Biological adaptation is the evolutionary process through which heritable traits that enhance an organism’s fitness become more prevalent in a population over generations under specific environmental conditions. It operates primarily via natural selection acting on genetic variation, including mutations, recombination, and gene flow, and is constrained by developmental, genetic, and phylogenetic factors. Adaptations can be morphological, physiological, or behavioral and are typically characterized by increased survival or reproductive success in a given niche. The process is dynamic and context-dependent, such that traits advantageous in one environment may be neutral or deleterious in another, contributing to diversification and speciation.
It is a mystery that has puzzled scientists for years. How can the world's only winged mammals carry viruses that cause severe disease while rarely becoming seriously ill themselves?
Plants & Animals
Jul 29, 2026
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Ex-captive elephants released into the wild adapt well to wild environments, according to a study published July 29, 2026, in the journal PLOS One by Tenisha Roos and Tamara Eggeling of the Elephant Reintegration Trust of ...
Plants & Animals
Jul 29, 2026
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79
Scientists have long wondered whether loud, human-caused noise interferes with wild animals' cognition—their ability to think and learn—by causing stress, distraction or making it harder for them to focus. The results of ...
Plants & Animals
Jul 29, 2026
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Traditionally, public health programs have relied on chemicals for mosquito management, which may be why combating mosquitoes is becoming more difficult. Over time, insecticides trigger biochemical and genetic variations ...
Ecology
Jul 29, 2026
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33
Evolution is a fact of life. So much so that even the theory of evolution is evolving. Lately, a centuries-old discredited idea has been making a strong comeback. It helps us explain scientific observations that, according ...
Evolution
Jul 28, 2026
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205
New research from Costa Rica's Área de Conservación Guanacaste (ACG) suggests that tropical insects may be vulnerable to rising temperatures. The study, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, examined ...
Plants & Animals
Jul 28, 2026
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11
A research group led by Tetsuhiro Hatakeyama from the Earth-Life Science Institute (ELSI) at the Institute of Science Tokyo has revealed how a seemingly self-destructive survival strategy could persist in yeast for hundreds ...
Evolution
Jul 27, 2026
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8
The dangers of antibiotic overuse have become increasingly clear in recent decades. Excessive use accelerates the evolution of bacterial resistance to antibiotics, raising the alarming prospect of infections that no longer ...
Cell & Microbiology
Jul 27, 2026
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10
The way to make a plant grow more may be to take something away. Trimming a section off a plant gene raised rice harvests by up to 25% in new tests by University of Chicago scientists. The plants also showed a better tolerance ...
Biotechnology
Jul 27, 2026
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32
For more than a century, scientists have sought to reconstruct human evolution using diverse lines of evidence, including fossils, genetic variation across populations and ancient DNA. Building on these approaches, researchers ...
Evolution
Jul 24, 2026
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