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evolution

Latest Articles

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.

A blueprint-like rendering of the biomechanics of a bird wing.
biomechanics

Geometric Analysis Reveals How Birds Mastered Flight

By Yasemin Saplakoglu
August 3, 2022
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Partnerships between engineers and biologists have begun to reveal how birds evolved their superb maneuverability.

The Joy of Why

Why Do We Get Old, and Can Aging Be Reversed?

By Steven Strogatz
July 27, 2022
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Everybody gets older, but not everyone ages in the same way. In this episode, Steven Strogatz speaks with Judith Campisi and Dena Dubal, two biomedical researchers who study the aging process.

Sculpted, latticed structure of a grain of olive pollen.
plants

How the ‘Diamond of the Plant World’ Helped Land Plants Evolve

By James Dinneen
July 19, 2022
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Structural studies of the robust material called sporopollenin reveal how it made plants hardy enough to reproduce on dry land.

an illustration of various objects (a chair, a rocket, a cell phone, etc.) as well as biological objects such as a DNA double-helix and microbe, all against a lime green background
The Joy of Why

What Is Life?

By Steven Strogatz
June 15, 2022
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Without a good definition of life, how do we look for it on alien planets? Steven Strogatz speaks with Robert Hazen, a mineralogist and astrobiologist, and Sheref Mansy, a chemist, to learn more.

A satellite photo of the complex of rivers in the Amazon.
biodiversity

Reshuffled Rivers Bolster the Amazon’s Hyper-Biodiversity

By Yasemin Saplakoglu
June 7, 2022
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The lush biodiversity of the Amazon may be due in part to the dynamics of branching rivers, which serve as invisible fences that continuously barricade and merge bird populations.

evolution

Brain-Signal Proteins Evolved Before Animals Did

By Viviane Callier
June 3, 2022
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Some animal neuropeptides have been around longer than nervous systems.


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