What's up in
Evolution
Latest Articles
Solution: ‘A Ticking Evolutionary Clock’
How to calculate when a gene’s rate of evolution will slow to a crawl.
A Ticking Evolutionary Clock
How quickly will a gene’s rate of evolution slow to a crawl?
Evolution Runs Faster on Short Timescales
Examine evolution over the course of years or centuries, and you’ll find that it progresses much more quickly than it does over geologic time.
Why Did Life Move to Land? For the View
The ancient creatures who first crawled onto land may have been lured by the informational benefit that comes from seeing through air.
How Life (and Death) Spring From Disorder
Life was long thought to obey its own set of rules. But as simple systems show signs of lifelike behavior, scientists are arguing about whether this apparent complexity is all a consequence of thermodynamics.
Droplets That ‘Come to Life’
Life might have originated in droplets that behave surprisingly like living cells.
Dividing Droplets Could Explain Life’s Origin
Researchers have discovered that simple “chemically active” droplets grow to the size of cells and spontaneously divide, suggesting they might have evolved into the first living cells.
Finding the Actions That Alter Evolution
The biologist Marcus Feldman creates mathematical models that reveal how cultural traditions can affect the evolution of a species.
In the Deep, Clues to How Life Makes Light
Bioluminescent organisms have evolved dozens of times over the course of life’s history. Recent studies are narrowing in on the complicated biochemistry needed to illuminate the dark.