Biology

If highly repetitive gene-regulating sequences in DNA are easily lost, that may explain why some adaptations evolve quickly and repeatedly.

Among these cave insects, the females evolved to have penises — twice. The reasons challenge common assumptions about sex.

Biologists have demonstrated for the first time that a controversial genetic engineering technology works, with caveats, in mammals.

Emerging evidence suggests that the brain encodes abstract knowledge in the same way that it represents positions in space, which hints at a more universal theory of cognition.

Jellyfish didn’t need novel genes to take an evolutionary leap in complexity.

A primordial developmental toolkit shared by all vertebrates, and described by a theory of the mathematician Alan Turing, sets the growth pattern for all types of skin structures.

Biologists gained new insights into life’s genomically tumultuous past, viruses as crucial components of life, the hidden talents of complex cells and basic aspects of cognition and memory.

Throughout nature, throngs of relatively simple elements can self-organize into behaviors that seem unexpectedly complex. Scientists are beginning to understand why and how these phenomena emerge without a central organizing entity.

A report that a fish can pass the “mirror test” for self-awareness reignites debates about how to define and measure that elusive quality.