Biology

Scientists have begun to identify the symphony of biological triggers that powered the extraordinary expansion of the human brain.

The biologist Joan Strassmann discusses cooperation in social insects, how amoebas can teach us about competition, and why the definition of “organism” needs an overhaul.

A single genetic change and some clever geometry show how single-celled organisms can band together to form cooperative multicellular entities.

A newly discovered class of microbe could help to resolve one of the biggest and most controversial mysteries in evolution — how simple microbes transformed into the complex cells that produced animals, plants and fungi.

By examining regions shared between some of nature's most variable genes, malaria researchers are piecing together an understanding of a deadly parasite.

Complex natural systems defy analysis using a standard mathematical toolkit, so one ecologist is throwing out the equations.

Only a few genetic changes were enough to change an ordinary stomach bug into the bacteria responsible for the plague.

The biologist Nancy Moran has spent a career investigating the surprising nature of symbiosis, a phenomenon in which two species can appear to merge into one.

Cellular clocks are almost everywhere. Clues to how they work are coming from the places they’re not.