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evolution

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520px photo of Jarvis holding a zebra finch
Q&A

In Birds’ Songs, Brains and Genes, He Finds Clues to Speech

By Jordana Cepelewicz
January 30, 2018
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The neuroscientist Erich Jarvis found that songbirds’ vocal skills and humans’ spoken language are both rooted in neural pathways for controlling learned movements.

520px photo of a dingo
evolution

A Domesticated Dingo? No, but Some Are Getting Less Wild

By Carrie Arnold
January 23, 2018
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Near an Australian desert mining camp, wild dingoes are losing their fear of humans. Their genetic and behavioral changes may echo those from the domestication of dogs.

Aribidopsis thaliana inflorescence
Abstractions blog

With ‘Downsized’ DNA, Flowering Plants Took Over the World

By Jordana Cepelewicz
January 11, 2018
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Compact genomes and tiny cells gave flowering plants an edge over competing flora. This discovery hints at a broader evolutionary principle.

Illustration: altered DNA in bears
synthetic biology

Is a Bigger Genetic Code Better? Get Ready to Find Out

By Jordana Cepelewicz
January 2, 2018
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Evolution settled on a genetic code that uses four letters to name 20 amino acids. Synthetic biologists adding new bases to DNA will be free to improve on nature — if they can.

Photo of Corina Tarnita 520px
Q&A

A Mathematician Who Decodes the Patterns Stamped Out by Life

By Joshua Sokol
December 20, 2017
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Corina Tarnita deciphers bizarre patterns in the soil created by competing life-forms.

New finch species "Big Bird "(offspring)
Abstractions blog

New Bird Species Arises From Hybrids, as Scientists Watch

By Jordana Cepelewicz
December 13, 2017
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The rapid, unorthodox emergence of a new finch in the Galápagos hints that speciation isn’t rare. New hybrid species may quietly appear and disappear without anyone noticing.

Game Theory cake puzzle
Insights puzzle

Solution: ‘Triumph or Cooperation in Game Theory and Evolution’

By Pradeep Mutalik
December 8, 2017
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How well does the Nash equilibrium concept from game theory map to the real world?

Traveling person with a luggage filled with bacteria
Quantized Columns

What Bacteria Can Tell Us About Human Evolution

By Tara C. Smith
December 5, 2017
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To discover our species’ deep history and to shape its future health, we should learn from the microbes that accompanied us on our evolutionary journey.

Game Theory cake puzzle
Insights puzzle

How to Triumph and Cooperate in Game Theory and Evolution

By Pradeep Mutalik
November 9, 2017
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In applying game theory to biology and human behavior, have scientists focused too much on competition over cooperation?


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