Evolution

Our social voyeurism may have deep evolutionary roots

Traditional biology has long ignored nature’s sexual diversity—but evolution tells a far more complex story.

Other species exhibit capabilities that were once thought to be exclusive to Homo sapiens

China is having a fast-rising chikungunya outbreak in a place that has never had one before.

Ancient teeth found in Ethiopia belong to a never-before-seen species in the Australopithecus genus of human ancestors

Science communicator Hank Green explains how our species’ unique intelligence got us into this climate mess—and how it will help us solve it

The Haenyeo, an all-female group of divers on South Korea’s Jeju Island, spend much of their lives underwater without equipment—a “superpower” that may be written into their DNA

Reducing the copies of one gene in the bubonic plague bacterium, Yersinia pestis, made it less deadly but potentially more transmissible

Mounting evidence from genome studies indicates that, contrary to received wisdom, our species has undergone profound biological adaptation in its recent evolutionary past

Kosmos-482 crash-lands, physicists turn lead to gold and animals show some clever behaviors.

Pugs, Persian cats, and other smushed-face cats and dogs are more similar to one another than they are to the wild animals they evolved from

As 17-year cicadas emerge this spring, a zombifying fungus is waiting for them