MS-LS4-4
Construct an explanation based on evidence that describes how genetic variations of traits in a population increase some individuals' probability of surviving and reproducing in a specific environment.
- Science & Society
Explainer: What is an endangered species?
Threats such as climate change and habitat loss can put species at risk of going extinct. Different words describe that risk.
- Archaeology
Our species may have reached Europe while Neandertals were there
Archaeological finds from an ancient French rock-shelter show periodic settlements by both populations, just not at the same time.
- Animals
Scientists Say: Adaptation
This word refers to a feature of a living thing that helps it better survive in its environment — or the process of that feature evolving in a population.
- Animals
‘Penis worms’ could have been the original hermits
These soft-bodied critters lived in abandoned shells about 500 million years ago, a new study suggests.
- Animals
Cloning boosts endangered black-footed ferrets
A cloned ferret named Elizabeth Ann brings genetic diversity to a species that nearly went extinct in the 1980s.
- Animals
Will the woolly mammoth return?
Scientists are using genetic engineering and cloning to try to bring back extinct species or save endangered ones. Here’s how and why.
- Animals
Baby pterosaurs may have been able to fly right after hatching
A bone crucial for lift-off was stronger in hatchling pterosaurs than in adults. The baby reptiles also had shorter, broader wings than grown-ups.
- Animals
Tiny animals survive 24,000 years in suspended animation
Tiny bdelloid rotifers awake from a 24,000-year slumber when freed from the Arctic permafrost.
- Animals
Science and Indigenous history team up to help spirit bears
When scientists and Indigenous people work together, their efforts can benefit bears and people.
- Health & Medicine
Bringing COVID-19 vaccines to much of world is hard
The price of not vaccinating nearly everyone across the world could be a longer pandemic and more troubling variants of the new coronavirus.
- Genetics
By not including everyone, genome science has blind spots
Little diversity in genetic databases makes precision medicine hard for many. One historian proposes a solution, but some scientists doubt it’ll work.
- Animals
Unique dialects help naked mole-rats tell friends from foes
Computer analysis reveals that these social rodents communicate with speech patterns distinct to each colony.
