A young version of the coronavirus makes up one-quarter of Covid cases across the United States and over 70 percent of new cases in the Northeast.
Tag Archives: Evolution (Biology)
These Engineers Want to Build Conscious Robots. Others Say It’s a Bad Idea.
The pursuit of robot consciousness may be humankind’s next moonshot. But it comes with a slurry of difficult questions.
How Genital Stingers Give Male Wasps Some Sexual Equality
A study that involved giving frogs an unpleasant snack has shown that male wasps really can defend themselves with jabs from their genitalia.
Time Is Way Weirder Than You Think
The neuroscientist Dean Buonomano talks expansively about time — what it is and all the ways humans perceive its passing.
Happy Birthday, Omicron
One year after the variant’s discovery, virologists are still scrambling to keep up with Omicron’s rapid evolution.
While Other Insects Played, This Species Evolved the Blade
Scientists are studying a fruit fly’s sharp organ that helps it lay eggs and eat, hoping to unlock the secrets of herbivorous insects.
It Looks Like a Shell, but an Octopus and 40,000 Eggs Live Inside
Scientists are studying how the argonaut octopus evolved the ability to produce a floating shell-like structure to care for its offspring.
How the ‘Black Death’ Left Its Genetic Mark on Future Generations
Scientists have discovered several genetic variants that protect Europeans from the bubonic plague — but also increase the risk of immune disorders.
When Sarcastic Fringeheads Open Their Mouths, Watch Out
Scientists found that the fish’s unusual broad-mouthed display is reserved only for fighting with other members of its species.
Why Omicron Might Stick Around
Omicron, the 13th named variant of the coronavirus, seems to have a remarkable capacity to evolve new tricks.
How Chewing Shaped Human Evolution
An experiment revealed that chomping on slightly tougher material requires markedly more energy. Spending less time on mastication may go hand in hand with human evolution.
Sneeze by Sneeze, Sponges Fill the Seas With Their Mucus
You might be tempted to say “gesundheit,” but the sea creature’s snot helps feed other marine organisms.
Science Is Still in a Race Against the Coronavirus
Human ingenuity must keep up with the coronavirus.
The Mysterious Dance of the Cricket Embryos
A team of biologists and mathematicians studied hours of video to learn how insects take shape in the egg. The secret is geometry.
Giraffes May Be Long-Necked for Fights, Not Just Food
Evolutionary theories said giraffes developed their height to get to better eats, but ancestors may have gained the advantage through head-butting battles.
Courage Seemed to be Dead. Then Came Zelensky.
Can economics make sense of heroism?
Started Out as a Fish. How Did It End Up Like This?
A meme about the transitional fossil Tiktaalik argues that although we did emerge from the sea, we aren’t doing just fine.
Life’s Preference for Symmetry Is Like ‘A New Law of Nature’
Techniques from computer science may help explain the tendency in biology for structures to repeat themselves.
Cannibalistic Toads Reveal ‘Evolution in Fast Motion,’ Study Finds
The toxin that makes cane toads so poisonous is causing them to eat their young, but only in Australia, where they became an out-of-control pest.
Fossil Reveals Secrets of One of Nature’s Most Mysterious Reptiles
The specimen shows that modern tuataras found in New Zealand are little changed from ancestors that lived 190 million years.
Act of ‘Heresy’ Adds Horseshoe Crabs to Arachnid Family Tree
A team of researchers say that rather than occupying their own branch in the history of life on Earth, horseshoe crabs are in the same group as spiders and scorpions.
Body Odor May Have Smelled Much Worse to Your Ancient Ancestors
Researchers worked out which receptors in your nose detect particular scent molecules, and found evidence of evolutionary change in some of these genes.
How Omicron’s Mutations Allow It To Thrive
Thirteen of Omicron’s mutations should have hurt the variant’s chances of survival. Instead, they worked together to make it thrive.
E.O. Wilson, a Pioneer of Evolutionary Biology, Dies at 92
A Harvard professor for 46 years, he was an expert on insects and explored how natural selection and other forces could influence animal behavior. He then applied his research to humans.
