Researchers recently scanned a region of the smallest human chromosome and found three previously undiscovered families of genes that are uniquely human and completely absent from apes.¹ This new discovery continues to highlight previous research, showing that the human genome contains many human-specific genes not found in apes—utterly confounding the rapidly crumbling paradigm of h

Scientists described the first evidence of a possible respiratory illness in a fossil. The common soil fungus Aspergillis can infect birds and reptiles today. The resulting disease, also called aspergillosis, causes the trachea’s soft tissues to attach to nearby bones. This causes odd bone bumps—the subject of discovery in a dino nicknamed Dolly.

Graduate student Shiuan-Tze Wu led a study of some ingenious organization into the odor-sensing cells of fruit flies. He and his collaborators at the La Jolla campus of UC San Diego found that the odor-detector cells in the insects’ antennae talk to one another in a way that saves brainpower.

A group of scientists—including archaeologists from Newcastle University, UK, and geneticists from the University of the Basque Country, University of Vienna, and Harvard University^1,2—unearthed a millennia-old family genealogy.

It seems not a week goes by that zoologists find yet another function of the designed microbiome.