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Articles on Natural selection

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A great hammerhead shark’s two eyes can be 3 feet apart on opposite sides of its skull. Ken Kiefer 2/Image Source via Getty Images

Why do hammerhead sharks have hammer-shaped heads?

The first hammerhead shark was likely the result of a genetic deformity. A biologist explains how shark DNA reveals hammerheads’ history.
Identifying the difference between normal genetic variation and disease-causing mutations can sometimes be difficult. Andrii Yalanskyi/iStock via Getty Images Plus

Genetic mutations can be benign or cancerous – a new method to differentiate between them could lead to better treatments

Tumors contain thousands of genetic changes, but only a few are actually cancer-causing. A quicker way to identify these driver mutations could lead to more targeted cancer treatments.
The huge number of active coronavirus infections offers plenty of opportunity for mutations to occur and new variants to arise. Eoneren/E+ via Getty Images

Massive numbers of new COVID–19 infections, not vaccines, are the main driver of new coronavirus variants

When the coronavirus copies itself, there is a chance its RNA will mutate. But new variants must jump from one host to another, and the more infections there are, the better chance this will happen.
W.E.B. Du Bois in his office at The Crisis in New York City, 1925. W. E. B. Du Bois Papers (MS 312). Special Collections and University Archives, University of Massachusetts Amherst Libraries

W.E.B. Du Bois embraced science to fight racism as editor of NAACP’s magazine The Crisis

As editor of the magazine for 24 years, Du Bois featured articles about biology, evolution, archaeology in Africa and more to refute the rampant scientific racism of the early 20th century.
We propose same-sex attraction evolved to allow greater social integration and stronger same-sex social bonds. SHUTTERSTOCK

Homosexuality may have evolved for social, not sexual reasons

Scientists don’t ask how some people evolved to be tall. In the same way, asking how homosexuality evolved is the wrong question. We need to ask how human sexuality evolved in all its forms.
For millennia, theologians taught that the sole purpose of sex was reproductive. Now, almost everyone agrees that sex has many purposes – and benefits. Dean Drobot/Shutterstock.com

What is sex really for?

The purpose of sex may seem obvious, but it has perplexed and intrigued a variety of great minds for millennia.
Darwin wondered: what if species change over time in response to their environment? Shutterstock

Curious Kids: how do scientists know evolution is real?

In science, we look at the evidence and try to find the theory that best explains it. And that’s what happened when it came to figuring out evolution.
Evolution has no final endpoint in mind. Uncle Leo/Shutterstock.com

Evolution doesn’t proceed in a straight line – so why draw it that way?

If you go by editorial cartoons and T-shirts, you might have the impression that evolution proceeds as an orderly march toward a preordained finish line. But that’s not right at all.

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