Evolution, as a scientific topic, encompasses the study of heritable change in populations of organisms over successive generations, driven primarily by mechanisms such as mutation, natural selection, genetic drift, gene flow, and recombination. It investigates how genetic variation arises and is differentially propagated, leading to adaptation, speciation, and macroevolutionary patterns observable in phylogenies and the fossil record. Research in this area integrates population genetics, comparative genomics, quantitative genetics, and developmental biology to elucidate processes shaping genetic architecture, fitness landscapes, and phenotypic diversity, as well as the tempo and mode of evolutionary change across different ecological and genomic contexts.
Climate change is rapidly altering our environment—and posing major challenges for many animal species. Whether they can adapt depends largely on their genetic diversity. An international study involving researchers from ...
Evolution
Oct 17, 2025
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36
A simple change in species composition can impact the course of evolution: A research team from the University of Bern and the University of British Columbia in Canada shows that the presence of just one other fish species ...
Evolution
Oct 15, 2025
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35
At a time when biodiversity is under severe pressure from human activities, understanding how evolution works is more important than ever. A new study about vole teeth, published in PNAS, reveals that evolution doesn't always ...
Evolution
Oct 10, 2025
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95
Many butterflies develop wing patterns that mimic other species to protect themselves from predators. While growing complex body parts like wings involves many genes, the difference between two versions of the same thing—like ...
Ecology
Oct 9, 2025
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27
Some colorful lizards and a mathematical formula from the finance sector have been used to build a new framework to model evolution.
Evolution
Oct 8, 2025
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140
Television nature programs and scientific papers tend to celebrate the perfection of evolved traits. But the father of evolution through natural selection, Charles Darwin, warned that evolution would produce quirks and "blunders" ...
Ecology
Oct 2, 2025
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23
For decades, scientists have known that bacteria can exchange genetic material, in a process called horizontal gene transfer. This allows bacteria to rapidly evolve new traits, such as antibiotic resistance. A new study, ...
Evolution
Sep 25, 2025
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26
A genomic analysis of over 1,200 people from across South Africa reveals how colonial-era European, Indigenous Khoe-San peoples, and enslaved people contributed to the modern-day gene pool in South Africa.
Molecular & Computational biology
Sep 23, 2025
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107
A scaling law relates the expected number of mutants to the total population size of cells in a spatially constrained but growing population, which could help clinicians predict when cancers or bacterial infections might ...
Evolution
Sep 23, 2025
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20
Through a collaboration between U.S. and Kenyan researchers and Turkana communities of northern Kenya, scientists have uncovered key genetic adaptations underlying survival in hot and dry environments, revealing how natural ...
Evolution
Sep 18, 2025
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