Prints Long Thought to Be Bear Tracks May Have Been Made by Human Ancestor
New research published in the journal Nature suggests that the prints, discovered in Tanzania in 1976, were left by an unidentified hominin, or early human ancestor, more than 3.6 million years ago.
How Covid Raised the Stakes of the War Between Faith and Science
The debate isn’t just about creationism and stem cells anymore.
Why Strawberries Turn a Ghostly Shade of White
Researchers unlocked some of the genetic secrets that helped the colorful fruit evolve into so many varieties around the world.
How Did Elephants and Walruses Get Their Tusks? It’s a Long Story.
A new study reveals how some mammals evolved nature’s most impressive chompers (which are not always used for chomping).
These Singing Lemurs Have Rhythm
For the first time, researchers have found a nonhuman animal that seems to have a sense of the beat.
Tuskless Elephants Escape Poachers, but May Evolve New Problems
Scientists identified the genes that played a role in many female elephants of Mozambique’s Gorongosa National Park being born without tusks.
What the Future May Hold for the Coronavirus and Us
Viral evolution is a long game. Here’s where scientists think we could be headed.
Looks Like Bird Poop. But It’s Really a Predatory Spider.
Many creatures use mimicry to hide from predators. This one also uses it to lure in prey.
This Rattlesnake Dares You to Call Its Bluff
Scientists designed a virtual reality experiment to understand just how tricky rattlesnakes can be.
This Flower Hides a Secret: It’s Actually a Carnivore
That this perennial wildflower digests trapped insects suggests that other plants’ appetites for animals may be overlooked.
Australia’s Trash Parrots Invent New Skill in Suburbs
Sydney’s clever and adaptable sulfur-crested cockatoos learn how to pry open garbage bins by watching one another.
Discovery of ‘Dragon Man’ Skull in China May Add Species to Human Family Tree
A laborer discovered the fossil and hid it in a well for 85 years. Scientists say it could help sort out the human family tree and how our species emerged.
David Wake, Expert on Salamanders and Evolution, Dies at 84
While on a college field trip to collect beetles, he found salamanders. He became an authority and later grew alarmed by the disappearance of many amphibians.
Some Male Birds Fly Under False Colors to Attract Mates, Study Suggests
Elaborate feather microstructures allow male tanagers to enhance their colors, making them seem as if they are higher quality mates.
This Endangered Bird Lost Its Song in Australia
New generations of a critically endangered species of songbird are failing to learn the tunes they need for courtship. It could lead to extinction.
When the Aliens Arrive, What Will They Look Like? A Zoologist Has Answers
In “A Zoologist’s Guide to the Galaxy,” Arik Kershenbaum uses his knowledge of the various species here on Earth to speculate about what might exist out there.
The Power of Playing Dead
A study shows that pretending to be immobile — sometimes for an hour or more — helps larvae of insects called antlions outlast hungry predators.
How Do Blind Worms See the Color Blue?
Eyeless roundworms may have hacked other cellular warning systems to give themselves a form of color vision.
7 Virus Variants Found in U.S. Carrying the Same Mutation
Scientists don’t know yet whether the mutation makes the variants more contagious, but they are concerned that it might.
Tiny Blobs of Brain Cells Could Reveal How Your Mind Differs From a Neanderthal’s
Researchers grew clusters of brain cells in the lab with a gene carried by our ancient ancestors.
Running Is a Total Body Affair
We can thank our heads and shoulders — and not just our knees and toes — that we evolved to run as well as we do.
The Coronavirus Is a Master of Mixing Its Genome, Worrying Scientists
New studies underscore how coronaviruses frequently mix their genetic components — which could contribute to the rise of dangerous variants.
Darwin’s Dim View of the Second Sex
The father of evolutionary theory held women to be intellectually inferior to men, with one notable exception. Michael Sims explains.
These Lizards Have a Hot Trick to Escape Hungry Snakes
On some Japanese islands where lizards live, the ones that fear predators have higher body temperatures that help them run faster.
A Question Hidden in the Platypus Genome: Are We the Weird Ones?
Researchers have produced the most comprehensive platypus genome yet, as well as that of another monotreme, an echidna.
How Did Mistletoe Get Into the Treetops?
Before someone hung it up in your home, some animal had to get it into the canopies where it thrives to this day.