A study about mutations that might confer benefit to high-altitude Sherpas is being announced as an example of evolution, but variation within species is not Darwinian evolution.
"Convergent evolution" is the term given to similar designs that shouldn't be related. Recent widespread examples threaten to make the term lose any coherence it might have had
Induced pluripotent stem cells allow researchers to ethically create any cell type from an adult cell, raising hopes for regenerative medicine. Eyebrows started to raise recently, though, when labs grew brains with them and turned others into sperm and egg cells.
A humble, rare ant might help humans learn how to communicate better with networks. It's just one of many ways nature is inspiring technology that approaches perfection.
New genetic studies confirm the existence of a "Y-Chromosome Adam" and "Mitochondrial Eve" but, contrary to earlier analyses, place them in the same time frame.
Epigenetics has become a hot topic in biology. There are players "above DNA"– some heritable – that may be more important than the genetic code itself.
Within the factories of molecular machines that run living cells, including those in the human body, processes occur non-stop that are designed to meet every contingency. Here are just a few examples.
As scientists continue to find incredible diversity in the smallest of organisms, realizations of all we've been missing are changing conceptions of life.
The race continues between scientists desperately seeking a rationale for harvesting human embryos and those who say, having adult stem cells and iPS cells available, they are unnecessary – and their use is unethical.
News sites are celebrating a "spectacular" new record for fossil DNA, claiming horse genes found in permafrost are 700,000 years old, placing the common ancestor two million years earlier than thought.
An intelligent design advocate is publishing a book this month that uses the Cambrian Explosion as evidence against Darwinism and for I.D. Two major evolutionary paleontologists have also published a book about the issue.