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While the study of the SARS-CoV-2 virus was the most urgent priority, biologists also learned more about how brains process information, how to define individuality and why sleep deprivation kills.
The simple insight that most changes are random had a profound effect on genetics, evolution and ecology.
Even genes essential for life can be caught in an evolutionary arms race that forces them to change or be replaced.
Researchers see structural changes in genetic material that allow memories to strengthen when remembered.
New research links serotonin and dopamine not just to addiction and depression, but to the ability to control genes.
Emmanuelle Charpentier and Jennifer Doudna have been awarded the 2020 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for their development of CRISPR/Cas9 genetic editing.
Cosmic rays may have given right-handed genetic helixes an evolutionary edge at the beginning of life’s history.
Why did sex evolve? Theories usually focus on the diversity of future generations, but some researchers find compelling explanations in the immediate benefits to individuals.
In their search for sources of genetic novelty, researchers find that some “orphan genes” with no obvious ancestors evolve out of junk DNA, contrary to old assumptions.