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129 results for "clock genes" — page 6 of 7
ZE_4_15 — Ethics of Nuclear Weapons: Deterrence, MAD, and Abolition
The ethics of nuclear weapons constitutes one of the most consequential moral questions of the modern era: Can the threat to annihilate millions of civilians ever be morally justified? Since the atomic bombings of Hirosh
R_4_05 — Seed Plants and Angiosperm Evolution
Angiosperms (flowering plants) are the most species-rich and ecologically dominant group of land plants, comprising roughly 300,000–400,000 species — over 90% of all living plant species. Their origin and rapid diversifi
R_4_04 — Skeletal Evolution and Bone
Skeletal systems — structures providing support, protection, and locomotion — evolved independently multiple times across the animal kingdom. The Cambrian Explosion (~540–520 Mya) witnessed the near-simultaneous appearan
R_4_03 — Nervous System Evolution: From Nerve Nets to Brains
The nervous system — the most complex organ system in animals — evolved once (possibly twice) from electrically excitable cells in the common ancestor of bilaterians and cnidarians, approximately 600–700 million years ag
R_3_01 — Epigenetics and Ancestral Memory
Epigenetics — heritable changes in gene expression WITHOUT changes to the DNA sequence — has revolutionized biology over the past two decades. Your genes are the hardware; epigenetics is the software that determines whic
R_3_17 — Neoteny & Heterochrony: Developmental Timing in Evolution
Heterochrony — evolutionary change in the timing or rate of developmental processes — is one of the most powerful mechanisms by which organisms evolve new morphologies without requiring entirely new genetic programs. The
R_3_12 — Evolution of Sex and Reproduction
Sex — the rearrangement of genetic material from two parents to produce genetically unique offspring — is one of the most fundamental yet puzzling features of life. Sexual reproduction involves enormous costs: the "twofo
R_3_04 — Sexual Selection — Mate Choice and Evolutionary Aesthetics
Sexual selection, first articulated by Charles Darwin in The Descent of Man, and Selection in Relation to Sex (1871), explains traits that enhance mating success rather than survival — from the peacock's extravagant tail
R_3_09 — Molecular Phylogenetics and Tree of Life
Molecular phylogenetics — reconstructing evolutionary relationships from DNA, RNA, and protein sequences — has revolutionized our understanding of the tree of life since Carl Woese's landmark 1977 discovery, using small-
R_3_03 — Evo-Devo: Evolutionary Developmental Biology
Evolutionary developmental biology ("evo-devo") reveals one of biology's most profound discoveries: the same small set of "toolkit" genes (Hox, Pax6, Sonic hedgehog, BMP, Wnt, etc.) controls body plan development across
R_5_14 — Thermoregulation: Endothermy, Ectothermy, and Metabolic Evolution
Thermoregulation — the ability to maintain body temperature within functional limits — is a fundamental challenge of animal life, and the strategies organisms employ span a continuum from pure ectothermy (relying on envi
R_2_13 — Mammalian Radiation: Post-Cretaceous Diversification
The Cretaceous-Paleogene (K-Pg) mass extinction 66 million years ago — triggered by an asteroid impact and possibly exacerbated by Deccan Traps volcanism — eliminated the non-avian dinosaurs and opened vast ecological ni
R_2_07 — Stoned Ape Hypothesis — Psilocybin, Cognitive Evolution, and the McKenna Theory
The "Stoned Ape Hypothesis," proposed by ethnobotanist Terence McKenna in Food of the Gods (1992), posits that the consumption of psilocybin-containing mushrooms by early hominids (particularly Homo erectus and Homo erga
R_2_15 — Neoteny and Heterochrony in Human Evolution
Heterochrony — evolutionary change in the timing or rate of developmental processes — is one of the most powerful mechanisms by which evolution generates morphological diversity without requiring new genes. [KEY FINDING]
R_1_10 — RNA World Hypothesis: The Origin of Life and Self-Replicating RNA
The RNA World hypothesis proposes that early life was based on RNA molecules that served as both genetic material and catalysts — before the emergence of DNA and proteins. This idea, named by Walter Gilbert in 1986, rest
R_1_02 — The Cambrian Explosion
Between ~541 and ~520 million years ago, nearly ALL major animal body plans (phyla) appeared in the fossil record in an evolutionary "instant" — roughly 20 million years. Before this, life had been single-celled for ~3 b
R_1_15 — The Chirality Problem: Why Life Uses Left-Handed Amino Acids
One of the deepest unsolved problems in the origin of life is homochirality — the fact that all known life on Earth uses almost exclusively L-amino acids (left-handed) for proteins and D-sugars (right-handed) for nucleic
R_1_12 — History of Evolutionary Theory
Evolutionary theory — the unifying framework of modern biology — has itself undergone a remarkable evolution over more than two centuries. Pre-Darwinian ideas included Lamarck's transformism (1809), which proposed that o
S_4_03 — Nuclear War and Civilizational Risk
Nuclear war remains one of the most acute existential threats to human civilization, with approximately 12,500 warheads in global arsenals as of 2024 and the Doomsday Clock at a historic 90 seconds to midnight. Peer-revi
S_4_01 — Existential Risk Taxonomy
Existential risk (x-risk) refers to any event that could permanently curtail humanity's long-term potential — including extinction, civilizational collapse without recovery, or irreversible loss of value (e.g., permanent
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