https://phys.org/ en-us Phys.org internet news portal provides the latest news on science including: Physics, Nanotechnology, Life Sciences, Space Science, Earth Science, Environment, Health and Medicine. How did the complexity of many organisms living today evolve from the simpler body plans of their ancestors? This is a central question in biology. Take our hands, for example: Every time we type a message on our mobile phone, we are using an evolutionary "masterpiece" that evolved over millions of years. Notably, we typically grasp and manipulate objects with the palm of our hand—its ventral side. The back of our hand, or dorsal side, plays almost no role. This differentiation of our limbs, with a ventral side adapted for contact and a dorsal side protected by nails or toenails, is essential for life on land. https://phys.org/news/2026-02-fins-fingers-nature-redeployed-ancient.html Evolution Mon, 09 Feb 2026 15:58:27 EST news689875082 Our hunter-gatherer ancestors have given us many things. They passed down mastery of fire for cooking and early survival technologies, such as stone tools. They may also have given us the secret to a long life. A new study published in the journal GeroScience found that Italian centenarians carry a higher proportion of genetic material from Western Hunter-Gatherers (WHG) compared to the general population. https://phys.org/news/2025-12-ancient-hunter-dna-people-years.html Archaeology Wed, 17 Dec 2025 13:30:08 EST news685199198 Modern humans inherited part of their ancestry from multiple, genetically distinct Denisovan groups through interbreeding events. However, the history of contact with Denisovans remains unclear. https://phys.org/news/2025-11-dynamics-denisovan-ancestry-eurasians-years.html Evolution Tue, 04 Nov 2025 11:05:03 EST news681476701 Evolutionary biologists have long believed that the human-biting mosquito, Culex pipiens form molestus, evolved from the bird-biting form, Culex pipiens form pipiens, in subways and cellars in northern Europe over the past 200 years. It's been held up as an example of a species's ability to rapidly adapt to new environments and urbanization. https://phys.org/news/2025-10-urban-human-mosquito-uptick-west.html Evolution Thu, 23 Oct 2025 14:00:15 EDT news680364662 Modern humans have existed for more than 200,000 years, and each new generation has begun with a single cell—dividing, changing shape and function, organizing into tissues, organs, and limbs. With slight variations, the process has repeated billions of times with remarkable fidelity to the same body plan. https://phys.org/news/2025-06-cells-anthrobots-biologically-younger.html Cell & Microbiology Wed, 18 Jun 2025 10:20:01 EDT news669460515 Scientists have identified a new pod of ancient hunter-gatherers who lived near the land bridge between North America and South America about 6,000 years ago. https://phys.org/news/2025-05-ancient-dna-uncovers-unknown-group.html Archaeology Wed, 28 May 2025 16:31:39 EDT news667668686 Life depends on genes being switched on and off at exactly the right time. Even the simplest living organisms do this, but usually over short distances across the DNA sequence, with the on/off switch typically right next to a gene. This basic form of genomic regulation is probably as old as life on Earth. https://phys.org/news/2025-05-jellies-reveal-ancient-animal-genome.html Evolution Wed, 07 May 2025 11:00:06 EDT news665826301 Dallas-based biotech company Colossal has announced the birth of three pups bearing the DNA signatures of dire wolves, an iconic predator last seen roaming North America over 10,000 years ago. https://phys.org/news/2025-04-dire-wolf-feat-genetic-reversal.html Plants & Animals Wed, 09 Apr 2025 13:40:03 EDT news663424245 Neanderthals and humans likely mixed and mingled during a narrow time frame 45,000 years ago, scientists reported Thursday. https://phys.org/news/2024-12-ancient-genes-humans-neanderthals-mingled.html Archaeology Sun, 15 Dec 2024 10:40:01 EST news653240257 Leveraging a unique statistical analysis and applying it to ancient DNA extracted from human skeletal remains, a team of researchers from The University of Texas at Austin and the University of California, Los Angeles has revealed new insights into how ancient Europeans adapted to their environments over 7,000 years of European history. The study was published last week in the journal Nature Communications. https://phys.org/news/2024-11-ancient-dna-early-europeans-dawn.html Evolution Tue, 19 Nov 2024 16:46:04 EST news651257162 