Tag: evolution
Why do scientists care about worms?
Helen Robertson, University of Chicago
I traveled to a marine research station on a picturesque Swedish fjord many times over the four years I worked...
When did we become fully human? What fossils and DNA tell...
Nick Longrich, University of Bath
When did something like us first appear on the planet? It turns out there’s remarkably little agreement on this question....
Plants might be able to tell us about the location of...
Neal Stewart, University of Tennessee
The notion of plants talking to us about dead people sounds like a bad horror movie. But that’s the theme...
Crop pathogens are more adaptable than previously thought
Antonis Rokas, Vanderbilt University
The Research Brief is a short take about interesting academic work.
The big idea
Many of the pathogens threatening the world’s major crops...
Social distancing works – just ask lobsters, ants and vampire bats
Dana Hawley, Virginia Tech and Julia Buck, University of North Carolina Wilmington
Social distancing to combat COVID-19 is profoundly impacting society, leaving many people wondering...
Ancient bird skull found in amber was tiny predator in the...
Lars Schmitz, Claremont McKenna College and Jingmai Kathleen O'Connor, Chinese Academy of Sciences
In 2016, our colleague Xing Lida held up a small piece of...
Modern tomatoes are very different from their wild ancestors – and...
Hamid Razifard, University of Massachusetts Amherst and Ana Caicedo, University of Massachusetts Amherst
The Research Brief is a short take on interesting academic work.
The Big...
Why are whales big, but not bigger?
Matthew Savoca, Stanford University; Jeremy Goldbogen, Stanford University, and Nicholas Pyenson, Smithsonian Institution
Both toothed and baleen (filter-feeding) whales are among the largest animals ever...