Biology

By examining regions shared between some of nature's most variable genes, malaria researchers are piecing together an understanding of a deadly parasite.

Complex natural systems defy analysis using a standard mathematical toolkit, so one ecologist is throwing out the equations.

Only a few genetic changes were enough to change an ordinary stomach bug into the bacteria responsible for the plague.

The biologist Nancy Moran has spent a career investigating the surprising nature of symbiosis, a phenomenon in which two species can appear to merge into one.

Cellular clocks are almost everywhere. Clues to how they work are coming from the places they’re not.

A new understanding of viral swarms is helping researchers predict how viruses will evolve and where disease is likely to spread.

Emerging data suggests the seemingly impossible — that mysterious new genes arise from “junk” DNA.

Did the minerals on our planet arise in a predictable fashion, or did they result from chance events? The answers could eventually help scientists identify planets likely to harbor life.

A new technique for finding and characterizing microbes has boosted the number of known bacteria by almost 50 percent, revealing a hidden world all around us.