Evolution, features and articles | Educational Science

Jan 13, 2021

First life could have evolved on ancient islands

The first life on Earth could have evolved in warm pools of water on islands speckling a vast, planet-wide ocean. The oldest confirmed life on Earth is 3.5 billion years old, only a billion years after the planet formed. Traces of possible life have also been found in rocks dating...

Feb 14, 2022

7 theories on the origin of life

The origin of life on Earth began more than 3 billion years ago, evolving from the most basic of microbes into a dazzling array of complexity over time. But how did the first organisms on the only known home to life in the universe develop from the primordial soup? Science...

Apr 6, 2022

Charles Darwin's stolen 'tree of life' notebooks returned after 20 years

A pair of Charles Darwin's iconic notebooks have been returned to their rightful home more than 20 years after they were mysteriously stolen. The contents of the notebooks include the naturalist's first doodle of the tree of life, which he sketched out decades before formulating his theory of evolution by...

Jul 20, 2022

Scientists pinpoint the exact moment in evolutionary time when mammals became warm-blooded

Scientists have pinpointed the moment in time our earliest ancestors evolved to be warm-blooded, and it happened much later and far more quickly than the researchers expected. The discovery, made by studying the minuscule tubes of the inner ear, places the evolution of mammalian warm-bloodedness at around 233 million years...

Aug 30, 2022

Neanderthals Weren't Humans' Only Mating Partners. Meet the Denisovans.

The mysterious extinct human lineage known as the Denisovans may have interbred with modern humans in at least two separate waves, a new study finds. The discovery suggests a more diverse evolutionary history than previously thought between Denisovans and modern humans. Although modern humans are now the only human lineage...

Aug 30, 2022

Now-Extinct Relative Had Sex with Humans Far and Wide

A mysterious extinct branch of the human family tree that once interbred with ours apparently lived in a vast range from Siberia to Southeast Asia, mating with just as widely spread a group of modern humans, scientists find. This new research also demonstrates that contrary to the findings of the...

Aug 30, 2022

Genome of Mysterious Extinct Human Reveals Brown-Eyed Girl

The genome of a recently discovered branch of extinct humans known as the Denisovans that once interbred with us has been sequenced, scientists said today (Aug. 30). Genetic analysis of the fossil revealed it apparently belonged to a little girl with dark skin, brown hair and brown eyes, researchers said....

Oct 14, 2022

Selfless Chimps Shed Light on Evolution of Altruism

Chimpanzees have now shown they can help strangers at personal cost without apparent expectation of personal gain, a level of selfless behavior often claimed as unique to humans. These new findings could shed light on the evolution of such altruism, researchers said. Scientists think altruism evolved to help either kin...

Oct 14, 2022

As Myth Marries Science, the Origin Story Matters (Op-Ed)

Roger Briggs is the author of Journey to Civilization: The Science of How We Got Here (Collins Foundation Press, 2013). In his book, he presents a new creation story of the universe, the Earth, life and humanity based on the evidence and skepticism of science. Briggs contributed this article toLiveScience's...

Oct 14, 2022

Talk, Talk, Talk: One Thing We Do Better than Apes

Anthropologists and others used to have a list of behaviors that separated us from the apes. Humans were the only ones to use tools, utilize culture, have complex feelings and communicate by language. But over the years, each one of these so-called uniquely human abilities, except language, has fallen by...

Oct 14, 2022

Origin of Life: What Are the Odds?

How life began is one of life's great mysteries. And it really bothers us. Many people, perhaps most, hate the idea that life might depend on chance processes, writes biologist Dave Deamer on his blog. Scientists have hypothesized that it started around hot vents on the seafloor, or that things...

Oct 14, 2022

What is Darwin's Theory of Evolution?

The Theory of Evolution by natural selection was first formulated in Charles Darwin's book On the Origin of Species published in 1859. In his book, Darwin describes how organisms evolve over generations through the inheritance of physical or behavioral traits, as National Geographic explains. The theory starts with the premise...

Oct 14, 2022

Teachers: Creationism Belongs in Science Class

From the LiveScience Water Cooler. A new survey in the UK found that 29 percent of teachers surveyed via email think creationism and intelligent design should be taught as science. And nearly 50 percent said they think excluding these ideas from the classroom would alienate students from science. Big caveat:...

Oct 14, 2022

Evolution Predictable Everywhere in the Universe, Scientist Says

If the history of life on Earth could be rewound and replayed, many of the same innovations would reappear, although at different times and in slightly different forms. This is the conclusion of Geerat Vermeij, a paleontologist at the University of California, Davis. Vermeij's views imply that evolution is in...

Oct 28, 2022

Neanderthals were 'top-level carnivores,' tooth analysis suggests

Neanderthals were likely carnivores, a new analysis of the hominins’ dental tartar has revealed. Scientists made the discovery by analyzing the concentrations of different versions, or isotopes, of zincs in a Neanderthal tooth found in Gabasa, Spain. That analysis revealed that the tooth's owner was a top-level carnivore, the researchers...