Religious teachers can feel uncomfortable explaining the science of evolution to their pupils.
Shutterstock
Many South African teachers don’t accept the theory of evolution. They feel deeply conflicted when they have to teach it to their pupils as part of the life sciences curriculum.
The final of the RoboCup simulation, with Gliders2016 (Australia) defeating HELIOS2016 (Japan) 2:1.
Mikhail Prokopenko
We drew inspiration from nature’s response to complexity to help program the winning team in this year’s RoboCup Simulation League.
Cancer’s development and progression represent an evolutionary process.
from shutterstock.com
Humans can more easily tolerate tumours in large or paired organs than in small, critical ones. This could be why the latter have evolved more cancer-fighting mechanisms.
A living coucal from South Africa, whose huge prehistoric relatives lived on the Nullarbor.
Pascal Bernadin
The Nullarbor is an arid, treeless expanse today. But several hundred thousand years ago it was home to a menagerie of species, including two newly discovered giant cuckoo-like birds.
There’s a difference in the sex chromosomes between various mammals, such as the platypus compared to humans.
Flickr/Darren Puttock
How new species are created is at the core of the theory of evolution. Mammals may be a good example of how sex chromosome change drove major groups apart.
Smithsonian's National Zoo/flickr
Our planet’s huge range of environments has led some animals to evolve some bizarre but very useful features.
The Australian lungfish has a bigger brain than you might think.
Alice Clement
To understand how some creatures evolved, you need to see how their brain developed over millions of years. That’s now possible thanks to some clever use of scanning technology.
DiegoMariottini / shutterstock
Islands are very special when it comes to quirks of evolution.
NASA/NOAA
Human activity doesn’t just reduce biodiversity – new research explores how we are continually creating new species and ecosystems, too.
Excalibur Media
A lot of people thought America’s religious right was losing its mojo – but it’s still got the wherewithal to build a $172m ark.
Playing ‘Spore’ is a good way to explore evolution.
'Spore' screenshot
Many digital games claiming to simulate evolution are inaccurate. These errors can undermine the games’ potential educational benefits.
Some of the Earth’s fault lines between tectonic plates in the East Asia region.
Shutterstock /Mopic
Earth is the only planet in our solar system with both plate tectonics and life. Is there a connection?
Mammals like otters use their whiskers to orientate themselves – just like their pre-mammalian ancestors did.
Peter Trimming/Flickr
A tiny pit on mammal-like animals’ snouts has revealed a great deal about how mammalian hair originated.
An anaconda peers above and below the water. Did snakes evolve on land or underwater?
Michael Lee (Flinders University & South Australian Museum)
One of the enduring controversies in evolution is why snakes evolved their long, limbless bodies. A new study suggests snakes may have lost their legs at sea, before crawling ashore.
Early mammal Purgatorius unio
Nobu Tamura
New research reveals that mammals didn’t wait for the dinosaurs to die out before starting their rapid spread.
Fire significantly added to our ability to change the world.
Fire image from www.shutterstock.com
The level of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is rising faster than at any point in the past 55 million years.
from www.shutterstock.com
New research shows that street lighting changes the activity of moths, and is likely to disrupt nocturnal pollination.
sumikophoto / shutterstock
Transport, climate change and environmental destruction mean all sorts of species are bumping into each other for the first time.
Many can identify with the phenomenon of feeling a thrill – followed by a chill – when listening to a particularly moving piece of music.
'Pink' via www.shutterstock.com
When seeing or hearing something poignant, many get the chills. But about one-third of the population doesn’t feel this sensation.
The “Roman” nose, such as the Colossus of Constantine (from c. 312–315 AD), has been a target of both admiration and abuse.
Jean-Christophe BENOIST/wikimedia
The genes controlling nose shape can reveal a lot about our evolutionary history.