Jonathan Losos, Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis
Natural selection changed just 13 genes to separate your Felix and Fluffy from their African wildcat ancestor.
For many people, trying to lose excess fat is very difficult without help. Effective treatment is available when obesity affects health.
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Despite the prevalent view that people with large bodies should simply eat less and move more, it’s nearly impossible to fight our genetic heritage or other factors that are not within our control.
Research shows that sleep deprivation impairs communication between brain regions and brain blood flow, damages brain wiring and makes a young brain look like an aged brain.
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Ancient humans chose to sleep less, which had evolutionary benefits. For modern humans, sleeping less is futile and detrimental, but fitness may be a powerful ally in today’s epidemic of sleep loss.
Invisible to the naked eye, the work of the wind often goes unnoticed. Yet, for millennia, this unseen force has shaped religion, trade, warfare, culture, science and more.
Male same-sex sexual behaviour was widespread in a population of rhesus macaques.
Sam Edwards
There’s no single reason many Asian animals spread to Australia but few went the other way – but climate, geography and the slow drift of tectonic plates all played a role.
There are areas of biology that may be considered optional at younger year levels, such as botany, entomology and marine ecosystems. Evolution is not one of these.
When fruit flies see other dead fruit flies, their life spans are cut short. Other species also undergo analogous physiological changes when seeing their dead.
Meerkats live in matriarchal groups.
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Take a moment to consider the natural beauty of mosses – and their history as some of the most intrepid explorers in Earth’s history.
Is this really what our Paleolithic ancestors ate? New data suggests prehistoric diets had a lot more overlap with our own than earlier studies estimated.
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The Paleo Diet is popular, but research has yet to substantiate its purported health benefits. As evolutionary anthropologists, here’s why we think it’s time to leave the Paleo Diet in the past.
The question of how difficult it is for life to emerge is interesting – not least because it can shed some light on the likelihood of finding life on other planets.