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Evolutionary Biology
According to Peter Ward's "Medea hypothesis," photosynthesizing organisms regularly doom most life on Earth by over-consuming carbon dioxide.
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.
Cryo-electron tomography, or cryo-ET, is the future of cell research.
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?
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.
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 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.
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.
One possible vision of the distant future.
Inspired by the shape of a New Caledonian crow’s beak, researchers created a new 3D-printed prototype of tweezers.
All American and European eels originate in the same place.
Something doesn't add up.
8mins
The next time you see your dog sniffing the pavement or another dog’s junk, you should let them. Here’s why.