Biology

Under a microscope, cells in a worm embryo deliberately eliminated one-third of their genome — an uncompromising tactic that may combat harmful genetic parasites.

Every species develops at its own unique tempo, leaving scientists to wonder what governs their timing. A suite of new findings suggests that cells use basic metabolic processes as clocks.

Because tree seedlings don’t grow as well when close to their parents, more tree species can be packed into tropical forests.

The preferred “handedness” of biomolecules could have emerged from biased interactions between electrons and magnetic surfaces, new research suggests.

New research finds that the memories useful for future generalizations are held in the brain separately from those recording unusual events.

Sticking out your tongue while doing delicate work with your hands reveals a history of evolutionary relationships.

A five-year “adversarial collaboration” of consciousness theorists led to a stagy showdown in front of an audience. It crowned no winners — but it can still claim progress.

Why did mammals, grasses and some other groups of organisms explode in diversity only after millions of years? The evolutionary biologist Andreas Wagner plumbs the secrets of those “sleeping beauties.”

By watching “minimal” cells regain the fitness they lost, researchers are testing whether a genome can be too simple to evolve.