Evolutionary Biology

Evolutionary Biology

Only humans can voluntarily conjure new objects and events in our minds.
jellyfish
Deep underwater, temperatures are close to freezing and the pressure is 1,000 times higher than at sea level.
Illustration of a human brain in pink tones shown in profile view, set against a solid green background.
5mins
We are ~99% genetically identical to chimpanzees. But there are three key traits that separate us.
According to Peter Ward's "Medea hypothesis," photosynthesizing organisms regularly doom most life on Earth by over-consuming carbon dioxide.
abandoned mine
Slimy biofilms made up of bacterial and eukaryotic life forms have taken over an abandoned, flooded uranium mine in Germany.
Disease kills off 40% of farmed catfish. This gene protects them.
There might be a hard limit to our knowledge of the Universe.
Ancient bones reveal that domesticated felines were at home in Pre-Neolithic Poland around 8,000 years ago.
Carnivores, herbivores, omnivores — and now virivores.
In the early 20th century, a young biochemist named Alexander Oparin set out to connect “the world of the living” to “the world of the dead.”
If dogs are out in coats and boots, how are the squirrels feeling?
Ernst Haeckel
He was also a eugenicist — but at least he could draw pretty pictures.
Evolution repeatedly hit upon this solution simply because it works.
6mins
How did complex systems emerge from chaos? Physicist Sean Carroll explains.
Close-up of two figures; one extends an apple towards the other near a tree trunk. The scene references the biblical story of Adam and Eve.
6mins
In 1965, six boys were stranded on an island. Fifteen months later, the survivors were rescued. How many were there?
John Templeton Foundation
If aliens are driven mostly by biological imperatives, humanity could be in big trouble if we ever meet technologically advanced beings.
a yellow drawing of a man's face with a wave pattern.
A concept known as "wave-particle duality" famously applies to light. But it also applies to all matter — including you.
Life is the only physical system that actively uses information.
Becoming less physically active as you get older is not inevitable.
The spikes in their mouths would have helped them catch squid or fish.
Ancient humans may have evolved to slumber efficiently — and in a crowd.
primordial slime
Bathybius haeckelii was briefly thought to be the link between inorganic matter and organic life.
Antibodies can start forming in intestines over 10 years before symptoms arise.
Inspired by the shape of a New Caledonian crow’s beak, researchers created a new 3D-printed prototype of tweezers.