Our big-brained noggins require us to be born early so we can squeeze through a tight birth canal.

Suicide-bombing ants. Bone-breaking frogs. Spit-flinging arachnids. Back-birthing toads. And bone-dissolving worms. What do all of the above have in common? Specialized adaptations. They’ve become so accustomed to their distinct habitats that they’d be more likely to perish, compared to their more generalist relatives, if moved to a slightly different locale. Each of them, as a […]

The growing role of grandparents in raising children is right in line with human biology.

What a waste are two thumbs on the space bar. There they sit, nearly flaccid, punctuating the end of each word, awaiting the call to crack stone or to use sharp flakes to incise wood. It is easy to think of other traits as making us human. We talk, use metaphors, empathize, follow fashions, laugh, play […]

Getting control of the molecular mechanisms that drive rapid mutations.

One biologist’s love for science got kickstarted by snakes.