Many insects rely on heritable bacterial endosymbionts for essential nutrients that they cannot get through their diet. A new study, published in Nature Communications, indicates that the genomes of these symbiotic bacteria ...
Neanderthals disappeared from the fossil record approximately 40,000 years ago. Their extinction was a gradual process over thousands of years, and theories as to why include competition with modern humans and rapid climate ...
Bacteria have evolved to adapt to all of Earth's most extreme conditions, from scorching heat to temperatures well below zero. Ice caves are just one of the environments hosting a variety of microorganisms that represent ...
Evolution
Feb 17, 2026
15
237
Creatures that can change from one form to another are a staple of science fiction: Think werewolves and Transformers. Nature, too, has its shapeshifters, such as dimorphic fungi. While scientists have known for some time ...
One of the greatest mysteries of our planet is how a soup of lifeless chemicals transformed into the first living cell. There are several competing theories about where this happened, from frozen polar ice to superheated ...
Dashiell Hammett mentioned Sam Spade's jutting chin in the opening sentence of his novel, "The Maltese Falcon." Spade's chin was among the facial features Hammett used to describe his fictional detective's appearance, but ...
Evolution
Feb 11, 2026
3
550
Life on Earth started in the oceans. Sometime around 475 million years ago, plants began making their way from the water onto the land, and it took another 100 million years for the first animals with backbones to join them. ...
Evolution
Feb 10, 2026
5
854
Rove beetles have evolved a neat trick to survive. They cloak themselves in ant pheromones, allowing them to enter and remain undetected within ant colonies. But it comes with a catch. Once a rove beetle lineage evolves this ...
In a series of tea party-like experiments, Johns Hopkins University researchers demonstrate for the first time that apes can use their imagination and play pretend, an ability thought to be uniquely human.
Plants & Animals
Feb 5, 2026
0
64
Humans' exposure to high temperature burn injuries may have played an important role in our evolutionary development, shaping how our bodies heal, fight infection, and sometimes fail under extreme injury, according to new ...
Evolution
Feb 4, 2026
2
1884
