Taking stock of the CDC's COVID-19 response, the importance of forest science, the evolutionary importance of chewing, and more

Neurologically important noncoding RNAs come in many shapes and sizes.

Research traces the evolution of a gene variant that reduces the risk of Alzheimer’s disease, finding that it originally evolved in response to infectious bacteria.

The findings mean that penguins may struggle to adapt under rapid climate change, researchers say.

Genetic studies have made it clear that eukaryotic horizontal gene transfer can and does happen. Exactly how, though, remains speculative.

Horizontally transferred genes play significant roles in eukaryotic genomes

DNA passed to and from all kinds of organisms, even across kingdoms, has helped shape the tree of life, to a large and undisputed degree in microbes and also unexpectedly in multicellular fungi, plants, and animals.

The fish use their stomach to swell up to three times their size. Is this why they can’t use the organ to digest proteins?

An analysis of skull and vertebrae fossils suggests that an early relative of giraffes butted heads to compete for mates, which may reveal why modern giraffes are so throaty.

The discovery that a group of cell-infecting bacteria lived roughly 2 billion years ago stirs a longstanding controversy around which came first: phagocytosis or mitochondria.

In two related studies, researchers describe huge chromosomal rearrangements and about 500 novel gene clusters in the octopus, squid, and cuttlefish genomes, which they say could help explain how they evolved their extraordinary brains.

Advances in sequencing technologies have finally allowed researchers to zero in on the genetic diversity underlying the incredible mating system of shelf fungi.

Contrary to what researchers had assumed, Egyptian fruit bats don’t rely solely on sight to orient themselves as they drink and forage for food in daylight. 

Researchers find that evolution can operate on extraordinarily fast timescales.

Octopuses were around 82 million years earlier than scientists previously thought—and had two extra limbs at the time.

The dual purposes of the plants’ hidden colors may conflict as the climate warms, authors of a new study suggest.

Epigenetic structures appear to reduce the rate of changes in genes essential for survival and reproduction, a study finds, challenging the notion that mutations are evenly distributed throughout the genome prior to selection.

The International Committee on Systematics of Prokaryotes recently pulled the rank of phylum into its code of official nomenclature. Experts say the move will help standardize science in the long run but potentially disrupt research now.