Here's How You Can Outrun A Horse
Humans are pathetic at athletic feats compared to animals. We get outrun by ostriches and outswum by penguins. But human physiology makes us aces at one sport: endurance running. Sorry, horse.
evolution
Eye Shapes Of The Animal World Hint At Differences In Our Lifestyles
Tigers have round pupils, but domestic cats have vertical slits in the center of their eyes. What gives? A census of the shapes of animals' pupils suggests size and way of life each play a big role.
12 Ancient Giants: An Ode To The Enormous And Extinct
A dragonfly with a 2-foot wingspan? A sloth the size of an elephant? Skunk Bear's latest video introduces the enormous, ancient relatives of modern animals — all in rhyming verse. Of course.
Why You Should Thank A Caterpillar For Your Mustard And Wasabi
Eons ago, cabbage butterfly larvae and the plants they eat began an evolutionary arms race. The result: "mustard oil bombs" that give the plants, and condiments we make from them, distinctive flavors.
Chimps Are No Chumps: Give Them An Oven, They'll Learn To Cook
That's what researchers found when they gave chimps a device that appeared to work like an oven. The findings add to the argument that our ancestors began cooking soon after learning to control fire.
You And Yeast Have More In Common Than You Might Think
Genetically, at least, not that much has changed in the billion years since you two last shared a relative. Roughly half the 500 genes yeast need for life are interchangeable with the human versions.
How Bird Beaks Got Their Start As Dinosaur Snouts
Hoping to help trace the history of how velociraptors evolved into birds, researchers at Harvard and Yale may have tracked a key beak transformation to two genes.
In 'Rise Of Animals,' Sir David Attenborough Tells Story Of Vertebrates
The 89-year-old British naturalist's two-part special explores fossil evidence on how evolution moved past bugs and worms and trilobites, and how the Chinese are helping fill gaps in that knowledge.
Missing Link Microbes May Help Explain How Single Cells Became Us
Near a field of deep sea vents between Norway and Greenland, scientists discovered the DNA of microbes that seem to be primitive archaea, but with a lot more genes — typical of complicated creatures.
What Is Evolution?
SciWorks Radio is a production of 88.5 WFDD and SciWorks, the Science Center and Environmental Park of Forsyth County, located in Winston-Salem.
The theory of evolution describes the process by which species change over many generations. Basically, an organism is born with a mutation that gives it an advantage for survival. The trait gets passed down until the descendants out-compete or diverge from the original species. We don't usually get to witness this gradual change with our own eyes. But there are some ways we can see evolution in action.