Feature:

Article ID: 717576

When Earth's species were rapidly diversifying nearly 500 million years ago, that evolution was driven by complex factors including global cooling, more oxygen in the atmosphere, and more nutrients in the oceans.

Article ID: 717460

Article ID: 717093

Scientists have discovered that the building blocks of proteins can stabilize cell membranes. This finding may explain how the first cells emerged from the primordial soup billions of years ago: Protein building blocks could have stabilized membranes against salt and ions present in ancient oceans.

Article ID: 717305

Biologists have developed the first system for determining gene expression based on machine learning. Considered a type of genetic Rosetta Stone for biologists, the new method leverages algorithms trained on a set of known plant genes to determine a species-wide set of transcribed genes, or “expressome,” then creates an atlas of expressible genes. The method carries implications across biology, from drug discovery to plant breeding to evolution.

Article ID: 717346

The largest study ever conducted of its kind has identified where and how to save coral reef communities in the Indo-Pacific, according to an international group of scientists from WCS (Wildlife Conservation Society) and other conservation NGOs, government agencies, and universities. The study outlines three viable strategies that can be quickly enacted to help save coral reefs that are threatened by climate change and human impacts.

Article ID: 717047

A genetic mutation that slowed down the development of the prefrontal cortex (PFC) in two or more children may have triggered a cascade of events leading to acquisition of recursive language and modern imagination 70,000 years ago.

Article ID: 716953

Princeton biologists reverse engineer the microtubules that make up cell walls and spindles

Article ID: 716946

The arrival of humans in New Zealand, some 700 years ago, triggered a wave of extinction among native bird species. Many more species are currently under threat. Recent calculations by scientists from the University of Groningen in the Netherlands and Massey University in New Zealand show that it would take at least 50 million years of evolution to restore the biodiversity that has been lost. Their results were published on 5 August in the journal Current Biology.

Article ID: 716913

One of the most exciting discoveries in genome research was that the last common ancestor of all multicellular animals - which lived about 600 million years ago - already possessed an extremely complex genome. Many of the ancestral genes can still be found in modern day species (e.g., human). However, it has long been unclear whether the arrangement of these genes in the genome also had a certain function. In a recent study in Nature Ecology and Evolution, the biologists led by Oleg Simakov and Ulrich Technau show that not only individual genes but also these gene arrangements in the genome have played a key role in the course of animal evolution.

Article ID: 716908

A long-term study of western gorillas in Gabon has revealed an unexpected behavior: they use their teeth to crack open and eat nuts. New research by Adam van Casteren, lecturer in biological anthropology in Arts & Sciences, may have important implications for the way researchers predict the diet of human ancestors based on the shape of their teeth.