Two common ingredients in ordinary chewing gum—Arabic gum and lecithin—have been found to help improve the overall health of tilapia, helping these fish survive better even in cold climates. This discovery paves the way for raising tilapia for food outside of the tropical regions where they are commonly farmed. https://phys.org/news/2024-09-ingredients-gum-tilapia-survive-cold.html Plants & Animals Wed, 25 Sep 2024 13:08:38 EDT news646488516 The African turquoise killifish lives in ephemeral ponds in Zimbabwe and Mozambique. To survive the annual dry season, the fish's embryos enter a state of extreme suspended animation or "diapause" for approximately 8 months. https://phys.org/news/2024-05-killifish-embryos-animation-survive-months.html Plants & Animals Tue, 28 May 2024 11:00:02 EDT news636021902 In a new review paper, Carlo Maley and Arizona State University colleagues describe cell-in-cell phenomena in which one cell engulfs and sometimes consumes another. The study shows that cases of this behavior, including cell cannibalism, are widespread across the tree of life. https://phys.org/news/2024-05-widespread-cell-cannibalism-phenomena-tree.html Evolution Tue, 21 May 2024 15:31:56 EDT news635524310 You probably don't think about plant roots all that much—they're hidden underground after all. Yet they're continually changing the shape of the world. This process happens in your garden, where plants use invisible mechanisms for their never-ending growth. https://phys.org/news/2024-01-roots-mysteriously-pulsate-dont.html Plants & Animals Wed, 10 Jan 2024 13:00:01 EST news624113830 Ancient DNA helps explain why northern Europeans have a higher risk of multiple sclerosis than other ancestries: It's a genetic legacy of horseback-riding cattle herders who swept into the region about 5,000 years ago. https://phys.org/news/2024-01-ancient-human-dna-hints-multiple.html Molecular & Computational biology Wed, 10 Jan 2024 12:36:26 EST news624112580 To carry out all of life's functions, proteins must be produced from instructions carried by genes within DNA and delivered to the cell's protein-making machinery by messenger RNA. https://phys.org/news/2023-11-scientists-reveal-rna-spliced.html Cell & Microbiology Fri, 24 Nov 2023 11:21:03 EST news620047261 The dubious winners of the agricultural revolution, by sheer numbers, are obvious. Living in the world today are 30 billion chickens, 1 billion cows and almost 800 million pigs. https://phys.org/news/2023-06-ancient-chickens-cows-pigs-secrets.html Paleontology & Fossils Thu, 29 Jun 2023 14:52:04 EDT news607269122 Have you ever had a bad case of jet lag? That horrible feeling when you get off a long haul flight and your body is telling you it's time to go to sleep, but the outside world is telling you it's time for breakfast? That's the biological effects of your inner body clock, also known as your circadian clock. https://phys.org/news/2023-06-body-clocks-food-grown.html Molecular & Computational biology Wed, 07 Jun 2023 13:24:04 EDT news605363041 Microorganisms—in particular bacteria—are skillful chemists that can produce an impressive diversity of chemical compounds known as natural products. These metabolites provide the microbes major evolutionary advantages, such as allowing them to interact with one another or their environment and helping defend against different threats. Because of the diverse functions bacterial natural products have, many have been used as medical treatments such as antibiotics and anti-cancer drugs. https://phys.org/news/2023-05-reconstructing-ancient-bacterial-genomes-revive.html Cell & Microbiology Sat, 06 May 2023 05:20:01 EDT news602500386 When early Stone Age farmers first moved into Europe from the Near East about 8,000 years ago, they met and began mixing with the existing hunter-gatherer populations. Now genome-wide studies of hundreds of ancient genomes from this period show more hunter-gatherer ancestry in adaptive-immunity genes in the mixed population than would be expected by chance. https://phys.org/news/2023-03-hunter-gatherer-genes-early-european-farmers.html Evolution Thu, 23 Mar 2023 11:20:45 EDT news598789242 A new study is providing an enhanced look at the intertwined evolutionary histories of polar bears and brown bears. https://phys.org/news/2022-06-species-tangled-history-polar-brown.html Plants & Animals Mon, 06 Jun 2022 15:00:05 EDT news573730023 Popular belief has been that small dogs, such as Pomeranians and Chihuahuas, exist because once dogs were domesticated, humans