Tag: Evolutionary Biology

  • Nation & World

    What makes us human? It’s all in the hips

    Study shows how pelvis takes shape and what genes orchestrate the process.

    3 minutes
    Pelvis
  • Nation & World

    Before cancer kills, it cheats

    Evolutionary biologist Athena Aktipis of Arizona State University delivered a lecture titled “Why Cancer is Everywhere” at the Harvard Museum of Natural History.

    4 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Retracing Romer’s footsteps

    A Harvard team finds a rare fossil in Nova Scotia while retracing the footsteps of Alfred Romer, the paleontologist who identified a gap in the record from the period when animals first crawled out of the ocean and began to walk on four legs.

    4 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Key connection

    Scientists have long suggested that the best way to settle the debate about how phenotypic plasticity may be connected to evolution would be to identify a mechanism that controls both. Harvard researchers say they have discovered just such a mechanism in insulin signaling in fruit flies.

    5 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Touch, drag, learn

    Research by computer scientists, biologists, and cognitive psychologists at Harvard, Northwestern, Wellesley, and Tufts suggests that collaborative touch-screen games have value beyond play.

    4 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Making the World Smaller – Daniel Lieberman – Harvard Thinks Big

    Daniel Lieberman Professor of Human Evolutionary Biology

    1 minute
  • Nation & World

    Award-winning teaching

    Professor of Astronomy David Charbonneau and Professor of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology and Molecular and Cellular Biology Hopi Hoekstra have been named as the recipients of the inaugural Fannie Cox Prize for Excellence in Science Teaching.

    4 minutes
  • Nation & World

    What’s behind the predictably loopy gut

    Between conception and birth, the human gut grows more than two meters long, looping and coiling within the tiny abdomen. Within a given species, the developing vertebrate gut always loops into the same formation — however, until now, it has not been clear why.

    4 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Microbes to the rescue

    Study says microbes may consume far more gaseous waste from gulf oil spill than previously believed.

    3 minutes
  • Nation & World

    The lizard king

    Researcher Jonathan Losos devotedly studies the anole lizard, and has compiled decades of research into a new book.

    2 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Perfect landing

    New research suggests that barefoot running is far less stressful on feet than running in shoes, if runners learn how to alter their strides properly to reduce impact.

    4 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Barefoot running easier on feet than running shoes

    New Harvard research casts doubt on the old adage, “All you need to run is a pair of shoes.”

    4 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Orphan army ants join nearby colonies

    Normal 0 0 1 415 2369 19 4 2909 11.1282 0 0 0 Colonies of army ants, whose long columns and marauding habits are the stuff of natural-history legend, are…

    2 minutes
  • Nation & World

    How does a worm build a throat?

    Mention worms to most people, and they probably think of fishing, gardening, or trips to the vet. Mention them to Susan E. Mango, and she begins telling you how “absolutely…

    9 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Genetic sex determination let ancient species adapt to ocean life

    A new analysis of extinct sea creatures suggests that the transition from egg-laying to live-born young opened up evolutionary pathways that allowed these ancient species to adapt to and thrive…

    3 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Mouse set to be ‘evolution icon’

    A tiny pale deer mouse living on a sand dune in Nebraska looks set to become an icon of biology. Within just a few thousand years, generations of the mice have evolved a sandy-coloured coat camouflaging themselves from predators…

    1 minute
  • Nation & World

    Freshwater fish at top of food chain evolve more slowly

    Since evolving to eat other fish, freshwater fish at the top of the food chain have remained relatively unchanged compared with their insect- and snail-eating cousins, according to new research.…

    3 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Invention of cooking drove evolution of the human species, new book argues

     “You are what you eat.” Can these pithy words explain the evolution of the human species? Yes, says Richard Wrangham of Harvard University, who argues in a new book that…

    3 minutes
  • Nation & World

    New department reflects the evolution of human evolution

    Earlier this month, the Faculty of Arts and Sciences (FAS) made official what scientists worldwide have known for years: Harvard is a hotbed of research and teaching in the field…

    4 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Some vocal-mimicking animals, particularly parrots, can move to a musical beat

    Researchers at Harvard University have found that humans aren’t the only ones who can groove to a beat — some other species can dance, too. The capability was previously believed…

    4 minutes
  • Nation & World

    The evolution of Darwin

    In a fitting celebration of a man whose ideas revolutionized science, Harvard marked Charles Darwin’s 200th birthday in style.

    7 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Exploring abundance under the sea floor

    Called the North Pond Basin, the site — researchers at Harvard and beyond believe — can provide a window onto a vast world of subterranean microscopic life that extends kilometers below the Earth’s surface and which, according to rough estimates, could rival life above the surface in both diversity and sheer mass.

    4 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Seeing what they hear, to better understand ourselves

    It was a long drive from St. Louis to Florida, but Darlene Ketten had finally made it. Standing in the warm surf of St. George Island, she watched with delight as tiny, colorful bean clams popped out of the sand and then quickly reburied themselves as the waves foamed around her calves.

    3 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Harvard faculty members net MacArthur fellowships

    Three biologists — one current and two future faculty members at Harvard — have won MacArthur Foundation “genius” grants, $500,000 no-strings-attached awards intended to encourage creativity, originality, and innovation in a broad array of fields.

    4 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Clark, Hewitt named AAAS Science & Technology Policy Fellows

    Harvard affiliates Sharri Clark and David Hewitt have been named among the newest group of Science & Technology Policy Fellows by the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). The fellows spend a year working in federal agencies or congressional offices learning about science policy while providing valuable science and technology expertise to the…

    1 minute
  • Nation & World

    Mars’ water appears to have been too salty to support life

    A new analysis of the Martian rock that gave hints of water on the Red Planet — and, therefore, optimism about the prospect of life — now suggests the water…

    4 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Animal interaction behind ‘Cambrian Explosion’?

    Harvard Professor of Biology and of Geology Charles Marshall presented his Tuesday (April 29), suggesting that it was an increase in interactions between species, such as predation, that drove an escalating evolutionary process that led to the development of teeth and claws and the wide variety of characteristics that we see among Earth’s animals today.

    5 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Molecular analysis of T. rex protein shows shared avian ancestry

    Putting more meat on the theory that dinosaurs’ closest living relatives are modern-day birds, molecular analysis of a shred of 68 million-year-old Tyrannosaurus rex protein — along with that of 21 modern species — confirms that dinosaurs share common ancestry with chickens, ostriches, and to a lesser extent, alligators.

    3 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Eating meat led to smaller stomachs, bigger brains

    Behind glass cases, Harvard’s Peabody Museum of Archaeology displays ancient tools, weapons, clothing, and art — enough to jar you back into the past. But the venerable museum offered a jarring moment of another sort in its Geological Lecture Hall last month (March 20). Paleoanthropologist Leslie Aiello delivered a late-afternoon talk on diet, energy, and…

    5 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Punishment doesn’t earn rewards

    Individuals who engage in costly punishment do not benefit from their behavior, according to a new study published this week in the journal Nature by researchers at Harvard University and the Stockholm School of Economics.

    3 minutes