Researchers at the University of Tokyo have created an RNA molecule that can not just replicate, but “evolve” into a diverse range of more complex molecules. This find could plug a major gap in the ...

Why do you have five fingers? Why not ten, or twenty, or one? Why do so many animals have five fingers? Five seems to be the perfect number for most hands. Oddly, the first vertebrates to come onto ...

To understand evolution, humans must think in much larger units of time than those we use to define our lives. After all, evolutionary change isn't apparent in days, months, or years. Instead, it's ...

Hal Drakesmith receives funding from Medical Research Council UK and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Jon Wade does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or ...

This image shows how a divergent chemical mixture can 'evolve' into a mixture of species, or be dominated by just one. We know that Darwinian evolution acts on all forms of life, but does evolution ...