Researchers at Plymouth University have found that polychaete worms living in acidified waters exhibit a tendency to nurture their offspring to a greater extent than those in more regular conditions. The polychaete worms in question live around volcanic vents in the Mediterranean. They grow and develop their eggs within the protection of the family unit […]
When we type or perform other precise tasks, our brains and muscles usually work together effortlessly. But when a neurological disease or spinal cord injury severs the connection between the brain and limbs, once-easy motions become difficult or impossible. In recent years researchers have sought to give people suffering from injury or disease some restored […]
New research from The University of Texas at Austin sheds light on today’s standards of beauty, attributing modern men’s preferences for women with a curvy backside to prehistoric influences. Specifically, the woman’s ability to better support, provide for, and carry out multiple pregnancies. The study, published in Evolution and Human Behavior, investigated men’s mate preference […]
The molecular machines that copy DNA in a living cell are fast and accurate at pairing up the correct bases – G with C and A with T – into each new double helix. They work by recognizing the shape of the right base pair combinations, and discarding those – such as a G and […]
Back in 2004, the excavation of unusual skeletal remains in Liang Bua cave on the island of Flores yielded what the discoverers claimed was “the most important find in human evolution for 100 years.” But Homo floresiensis (nicknamed the hobbit) may not be a new human species at all, say the authors of a new […]
Re-examination of a sparrow-sized fossil from China has led researchers to challengethe commonly held belief that birds evolved from ground-dwelling dinosaurs that gained the ability to fly. Researchers Stephen Czerkas of the Dinosaur Museum in Utah, and Alan Feduccia of the University of North Carolina, say that the birdlike fossil is actually not a dinosaur, […]
A controversial new paper from the University of Utah contends that human faces have evolved over time to minimize injury from punches to the face during fights. The new theory, detailed in the journalBiological Reviews, presents an alternative view to the long-held hypothesis that the robustness of our faces resulted largely from the need to […]
A new study published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciencesappears to confirm a theory that the evolution of sharp vision in our ancestors was in part driven by the threat of snakes. Lynne Isbell, a professor of anthropology at the University of California, Davis, originally put forward the theory in her […]
Why don’t chimpanzees, our closest primate cousins, have musical ability? Scientists at örebro University in Sweden hypothesize that our musical ability developed only after we had begun to walk upright. Writing in the journal Animal Cognition, researcher Matz Larsson suggests that our musicality stems from the need to deal with the disturbing sounds that are […]
Gear mechanisms, previously thought to only exist in man-made machines, have also evolved in nature, according to scientists who say they have made the first observation of mechanical gearing in a biological structure. The gears were identified in the hind-leg of juvenile Issus leafhoppers and they bear a remarkable resemblance to the cogs found on […]
