Biology

Despite swapping DNA through interbreeding, butterflies and other animals can maintain distinct species.

Bacteria may have helped single-celled organisms make the leap to multicellular animals.

Newly discovered patterns in evolution may help scientists make accurate short-term predictions.

Newly discovered specimens support a more ancient origin for viruses, perhaps all the way back to the origins of life.

An insight borrowed from computer science suggests that evolution values both fitness and diversity.

A new theory suggests that cooperation between a host and its microbes may be a significant evolutionary force.

Is the random noise inside a cell a nuisance, or have cells evolved ways to put it to work?

By comparing the genomes of social and solitary bees, scientists hope to uncover the basis for communal behavior.

Evidence from Southwestern deserts suggests that oxygen-breathing organisms arose on land rather than in the seas.