A new study at the University of Chicago has shown that elaborate protein structures accumulate over deep time even when they serve no purpose, because a universal biochemical property and the genetic code force natural selection ...
Evolution
Dec 9, 2020
3
4715
Everywhere we look in the natural world, there's evidence of natural selection: the resin armor of a lodgepole pine cone evolved to defend against seed-hungry birds and squirrels; the long neck of a giraffe was evolutionarily ...
Plants & Animals
Dec 3, 2020
1
188
There would be at least four times as many flightless bird species on Earth today if it were not for human influences, finds a study led by UCL researchers.The study, published in Science Advances, finds that flightlessness ...
Evolution
Dec 2, 2020
2
389
Human fingerprints have a self-regulating moisture mechanism that not only helps us to avoid dropping our smartphone, but could help scientists to develop better prosthetic limbs, robotic equipment and virtual reality environments, ...
Plants & Animals
Nov 30, 2020
0
287
Ultra-thin, super-absorbent and extraordinarily designed to detract attention, the wings of moths could hold the key for developing technological solutions to survive in a noisy world.
Plants & Animals
Nov 23, 2020
0
339
Viruses are tiny invaders that cause a wide range of diseases, from rabies to tomato spotted wilt virus and, most recently, COVID-19 in humans. But viruses can do more than elicit sickness—and not all viruses are tiny.
Evolution
Nov 18, 2020
7
166
The human ability to teach and our use of complex tools may have evolved together, according to new research.
Evolution
Nov 17, 2020
0
78
Three papers published November 11 in Nature present major advances in understanding the evolution of birds and mammals, made possible by new methods for comparing the genomes of hundreds of species.
Evolution
Nov 11, 2020
0
369
A new study led by paleontologists at the University of Washington and its Burke Museum of Natural History & Culture indicates that the earliest evidence of mammal social behavior goes back to the Age of Dinosaurs.
Plants & Animals
Nov 2, 2020
4
116
In the nearly two centuries since German physician Carl Wunderlich established 98.6°F (37 C) as the standard "normal" body temperature, it has been used by parents and doctors alike as the measure by which fevers—and often ...
Plants & Animals
Oct 28, 2020
11
580
