Most animal groups adopted their shapes quickly but some kept evolving.
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Articles on Biology
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Born in Italy in 1909, Levi-Montalcini avoided being transported to Auschwitz as a young woman and rose to prominence as a neurobiologist. She was a co-recipient of the 1986 Nobel Prize for Medicine.
They hovered in the skies of the Earth 300 million years ago… The giant dragonflies will soon be the stars of the paleontology gallery of France’s Natural History Museum in Paris.
Was Darwin inspired by the tropical wildlife of his travels to discover natural selection? Actually, pigeons, worms and barnacles were far more prominent in his thinking.
New research on reversing ageing in human cells could be the first step to new anti-degenerative drugs.
Basic research can be easy to mock as pointless and wasteful of resources. But it’s very often the foundation for future innovation – even in ways the original scientists couldn’t have imagined.
Machine learning is changing the world in ways that we are just beginning to appreciate. But could it change the way we do science and the reasons why we do science?
Several giant terrestrial Plathelminth species have invaded France and its overseas territories, threatening biodiversity. Thanks to participatory science, the invasion is finally recognized.
Why you should consider a live-and-let-live policy with the spiders you encounter in your home.
CC BY-ND40.5 MB (download)
A podcast on intuition: from how it works in the body, to how to harness it, and the story of two scientists who followed a hunch – about quantum biology.
Do chimpanzee talk to each other? Scientists follow and record chimpanzees in the wild to find out – and to fill in details about how human language might have evolved.
Biologists are finding new evidence that these ocean invertebrate grazers don’t just ingest whatever they catch. They can actually be picky eaters – and their choices might influence ocean food webs.
New research shows just 1% of E. coli bacteria’s genetic mutations are lethal.
A core idea in molecular biology is that one gene codes for one protein. Now biologists have found an example of a gene that yields two forms of a protein – enabling it to evolve new functionality.
Some recent bad behaviour has been explained as being alpha but the scientist who coined the phrase discredits that theory. Instead, Prof. Sosteric suggests alphas are raised on toxic socialization.
Humans have long been trying differentiate themselves from the rest of the biological world. Is it because we’re superior, or just insecure?
CC BY-ND20.1 MB (download)
An audio version of an in depth article on the story of how the nerve agent used in an attack on former Russian spy Sergei Skripal was developed.
Some spiders produce silk than can actually be stronger than steel and 50 times as light.
Venus flytrap plants have ‘traps’ that snap shut on insect prey. But they also rely on insects for pollination. New research suggests how the plant avoids eating its allies.
Canada’s female scientists are superstars in their fields yet most Canadians have never heard of them. On International Day for Women in Science, it’s time to give them the recognition they deserve.
Top contributors
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Doctoral Student in Biochemistry, University of Washington
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Researcher, Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC)
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Biologist, University of Oxford
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Postdoctoral Fellow, EPFL – École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne – Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne
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Professor of Philosophy and Integrative Biology, The University of Texas at Austin
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Chercheur à l’Institut de systématique, évolution, biodiversité (ISYEB), Muséum national d’histoire naturelle (MNHN)
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Professor; Director, UWA Centre for Evolutionary Biology, The University of Western Australia
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Mark Elgar is a Friend of The Conversation.
Professor of Evolutionary Biology, The University of Melbourne
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Jenny Graves is a Friend of The Conversation.
Distinguished Professor of Genetics and Vice Chancellor's Fellow, La Trobe University
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Senior Lecturer in Molecular Biology, University of Sydney
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Professor, School of Biological Sciences, University of Bristol
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Principal Lecturer in Wildlife Conservation, Nottingham Trent University
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Team Leader, Species Interactions, Atlas of Living Australia, UNSW Sydney
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Senior Lecturer, Monash University
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Lecturer, Macquarie University
