New research led by Macquarie University has documented tool use in five species of wrasse fish across the western Atlantic, revealing these colourful reef dwellers can select and use rocks as tools to crack open hard-shelled prey.

Georgia Tech scientists uncovered how whole-genome duplication emerges and remains stable over thousands of generations of evolution in the lab.  

Two specific genes that evolve exclusively in humans jointly influence the development of the cerebrum. Researchers from the German Primate Center - Leibniz Institute for Primate Research and the Max Planck Institute of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics have discovered this in a recently published study. They have thus provided evidence that these genes contribute together to the evolutionary enlargement of the brain.

Researchers from the J. Craig Venter Institute (JCVI), the Friedrich-Loeffler-Institut (FLI), and the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) have developed a reverse genetics system for African swine fever virus (ASFV). This new system will aid researchers in developing vaccines and in studying the pathogenesis and biology of ASFV, a highly contagious, deadly viral disease affecting domesticated and wild pigs, especially prevalent in Africa, Europe, Asia, and the Caribbean. A recent study estimates if ASFV reached the United States it could result in economic losses exceeding $50 billion over a ten-year period.

A study in Science Translational Medicine found when patients take the drug nitisinone, their blood becomes deadly to mosquitoes.

Mice flown on the International Space Station in microgravity experience bone loss mostly in weight-bearing bones, which might help inform human acclimation to spaceflight