Fifty years ago, Richard Dawkins shared an irresistible scientific metaphor with the world that modernised and democratised ...

Forbes contributors publish independent expert analyses and insights. Andréa Morris reports on emergent intelligence in diverse systems. “Where are all the genetic cures?” asks Denis Noble, a ...

A new Yale study provides a fuller picture of the genetic changes that shaped the evolution of the human brain, and how the process differed from the evolution of chimpanzees. For the study, published ...

From epic poetry to game shows, from Stone Age axes to spaceflight, humans have the most complex cultures of any species on Earth. Since the time of Darwin, scientists have suspected that this culture ...

Findings suggest that new genes can form by repurposing fragments of ancestral genes while incorporating entirely new coding regions (the protein-coding parts of the DNA). This innovative concept ...

The genome structure—how genes are organized within DNA sequences in an organism—is fundamental to the processes and functions of organisms. A team at the University of Tokyo has developed a system to ...

The evolution of new genes is not the only way for a species to change. The loss of genes may also lead to adaptations that help species survive, but this idea has not been well studied. Now, ...

A study shows how a single gene in Atlantic salmon can dramatically influence the timing of puberty -- a key factor for salmon life cycle and survival. A study carried out at the University of ...

Data from a new study links a pair of duplicated genes to human brain features. The research provides a roadmap for scientists to gain a deeper understanding of brain function and evolution, as well ...

In the last couple blog posts, I introduced the serotonin transporter promoter gene, or 5-HTTLPR. It’s a gene that controls how many serotonin re-uptake transporters you have, and differences in this ...