative artificial intelligence, the technology will evolve at an even greater, more concerning pace over the next 10 years,” said Karl Triebes, a senior vice president at Imperva. “Cyber criminals will increase their focus on attacking API endpoints and application business logic with sophisticated automation. As a result, the business disruption and financial impact associated with bad bots will become even more significant in the coming years.” Bad bot activity can include anything from spam that clogs up email inboxes, to advanced systems that carry out brute force attacks to hack into people’s emails or online accounts. Some bots even mimic human behaviour in order to avoid being detected by security software. Another worrying trend noted in the report was the rise of bots used in warfare, with a 145 per cent spike in automated attacks targeting Ukrainian web applications in early 2022. These were likely designed to disrupt the country’s critical infrastructure, ranging from energy and telecom, to transport and financial sectors. “Every organisation, regardless of size or industry, should be concerned about the rising volume of bad bots across the internet,” said Triebes. “Year-over-year, the proportion of bot traffic is growing and the disruptions caused by malicious automation results in tangible business risks – from brand reputation issues to reduced online sales and security risks for web applications, mobile apps, and APIs.” Read More Why tech bosses are doomsday prepping ChatGPT is finally connected to the web 75% of Irish data watchdog’s GDPR decisions since 2018 overruled – report Nasa’s AI gives ‘30 minutes of advance warning’ before solar superstorms strike Earth

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