For a long time, evolutionary biologists have thought that the genetic mutations that drive the evolution of genes and proteins are largely neutral: they're neither good nor bad, but just ordinary ...

Finding a place for "chance" in evolutionWhen we encounter the forms and mechanisms of living things, we ask, "What is the use of this?" Bird wings are useful for flying, and fish gills are useful for ...

Molecular evolutionary biologist Masatoshi Nei says Darwin never proved natural selection is the driving force of evolution — because it isn't. In a cavernous concert hall, before an eager audience of ...

A groundbreaking study published in PNAS by scientists from Israel and Ghana shows that an evolutionarily significant mutation in the human APOL1 gene arises not randomly but more frequently where it ...

Mutation dynamics and fitness effects lie at the heart of evolutionary change. Every generation, genomes accrue spontaneous alterations ranging from single-nucleotide substitutions to larger ...

How do cells know what they should become as the body develops? Biological development depends crucially on spatial patterns: the lines that eventually give rise to segments, organs, or markings like ...

Researchers published a new study, “Ongoing chromothripsis underpins osteosarcoma genome complexity and clonal evolution,” in Cell that they say solves the mystery of what drives the genomic ...

A groundbreaking study published in this week’s issue of PNAS by scientists from Israel and Ghana shows that an evolutionarily significant mutation in the human APOL1 gene arises not randomly but more ...