The movement of genetic material between organisms that aren't directly related is a significant driver of evolution, especially among single-celled organisms like bacteria and archaea. A team led by ...

When it comes to choosing a partner, some species prefer males that stand out from the crowd. Evolutionary biologists call the resulting process negative frequency-dependent selection. It means that a ...

Directed evolution is a laboratory method that speeds up protein mutations to help create novel cancer and neurodegenerative disorder therapies. In a new study, scientists detail a method called ...

Synthetic biology aims to apply engineering principles and the design process to create biological systems with new and desired functionalities 1. While it is seen by many as a young field that ...

An ancient lineage of cyanobacteria is helping biologists uncover an early evolutionary stage of the mind-boggling process that turns light into life.

Why does natural selection appear to happen slowly on long timescales and quickly on short ones? A multigenerational study of four lizard species addresses biology’s “paradox of stasis.” James Stroud ...

We humans have long viewed ourselves as the pinnacle of evolution. People label other species as “primitive” or “ancient” and use terms like “higher” and “lower” animals. This anthropocentric ...

Evolution keeps making crabs. In fact, it's happened so often that there's a special scientific term for an organism turning crab-like:... Evolution keeps making crabs. We asked a scientist why ...

This week, we continue our look at evolutionary theories of the origin of life and the extreme challenges they face. One of the major hurdles concerns the amount of time ...