Emily Singer

Scientists hope that new genetic letters, created in the lab, will endow DNA with new powers.

The biologist Deborah Gordon has uncovered how ant colonies search efficiently without central organization, an insight that might improve computer networks.

By swapping ancient genes into modern E. coli, scientists hope to tease out the rules of evolution.

Modern birds emerged in a snap of evolutionary time through a series of simple genetic changes.

Genetically identical animals raised under similar conditions can make very different choices. These distinctions are helping researchers map the biological basis of individuality.

The largest evolutionary tree ever compiled leads researchers to conclude that chance mutation — not natural selection — drives the development of new species.

Life’s first epoch saw incredible advances — cells, metabolism and DNA, to name a few. Researchers are resurrecting ancient proteins to illuminate the biological dark ages.

The comb jelly, a primitive marine creature, is forcing scientists to rethink how animals got their start.

An infection sweeping through Australia’s struggling koala population provides an unprecedented opportunity to explore how retroviruses insert themselves into the genome.