Today’s quick hits

🦴 Scientists may have found a new member of the human family tree. The new human species, called Homo juluensis (or “big headed people”), had big heads, made stone tools, and hunted mostly horses in eastern Asia between 300,000–50,000 years ago, per a recent study published in Nature Communications. The study’s authors say Homo juluensis’ large skull and broad teeth justify its classification as a new species, which includes the mysterious early human group called the Denisovans.

🏥 Gaylord Focker will see you now. The number of men in the US with the job of nurse has nearly tripled from 2000-2023, rising from 140,000 to 400,000, per a new Wall Street Journal report. As a result, some ~14% of all US nurses are now men, up from about 9% roughly two decades ago. Analysts say the trend is largely due to male-dominated manufacturing jobs being moved overseas, replaced by automation, or phased out of the economy entirely in recent decades, leading men to find new occupations. Other occupations traditionally dominated by women are also gaining a larger share of men, including elementary and middle-school teachers and customer-service representatives, the WSJ reports.

🏘️ America’s biggest apartment owner is getting into modular housing. Greystar Real Estate Partners on Monday said it’s opening its first modular apartment complex in the US, complete with a gym, amphitheater, and bocce courts. Modular houses, the construction equivalent of making dishes at home to bring to a dinner party, are fully assembled in a factory, then transported to the final building site and stacked on top of each other like Legos. Proponents say this type of building – long relegated to a fringe part of the US market – is faster, uses fewer workers, and is cheaper than traditional methods. And its use is gaining steam: Global modular construction revenues are expected to grow from $180 billion in 2022 to as much as $1.1 trillion by 2040, per McKinsey.