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evolution

Latest Articles

2022 in Review

The Year in Biology

By John Rennie
December 21, 2022
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Momentum for new ideas in Alzheimer’s research joined advances in neuroscience, developmental biology and origin-of-life studies to make 2022 a memorable year of biological insights.

Holly Moeller walks along Campus Point Beach.
Q&A

She Finds Keys to Ecology in Cells That Steal From Others

By Veronique Greenwood
December 19, 2022
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The ecologist Holly Moeller studies microorganisms that expand their range by absorbing organelles and gaining new metabolic talents from their prey.

Illustration of butterflies with similar wing-color patterns holding bundles of DNA.
genetics

How Supergenes Fuel Evolution Despite Harmful Mutations

By Carrie Arnold
November 8, 2022
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Supergenes that lock inherited traits together are widespread in nature. Recent work shows that their blend of genetic benefits and risks for species can be complex.

A snake and two frogs staring at one another across a rock.
genomics

How Genes Can Leap From Snakes to Frogs in Madagascar

By Veronique Greenwood
October 27, 2022
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The discovery of a hot spot for horizontal gene transfer draws attention to the possible roles of parasites and ecology in such changes.

Artwork of human figure smelling a flower and the smell being categorized as a type of flower.
smell

Machine Learning Highlights a Hidden Order in Scents

By Allison Parshall
October 10, 2022
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Efforts to build a better digital “nose” suggest that our perception of scents reflects both the structure of aromatic molecules and the metabolic processes that make them.

Photo of man with gold-rimmed glasses and a pin-striped button-up shirt posing with his hand on an early hominid skeleton
Nobel Prize

Geneticist Awarded Nobel Prize for Studies of Extinct Human Ancestors

By Yasemin Saplakoglu
October 3, 2022
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Svante Pääbo has been awarded the 2022 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for studying our extinct ancestors’ DNA.

Closeup video of a firefly flashing its abdomen, with other seemingly synchronized flashes in the background.
mathematical biology

How Do Fireflies Flash in Sync? Studies Suggest a New Answer.

By Joshua Sokol
September 20, 2022
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Field research suggests a new explanation for the synchronized flashing in fireflies and confirms that a novel form of “chimeric” synchrony occurs naturally.

A frog leaps out of the frame of the video.
biomechanics

Record-Breaking Robot Highlights How Animals Excel at Jumping

By Yasemin Saplakoglu
September 14, 2022
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Robots can surpass the limitations on how high and far animals can jump, but their success only underscores nature’s ingenuity in making the most of what’s available.

Closeup of the face of an electric eel.
evolution

Electric Fish Genomes Reveal How Evolution Repeats Itself

By Joanna Thompson
August 22, 2022
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By studying how electric organs arose in different lineages of fish, scientists gain new insights into a long-standing question of evolutionary biology.


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