A major conclusion of the work is that for some organisms, possibly including humans, continued evolution will not translate into ever-increasing fitness. Moreover, a population may accrue mutations at a constant rate --- a pattern long considered the hallmark of

Moose eat plants; wolves kill moose. What difference does this classic predator-prey interaction make to biodiversity? A large and unexpected one, say wildlife biologists.

Bacteria that cause chronic lung infections can communicate with each other to form a deadly shield against the body's natural defenses. Studying these interactions could lead to new ways of treating bacteria that are resistant to antibiotics.

The genome of the cucumber has been sequenced by an international consortium lead by Chinese and US institutions. The cucumber genome will give insight into the genetics of the whole cucurbit family, which includes pumpkins and squash, melon and watermelon,

Leprosy still affects hundreds of thousands of people today throughout the entire world. An international team has traced the history of the disease from ancient Egypt to today and in doing so has made a public health study essential for

A rocket carrying the European Space Agency's Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity satellite blasted off successfully today. SMOS is the first-ever satellite to attempt to measure ocean salinity from space. It will provide global maps of soil moisture over land

A recent assessment finds some positive trends among indicators of biodiversity loss in China -- notably, growth in forest coverage and improvements in marine ecosystems. However, other indicators, such as the rate of discovery of invasive species, are worsening. Many

Teenage tyrannosaurs got into some serious fights with their peers. The evidence can be found on Jane, a prized juvenile Tyrannosaurus rex, discovered in 2001 in Montana. The dinosaur's fossils show that it sustained a serious bite that punctured through

Nature inspires technology as an engineer and an ecologist have teamed to develop robots that use advanced materials to swim like fish to probe underwater environments. Robotic fish -- perhaps schools of them operating autonomously for months -- could give

Scientist have constructed for the first time a synthetic cellulosome in yeast, which could make the production of bioethanol from biomass more efficient and economical.

About half of 36 fish stocks in the Northwest Atlantic Ocean, many of them commercially valuable species, have been shifting northward over the last four decades, with some stocks nearly disappearing from US waters as they move farther offshore, according

The Kentish-Snowy Plover, a small shorebird found in the US and Europe, is 'suffering' from an identity crisis after scientists found genetic evidence that the populations are, in fact, separate species.

The search for the holy grail of regenerative medicine -- the ability to "grow back" a perfect body part when one is lost to injury or disease -- has been under way for years, yet the steps involved in this

Ever since the Falklands wolf was described by Darwin himself, the origin of this now-extinct canid found only on the Falkland Islands far off the east coast of Argentina has remained a mystery. Now, researchers who have compared DNA from

A global collaborative has produced a first draft of the genome of a domesticated pig, an achievement that will lead to insights in agriculture, medicine, conservation and evolution.

Using an unconventional approach that they designed, drug discoverers have identified compounds that hold promise for treating leishmaniasis, a parasitic infection that many consider one of the world's most overlooked diseases.

As African leaders prepare to present an ambitious proposal to industrialized countries for coping with climate change in the part of the world that is most vulnerable to its impacts, a new study points to where and how some of

Researchers are using the fruit fly, Drosophila melanogaster, as a model system to unravel what genes and gene pathways are involved in the metabolic changes that lead to insulin resistance and full-blown diabetes in humans.

New research provides a comprehensive comparative functional anatomy study in human and monkey brains which reveals highly similar brain networks preserved across evolution. Scientists examined patterns of connectivity to show that the precuneus, long thought to be a single structure,

Most land use changes occurring in the continental US result in raised regional surface temperatures, according to new research. The study found that almost any change that makes land cover less "green" contributes to warming. A perhaps less intuitive finding