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An animated arcade machine in a grey room.
Borderlands Gamers Fuel the Next Generation of Citizen Science
Researchers explore how video games can improve scientific understanding of the tree of life.
Borderlands Gamers Fuel the Next Generation of Citizen Science
Borderlands Gamers Fuel the Next Generation of Citizen Science

Researchers explore how video games can improve scientific understanding of the tree of life.

Researchers explore how video games can improve scientific understanding of the tree of life.

phylogeny

<em >Lymantria&nbsp;</em>species make ultrasonic, mechanical rasping noises when they hear bats nearby.&nbsp;
Many Moths Speak Up to Ward Off Bats
Connor Lynch | Dec 1, 2022 | 5 min read
A decade-long, multicontinent study suggests that acoustic defense strategies are more common among moths than previously imagined.
The structure of a biological cell (macro)
The Long and Winding Road to Eukaryotic Cells
Amanda Heidt | Oct 17, 2022 | 10+ min read
Despite recent advances in the study of eukaryogenesis, much remains unresolved about the origin and evolution of the most complex domain of life.
Highly Sensitive Viral Detection with the SARS-CoV-2 NGS Assay
The Scientist Staff | 1 min read
Kristin Butcher and Mara Cuoto-Rodriguez discuss the development of a nucleic acid hybridization capture-based assay to detect and identify novel SARS-CoV-2 variants.
Illustration showing the path result of Eukaryogenesis
Infographic: Evolutionary Leaps Leading to Modern Eukaryotes
Amanda Heidt | Oct 17, 2022 | 2 min read
A lot happened in the hundreds of millions years separating the first and last eukaryotic common ancestors, but when and how most features arose remains a mystery.
Tree with many scattered branches.
Scientists Resurrect Ancient Rubiscos to Understand Their Evolution
Alejandra Manjarrez, PhD | Oct 14, 2022 | 5 min read
A team proposes that the addition of a small accessory subunit to the carbon-fixing enzyme was key to improving its catalytic properties and specificity to CO2.
Blue Whales - Sri Lanka April 2012
The Evolutionary Shaping of Modern Whales
Connor Lynch | Oct 3, 2022 | 4 min read
A survey of more than 200 whale skulls has unveiled bursts of evolution over the past 50 million years.
Ad&eacute;lie penguin family
Penguins Are Among the World’s Slowest-Evolving Birds: Study
Catherine Offord | Jul 19, 2022 | 2 min read
The findings mean that penguins may struggle to adapt under rapid climate change, researchers say.
A yellow-orange, translucent artist&#39;s rendition of a yunnanozoan, an ancient wormlike fish, that highlights the arches that make up its cartilage skeleton.
This Simple Fish May Have Been One of the First Vertebrates
Dan Robitzski | Jul 7, 2022 | 5 min read
A fossil analysis suggests that the yunnanozoan, a wormlike fish that flourished around 520 million years ago, sported structures that were the precursors of the head and jaws of modern vertebrates.
scanning electron microscope image of clawlike microscopic organisms on a smoother surface
Phyla of Tiny Filter Feeders Find a New Spot on the Tree of Life
Alejandra Manjarrez, PhD | Jul 6, 2022 | 5 min read
A new study using fairly complete genetic datasets of two phyla of small suspension feeders (Ectoprocta and Entoprocta) reopens the debate on the phylogenetic relationships between them and other animals.
Illustration of a DNA virus sneaking genetic material into a host’s nucleus
Infographic: Possible Mechanisms of Gene Transfer in Eukaryotes
Christie Wilcox, PhD | Jul 5, 2022 | 6 min read
Genetic studies have made it clear that eukaryotic horizontal gene transfer can and does happen. Exactly how, though, remains speculative.
Cow image
Slideshow: Examples of Eukaryotic Horizontal Gene Transfer
Christie Wilcox, PhD | Jul 5, 2022 | 4 min read
Horizontally transferred genes play significant roles in eukaryotic genomes
Landscape illustration
Horizontal Gene Transfer Happens More Often Than Anyone Thought
Christie Wilcox, PhD | Jul 5, 2022 | 10+ min read
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.
Pufferfish underwater in ocean
Pufferfish Don’t Need Functional Stomach, Inflate Instead
Natalia Mesa, PhD | Jul 5, 2022 | 5 min read
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?
Black and white photo of excavation<br><br>
Black Death Likely Originated in Central Asia
Andy Carstens | Jun 15, 2022 | 5 min read
Genetic testing of people who died in Kyrgyzstan eight years before plague reached Europe reveals an ancient strain of the bacterium Yersinia pestis.
An artist's rendering of the ancient arthropod Erratus sperare
Anatomical Firsts in Early Arthropods
Clare Watson | Jun 1, 2022 | 2 min read
A team of scientists have discovered an ancient arthropod that may show the origins of branched limbs and the first gill-like breathing structures in the clade.
a research sailboat with white sails inscribed with "tara ocean" traverses a body of water with small, rocky islands in the background
Q&A: Thousands of RNA Viruses Newly Discovered in Ocean Water
Dan Robitzski | Apr 7, 2022 | 6 min read
The Scientist spoke with Ohio State University microbiologist Matthew Sullivan about a recent expedition that identified thousands of RNA viruses from water samples and cataloged them into novel phylogenic groups.
Researchers use bacterial whole genome sequencing to compare the phylogenetic relationship between environmental and clinical samples.
Aquatic Bacteria Reveal a Common Genetic Link to a Deadly Human Pathogen
Iris Kulbatski, PhD | Mar 7, 2022 | 5 min read
Researchers use genetic clues to track the spread of antibiotic resistant bacteria from the environment to patients.
shrew
Researchers Identify 14 New Shrew Species 
Chloe Tenn | Jan 5, 2022 | 2 min read
The discovery, made on the island of Sulawesi in Indonesia, constitutes an exceptionally high number of new mammals to be described in a single paper.
The man-of-war fish (Nomeus gronovii), a species of medusafish, near the tentacles of a siphonophore.
Medusafishes Are Grouped by Shared, Odd Traits: Study
Devin A. Reese, PhD | Dec 1, 2021 | 2 min read
Shared features, such as thick, slimy skin and a throat filled with teeth, suggest that medusafishes are all related.
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