Is sex primarily a strategy against transmissible cancer?

One of the greatest enigmas of evolutionary biology is that while sex is the dominant mode of reproduction among multicellular organisms, asexual reproduction appears much more efficient and less costly. However, in a study ...

Bonobo moms play an active role in helping their sons find a mate

Many social animals share child-rearing duties, but research publishing May 20 in the journal Current Biology finds that bonobo moms go the extra step and actually take action to ensure their sons will become fathers. From ...

Why biodiversity is key to our survival

Diversity, be it genetic, morphological, behavioural or ecological, is at the heart of many controversies. It fascinates us or worries us, depending on the context. But what is biological diversity? How useful is it, how ...

Rodent with a human-like menstrual cycle found

(Phys.org)—A team of researchers working at Monash University in Australia has found an example of a rodent that has a human-like menstrual cycle. As the team notes in their paper uploaded to the preprint server bioRxiv, ...

Environmental hormones – tiny amounts, big effects

Empty nets and few species – environmental hormones are believed responsible for the diminishing numbers of fish. How damaging are these substances really, though? Studies that depict a complete picture of the lives of ...

Investigating mercury pollution in Indonesia

Professor Takanobu Inoue of Toyohashi Tech's Department of Architecture and Civil Engineering has been conducting field surveys of mercury poisoning in Indonesia for over a decade. His findings have serious implications ...

Fungal sex can generate new drug resistant, virulent strains

Though some might disagree, most biologists think the purpose of sex is to create diversity among offspring. Such diversity underpins evolution, enabling organisms to acquire new combinations of traits to adapt to their environment.

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