What Killed the Ice Age Megafauna
At the end of the last ice age, many of the world's largest animals, the megafauna, went extinct, from woolly mammoths to giant ground sloths.…
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The Origins of Modern Humans
Where and how our own species, Homo sapiens, arose is a question of intense scientific interest. The broad outline, an African origin, is well…
Why the Neanderthals Died Out
Neanderthals were a species of ancient humans who lived across Europe and Asia for hundreds of thousands of years before disappearing around 40,000…
What Caused the Great Dying
The Permian extinction, often called the Great Dying, was the most severe mass extinction in Earth's history, around 252 million years ago, when the…
How Birds Navigate
Many birds travel thousands of miles between breeding and wintering grounds, often returning to the very same spot year after year. How they find…
Why We Age
Why living things grow old and eventually die is one of biology's deep and contested questions. Ageing is nearly universal among complex animals, yet…
The Cambrian Explosion
The Cambrian explosion was a remarkable burst of evolution, beginning around 540 million years ago, when most of the major groups of animals appeared…
Are Animals Conscious?
Whether animals have conscious experiences, an inner life of feelings and awareness, is a deep and genuinely contested question. That many animals…
Nature versus Nurture
The nature versus nurture debate asks how much of who we are, our intelligence, personality, talents, and behavior, comes from our genes, and how…
Are Viruses Alive?
Whether viruses count as living organisms is a question biologists have debated for over a century, and there is still no settled answer. Viruses sit…