Biology

Figuring out how these molecules form in the deep recesses of interstellar space might illuminate the origins of one of life’s distinguishing features.

How interbreeding among early hominins harmed humans but may have slowed the Neanderthals’ decline.

Neanderthals and Denisovans may have endowed modern humans with genetic variants that helped them thrive in new environments.

A specific set of neurons deep in the brain may motivate us to seek company, holding social species together.

A new study reveals that individual genes can create many different versions of the molecular machinery that powers the cell.

The cognitive scientist Donald Hoffman believes that evolution and quantum mechanics conspire to make objective reality an illusion.

A project to decipher the brain’s learning rules could revolutionize machine learning.

Scientists have created a synthetic organism that possesses only the genes it needs to survive. But they have no idea what roughly a third of those genes do.

New insights from neuroscience — aided by a small zoo’s worth of dancing animals — are revealing the biological origins of rhythm.