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Evolution

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Should Evolution Treat Our Microbes as Part of Us?

November 20, 2018

How does evolution select the fittest “individuals” when they are ecosystems made up of hosts and their microbiomes? Biologist debate the need to revise theories.

Solution: ‘How Equality and Inequality Shape Birds and Bees’

November 9, 2018

Puzzle solvers explored how evolution may have used negative and positive control mechanisms to shape the conflicting parental functions of reproduction and child rearing.

Theorists Debate How ‘Neutral’ Evolution Really Is

November 8, 2018

For 50 years, evolutionary theory has emphasized the importance of neutral mutations rather than adaptive ones at the level of DNA. Real genomic data challenges that assumption.

How Equality and Inequality Shape the Birds and the Bees

October 17, 2018

Two dynamic, seemingly opposing forces likely played an important role in the evolution of reproduction and child rearing in social animals like bees and humans.

‘Broadband’ Networks of Viruses May Help Bacteria Evolve Faster

October 16, 2018

A newly discovered mechanism may enable viruses to shuttle genes between bacteria 1,000 times as often as was thought — making them a major force in those cells’ evolution.

Three Biochemists Win Chemistry Nobel for Directing Evolution

October 3, 2018

By using the power of evolution to solve practical problems, three researchers opened new avenues to chemical discovery.

World’s Simplest Animal Reveals Hidden Diversity

September 12, 2018

The first animal genus defined purely by genetic characters represents a new era for the sorting and naming of animals.

Solution: ‘Evolutionary Math and Just-So Stories’

September 7, 2018

How much stock should we put in mathematical models of evolution that have not been validated by rigorous empirical data?

DNA Analysis Reveals a Genus of Plants Hiding in Plain Sight

September 4, 2018

Gene-sequence data is changing the way that botanists think about their classification schemes. A recent name-change for a common houseplant resulted from the discovery that it belonged in an overlooked genus.

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