A stick insect in Borneo: variation and natural selection has resulted in insects with the astonishing ability to mimic features in their natural environment.
Shutterstock
In this age of the pseudo-factual, its more important than ever to acquaint ourselves with the foundations of the scientific tradition, such as Darwin’s Origin of Species.
The short answer is no. An individual of one species cannot, during its lifetime, turn into another species. But your question helps us think about life, evolution and what it means to be human.
Thirty years after the Supreme Court ruled that creationism cannot be required in schools, ‘creation science’ is still taught in some schools. What are the implications for climate education?
Children gather around a fossil skull at a South African museum.
EPA/Jon Hrusa
As an intellectual history of the disciplines of paleontology and paleoanthropology, Kuljan’s book is especially adept at narrating the interwoven connections between science and power.
Angustoniscus amieuensis, a New Caledonian cockroach that lives in the moist forests of the island.
P.Grandcolas
The theory that New Caledonia was a piece of land that separated from the ancient supercontinent of Gondwana was a seductive one. But then a cockroach rose up to challenge it.
Africa has one of the world’s richest fossil records, and evidence suggests that amateurs collected really important fossils long before professionals arrived on the scene.
Epigenetics is consistent with the theory of evolution – in fact, Darwin predicted that tiny parcels might somehow provide a flow of information from experience to inheritance.
House Speaker Paul Ryan announced March 24 that he was pulling his proposed health care bill from consideration.
Scott Applewhite/AP
The U.S. has been arguing about health care for decades. Critics have argued that insurance for all is a sign of weakness or even Communist. Here’s a look at how the thinking has evolved – or not.
People have camped in the long grass since colonisation. From this perspective, bans on the practice are a denial of Indigenous agency, culture and rights to country.
Photo: K. Pollard
In contrast to perceptions of other homeless people sleeping rough, Darwin’s “long-grassers” are applying a long cultural tradition to deal with the situation in which they find themselves.
‘Dandy philosopher’, Sir Humphry Davy.
Thomas Phillips
Victorian attitudes influenced what scientists thought they were observing about sexual behaviors in the animal world. But modern techniques reveal the myth for what it is.
Managing Director, Triple Helix Consulting; Chief Executive Officer, Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research; Professorial Fellow, ANU Fenner School for the Environment and Society, Australian National University