���ӽ紫ý

Human behavioral ecologist Alyssa Crittenden of the University of Nevada in Las Vegas has studied the Hadza since 2004.

Express yourself.

Anthony Lynn cracks open a can of Coca-Cola. “I’m not sure what to do with myself right now,” he admits.

Odysseus, who voyaged across the wine-dark seas of the Mediterranean in Homer’s epic, may have had some astonishingly ancient forerunners. A decade ago, when excavators claimed to have found stone tools on the Greek island of Crete dating back at least 130,000 years, other archaeologists were stunned—and skeptical. But since then, at that site and others, researchers have quietly built up a convincing case for Stone Age seafarers—and for the even more remarkable possibility that they were Neanderthals, the extinct cousins of modern humans.

Modern humans may not have been the first travelers to cross the seas.

We've been up here for three days, trekking the 10,000-foot ridges of the Schell Creek Range of east-central Nevada. I take a heavy breath and continue along another granite-and-limestone slope flecked with bristlecone pines — gnarled, 2,000-year-old survivors found only in the American West's highest, harshest landscapes. The searing in my legs and lungs eases as the severe incline levels out into a grassy meadow ringed by aspens, their leaves quaking in the cool breeze. Donnie Vincent holds up a hand to halt me, and grins.

For the children of immigrants, receiving a college degree can be a huge milestone in their larger family story.

Graduating college students have long expressed their individuality by decorating their graduation caps with slogans and artwork, but a ���ӽ紫ý professor says the themes have gotten more political in recent years.

���ӽ紫ý associate professor Sheila Bock has been researching how and why students decorate their caps and says the themes over the years have become increasingly political.

The black letters contrast sharply with the graduation cap’s red fabric. They spell: “Vuela tan alto como puedas sin olvidar de donde vienes.”

Democrats hoping to take control of the U.S. Senate in November believe one of their best chances to pick up a seat this year lies in battleground Nevada, where Sen. Dean Heller is the only Republican running for re-election in a state that Democrat Hillary Clinton carried in 2016.

In the midst of the official pomp and circumstance, more and more graduates are adding a personal touch: They’ll decorate their graduation caps, also known as mortarboards.