The mating display of the male bird of paradise owes its optical extravagance to a background so black it is the envy of telescope and solar panel engineers, according to a new study published Jan. 9 in the journal Nature ...
Materials Science
Jan 10, 2018
1
401
Aging is a natural part of life, but that hasn't stopped people from embarking on efforts to stop the process.
Evolution
Oct 30, 2017
82
4820
The evolution of the amniotic egg—complete with membrane and shell—was key to vertebrates leaving the oceans and colonizing the land and air. Now, 360 million years later, bird eggs come in all shapes and sizes, from ...
Evolution
Jun 22, 2017
2
172
(Phys.org)—Over long spans, biodiversity is a fluid and shifting balance of species and influences. Species diversification occurs in response to a host of complex factors, both biotic and abiotic, and understanding them ...
What do you get when you mix theorists in computer science with evolutionary biologists? You get an algorithm to explain sex.
Evolution
Jun 16, 2014
3
0
The Burmese python's ability to ramp up its metabolism and enlarge its organs to swallow and digest prey whole can be traced to unusually rapid evolution and specialized adaptations of its genes and the way they work, an ...
Biotechnology
Dec 2, 2013
0
0
The question of how human societies evolve from small groups to the huge, anonymous and complex societies of today has been answered mathematically, accurately matching the historical record on the emergence of complex states ...
Mathematics
Sep 23, 2013
13
1
Darwin referred to the origin of species as "that mystery of mysteries," and even today, more than 150 years later, evolutionary biologists cannot fully explain how new animals and plants arise.
Plants & Animals
Sep 2, 2013
10
1
A newly discovered fossil reveals the evolutionary adaptations of a 165-million-year-old proto-mammal, providing evidence that traits such as hair and fur originated well before the rise of the first true mammals. The biological ...
Archaeology
Aug 7, 2013
1
2
An international team of researchers has decoded the genome of a creature whose evolutionary history is both enigmatic and illuminating: the African coelacanth. A sea-cave dwelling, five-foot long fish with limb-like fins, ...
Biotechnology
Apr 17, 2013
11
0
