Spiders Can Cross Oceans
May 31, 2012
Why did the spider cross the ocean? To colonize the Old World after it "originated" in the New World.
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Ready, Aim, Flower
May 26, 2012
How does a plant know the time to flower? A new study describes a process involving genes, sunlight sensors, switches, clocks, feedback loops and messages.
Written in Ink: No Evolution
May 21, 2012
An ink sac from a fossilized Jurassic cephalopod said to be 160 million years old looks identical to those from living cuttlefish.
Animal Sin: What Does It Imply?
May 20, 2012
Some animals commit cruel or disgusting acts humans would consider immoral. What does this mean?
Beak Careful: Variation May Be Non-Darwinian
May 19, 2012
Finch beaks loom large in classical Darwinian theory, but two examples of mouth parts in very different animals show that dramatic variations can be achieved quickly without the slow and gradual accumulation of small changes Darwin envisaged.
Butterfly Mimics Don't Evolve; They Share
May 16, 2012
A non-evolutionary explanation has been found for a classic evolutionary showpiece: mimicry in butterflies.
Improbable Ape Speaks Randomly
May 15, 2012
It's not uncharitable to call someone an ape when he calls himself that.
From Toxin to Medicine
May 10, 2012
Botulinum toxin (botox) is now big business in health and fashion, but few may remember it derives from one of the deadliest substances known in nature. Other examples show that some forms of "natural evil" can be seen in a different light.
Evolution for Men and Women
May 8, 2012
Two recent entries in the evolution literature have application to one sex or the other.
Follow the Leader: Plants and Animals
May 7, 2012
Need solutions to engineering problems? Look no further than the plants and animals around you. That's what more and more scientists are doing.
Coelacanth: Survival of the Dullest
May 5, 2012
A new fossil species of coelacanth was discovered in Canada. Scientists think from its tail fin shape that it was a fast swimmer–perhaps a hunter. Sadly, it was a "spectacular failure" in evolution. The luck of the evolutionary draw went to today's slow-moving, docile species.
Animals Have Biological GPS
April 30, 2012
Global Positioning System (GPS): that's a function. Maintaining a suite of satellites is one method for achieving the function. But there are other ways to figure out where in the world you are, and two very different animals show the way – naturally – using Earth's global magnetic field.
How the Tiger Got Its Stripes: Dunno
April 28, 2012
A leading hypothesis for morphogenesis (pattern formation, such as tiger stripes) has been shown to be oversimplified. Whatever gave a tiger its stripes is more complicated than developmental biologists thought.
Questioning the Dino-Bird Hypothesis
April 27, 2012
The scientific consensus has pretty much declared it a fact of natural history that birds evolved from dinosaurs. One evolutionary professor remains a gadfly, though. He contests the evidence on which the hypothesis is based, and also believes his maverick position is growing.
Paradigm Shift: Impact Didn't Kill Dinosaurs
April 24, 2012
A new study casts doubt on whether asteroid impacts led to extinctions. It's based on re-interpreting geological evidence used to identify impacts. This finding, if sustained, would undermine the theory that an impact killed off the dinosaurs and a later impact led to the extinction of many large mammals. Even more significant, an overturn of the impact hypothesis would illustrate that scientists are capable of going off on wrong tangents for decades.