Learn more about new research that analyzed 16,000 ancient genomes and discovered that natural selection hasn’t slowed down.

A landmark Nature study analyzing nearly 16,000 ancient and modern genomes from West Eurasia reveals that natural selection ...

The work demonstrates the power of ancient DNA to illuminate human biology and medicine in addition to history. A massive ...

Over the past 10,000 years, evolution in West Eurasia has been selecting for light skin, red hair and resistance to HIV and ...

Ancient DNA reveals how farming accelerated human evolution, driving genetic changes over the past 10,000 years.

Cyanobacteria—ancient microbes that oxygenated Earth and made complex life possible—are still revealing surprises billions of ...

When Charles Darwin first proposed how evolution works in 1859, it seemed plausible. Tiny changes stack up over time, eventually leading a species to become something entirely different. Aside from ...

The human genome is made up of 23 pairs of chromosomes, the biological blueprints that make humans … well, human. But it turns out that some of our DNA — about 8% — are the remnants of ancient viruses ...

The idea that modern humans inherited DNA from Neanderthal ancestors is one of the 21st century’s most celebrated discoveries ...

Important, previously unrecognized genetic changes common to all ancient and modern Homo sapiens spread in Africa more than 300,000 years ago, a new study finds. After that, the same investigation ...

Professor Indraneel Mittra and his team show that DNA fragments from dying cells function as agents of horizontal gene transfer in mammalian cells. For decades, scientists have known that bacteria can ...