wanted small, cute companions. But in the journal Current Biology on January 27, researchers at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) identify a genetic mutation in a growth hormone-regulating gene that corresponds to small body size in dogs that was present in wolves over 50,000 years ago, long before domestication. https://phys.org/news/2022-01-gene-mutation-dogs-small-ancient.html Evolution Thu, 27 Jan 2022 11:00:15 EST news562490683 Ancient genes that predate the last Ice Age may be the key to survival, at least if you are a dolphin, according to new research led by the University of St Andrews. https://phys.org/news/2021-10-ancient-genes-vital-dolphin-survival.html Evolution Fri, 29 Oct 2021 08:40:41 EDT news554715637 Faba beans have been an excellent source of food protein since pre-historic times, but about 5% of people can't eat them. Now, an international team of researchers has identified the gene responsible for the production of vicine and convicine, which are harmful to these people. https://phys.org/news/2021-07-potential-faba-beans-rich-protein.html Plants & Animals Tue, 06 Jul 2021 12:36:09 EDT news544793765 An international team of researchers has found evidence that suggests wild relatives of domestic goats passed on a gene to their domesticated relatives that boosts their pathogen resistance. In their paper published in the journal Science Advances, the group describes their study of goat genetic history and what they learned from it. https://phys.org/news/2020-05-genetic-domestic-goats-pathogen-resistant-gene.html Plants & Animals Thu, 21 May 2020 10:10:05 EDT news509274025 Cereals from the Fertile Crescent and broomcorn millet from northern China spread across the ancient world, integrating into complex farming systems that used crop-rotation cycles enabled by the different ecological regions of origin. The resulting productivity allowed for demographic expansions and imperial formation in Europe and Asia. In this study, an international, interdisciplinary team of scientists illustrate that people moved these crops across Eurasia earlier than previously realized, adapting cultivation methods for harsh agricultural environments. https://phys.org/news/2020-02-year-old-grains-eastern-altai-mountains.html Archaeology Fri, 14 Feb 2020 13:36:57 EST news500909806 Around 4 billion years ago there lived a microbe called LUCA: the Last Universal Common Ancestor. There is evidence that it could have lived a somewhat 'alien' lifestyle, hidden away deep underground in iron-sulfur rich hydrothermal vents. Anaerobic and autotrophic, it didn't breathe air and made its own food from the dark, metal-rich environment around it. Its metabolism depended upon hydrogen, carbon dioxide and nitrogen, turning them into organic compounds such as ammonia. Most remarkable of all, this little microbe was the beginning of a long lineage that encapsulates all life on Earth. https://phys.org/news/2018-12-luca-universal-common-ancestor.html Evolution Tue, 18 Dec 2018 09:10:01 EST news464346198 Scientists at New York University and the University of Chicago have created fruit flies carrying reconstructed ancient genes to reveal how ancient mutations drove major evolutionary changes in embryonic development—the impact of which we see today. https://phys.org/news/2018-10-scientists-future-flies-ancient-genes.html Biotechnology Tue, 09 Oct 2018 13:42:05 EDT news458311316 A new study finds that viruses share some genes exclusively with cells that are not their hosts. The study, reported in the journal Frontiers in Microbiology, adds to the evidence that viruses swap genes with a variety of cellular organisms and are agents of diversity, researchers say. https://phys.org/news/2017-12-viruses-genes-tree-life.html Cell & Microbiology Wed, 06 Dec 2017 12:34:38 EST news431786069 Researchers at the M.M. Shemyakin and Yu.A. Ovchinnikov Institute of Bioorganic Chemistry of the Russian Academy of Sciences have collaborated with their colleagues from the A.N. Severtsova Institute of Ecology and Evolution in groundbreaking research work in which they discovered the homeobox gene Anf / Hesx1 in lampreys. It is the most ancient gene in modern vertebrates. The research findings that they published in Scientific Reports support the hypothesis that the appearance of this gene in vertebrates created the conditions necessary for the emergence of the telencephalon. https://phys.org/news/2017-01-lamprey-gene-scientists-human-brain.html Evolution Wed, 11 Jan 2017 06:08:11 EST news403337282