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Category: evolution

Researchers trace genetic code’s origins to early protein structures

Genes are the building blocks of life, and the genetic code provides the instructions for the complex processes that make organisms function. But how and why did it come to be the way it is?

A recent study from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign sheds new light on the origin and evolution of the , providing valuable insights for genetic engineering and bioinformatics. The study is published in the Journal of Molecular Biology.

“We find the origin of the genetic code mysteriously linked to the dipeptide composition of a proteome, the collective of proteins in an organism,” said corresponding author Gustavo Caetano-Anollés, professor in the Department of Crop Sciences, the Carl R. Woese Institute for Genomic Biology, and Biomedical and Translation Sciences of Carle Illinois College of Medicine at U. of I.

Culture is overtaking genetics in shaping human evolution, researchers argue

Researchers at the University of Maine are theorizing that human beings may be in the midst of a major evolutionary shift—driven not by genes, but by culture.

In a paper published in BioScience, Timothy M. Waring, an associate professor of economics and sustainability, and Zachary T. Wood, a researcher in ecology and environmental sciences, argue that culture is overtaking genetics as the main force shaping .

“Human evolution seems to be changing gears,” said Waring. “When we learn useful skills, institutions or technologies from each other, we are inheriting adaptive . On reviewing the evidence, we find that culture solves problems much more rapidly than genetic evolution. This suggests our species is in the middle of a great evolutionary transition.”

Discovery of young eclipsing binary system offers insight into early stellar evolution

An international team of astronomers reports the discovery of a new pre-main-sequence eclipsing binary system. The newfound binary, designated MML 48, consists of two young low-mass stars. The finding will be published in the upcoming issue of the Astronomy & Astrophysics journal.

Stellar systems showing regular light variations due to one of the stars passing directly in front of its companion are known as eclipsing binaries (EBs). In these systems, the orbit plane of the two stars lies so nearly in the line of sight of the observer that the components undergo mutual eclipses. EBs can provide direct accurate measurement of the mass, radius and effective temperature of stars; therefore, they are essential for testing and calibrating theoretical stellar-evolution models.

Astronomers are especially interested in finding new young EBs. This is due to the fact that such binaries constrain pre-main-sequence (PMS) stellar evolution models in the regime when the temperatures, luminosities, and radii of stars are changing rapidly as they settle onto the main sequence (MS).

How evolution explains autism rates in humans

A paper in Molecular Biology and Evolution finds that the relatively high rate of autism-spectrum disorders in humans is likely due to how humans evolved in the past. The paper is titled “A general principle of neuronal evolution reveals a human accelerated neuron type potentially underlying the high prevalence of autism in humans.”

Astronomers capture breathtaking first look at a planet being born

WISPIT2b, a gas giant forming around a young Sun-like star, has been directly imaged for the first time inside a spectacular multiringed disk. Still glowing and actively accreting gas, the planet offers a unique opportunity to study planetary birth and evolution.

An international team of astronomers, co-led by researchers at University of Galway, has made the unexpected discovery of a new planet.

Detected at an early stage of formation around a young analog of our own Sun, the planet is estimated to be about 5 million years-old and most likely a gas giant of similar size to Jupiter.

Less is more: Gene loss drives adaptive evolution of a pandemic bacterium

A study published in Nature Ecology & Evolution reveals a surprising evolutionary insight: sometimes, losing genes rather than gaining them can help bacterial pathogens survive and thrive.

The study was conducted by a group of scientists and coordinated by Jaime Martínez Urtaza, from the Department of Genetics and Microbiology of the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB); Yang Chao and Falush Daniel, from the Shanghai Institute of Immunity and Infection, Chinese Academy of Science; and Wang Hui, from the Shanghai Jiao Tong University.

When we think of evolution, we often imagine organisms changing or gaining to adapt, such as growing wings, developing resistance, or evolving new behaviors. Across the tree of life, both spontaneous mutations and gene acquisition are classic tools of adaptation. However, in this study, researchers went down a lesser known and scarcely explored evolutionary path, the one of gene loss.

Revolutionary Model Reveals How Real Universe Structure Affects Cosmic Evolution

For nearly a century, cosmologists have relied on a simplified model of the universe that treats matter as uniform particles that don’t interact with each other. While this approach helped scientists understand the Big Bang and the expansion of space, it ignores a fundamental reality, that our universe is anything but uniform. Stars cluster into galaxies, matter collapses into black holes, and vast empty voids stretch across space, all constantly interacting through gravity and other forces.

How the distinctive folds in the brain cortex, seen in humans, whales, other animals, form

One of the defining features of humans is our brain’s remarkable capacity for language, planning, memory, creativity, and more. These abilities stem not just from our large brain size, but also from the folded structure of the brain’s outer layer, the cerebral cortex.

A new study, published in the journal Nature Communications, offers insight into how these wrinkles form, pointing to a range of contributing factors—including the number of early-stage , how they migrate during development, and the specific types of cells involved.

These findings may help guide future research into brain development, evolution, and health.

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