Rosalind Franklin
Rosalind Franklin (1920 to 1958) was a British scientist whose work was crucial to discovering the structure of DNA, the molecule of heredity. Long…
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The Human Genome Project
The Human Genome Project was a landmark international effort to map all of the genetic information in a human being. Completed in 2003 after more…
mRNA Vaccines
mRNA vaccines are a new type of vaccine that teaches the body to fight a disease by delivering genetic instructions rather than a weakened or…
Jane Goodall
Jane Goodall (born 1934) is a British primatologist whose groundbreaking study of wild chimpanzees transformed our understanding of animals and of…
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.…
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…
Charles Darwin
Charles Darwin (1809 to 1882) was an English naturalist whose theory of evolution by natural selection transformed our understanding of life. He…
DNA Fingerprinting
DNA fingerprinting, also called DNA profiling, is a technique that identifies individuals by the unique patterns in their genetic material. Since its…
Human Blood Types
Human blood comes in different types, determined by molecules on the surface of red blood cells. The discovery of blood types made safe blood…
Piltdown Man
Piltdown Man was a supposed "missing link" between apes and humans, announced in 1912 from fossil fragments found in England. For decades it misled…
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…
The Aquatic Ape Hypothesis
The aquatic ape hypothesis is the controversial idea that human ancestors went through a phase of living partly in water, and that this shaped many…
Vitalism
Vitalism was the long held belief that living things contain a special, non physical "vital force" or "life energy" that animates them and that…
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…
Endosymbiotic Theory
Endosymbiotic theory explains the origin of the complex cells that make up plants, animals, fungi, and other higher organisms. It proposes that key…
Lamarckism
Lamarckism is the discredited idea that organisms can pass on to their offspring the characteristics they acquire during their lifetime. Its classic…
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…
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