You are looking for
Advanced search
Why Insect Memories May Not Survive Metamorphosis
...to an adult brain, the new study provides clues to how evolution made the development of these insects take such a wild detour. “It’s a monumental piece,” said Bertram Gerber,...
Even Synthetic Life Forms With a Tiny Genome Can Evolve
...The new evolution experiments are starting to provide insights into how the smallest, simplest organisms might evolve — and how principles of evolution unite all forms of life, even genetic...
Andreas Wagner Pursues the Secrets to Evolutionary Success
...what drives evolution, and he has wondered about evolutionary innovations that seem to lead nowhere — until they suddenly become the next big thing. His most recent book, Sleeping Beauties:...
Quaking Giants Might Solve the Mysteries of Stellar Magnetism
...is tipped on its side, meaning that the technique could determine the orientation of magnetic fields, which is crucial for updating models of stellar evolution. A second study, led by...
What Makes Life Tick? Mitochondria May Keep Time for Cells
...evolution exploits in creating new species. However, what sets the tempo of an organism’s growth has remained a mystery. “Our knowledge of what controls developmental timing has really lagged behind...
Fossilized Molecules Reveal a Lost World of Ancient Life
...off from one another in the evolutionary tree. Primary among those tools are molecular clocks: stretches of DNA that mutate at a constant rate, allowing scientists to estimate the passage...
Bats Use the Same Brain Cells to Map Physical and Social Worlds
New research in social bats raises the intriguing possibility that evolution can program the brain’s “place cells,” which are typically associated with location, to encode all kinds of environmental information....
During Pregnancy, a Fake ‘Infection’ Protects the Fetus
...pharmacology at the University of South Florida in Tampa and lead author on the new paper. “Evolution is so smart.” The Placenta Fakes Sick Totary-Jain discovered the placenta’s sleight of...
Evolving Bacteria Can Evade Barriers to ‘Peak’ Fitness
...a way. Nearly a century ago, the evolutionary theorist Sewall Wright imagined a landscape of mountains and valleys. The peaks represented states of high evolutionary fitness for organisms, while the...