Reference Terms
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Heritability
In genetics, heritability is the proportion of phenotypic variation in a population that is due to genetic variation. Variation among individuals may be due to genetic and/or environmental factors. Heritability analyses estimate the relative importance of variation in each of these factors.
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Plants & Animals News
November 1, 2026
Nov. 1, 2026 Crown-of-thorns starfish are notorious for devouring coral reefs, but surprising new research reveals these spiny predators may actually help reefs thrive when their populations are kept in check. ...
Oct. 22, 2026 Scientists have captured virus-like particles assembling themselves step by step, revealing how a surprisingly simple process of trial and error produces complex structures with remarkable precision. The discovery uncovers a crucial molecular ...
Oct. 22, 2026 Honeybees are aggressively pushing wild pollinators away from flowers, with scientists documenting how they chase off rivals and dominate valuable food sources. New research warns that rising temperatures and increasing honeybee populations could ...
Oct. 19, 2026 Scientists have discovered that severely bleached corals can make a remarkable comeback simply by touching healthy, genetically identical corals. In laboratory experiments, dying corals regained their color and fully recovered within seven weeks, ...
Oct. 17, 2026 Scientists have discovered that some forest soils are becoming surprisingly better at removing methane from the atmosphere as temperatures rise and rainfall declines. A study spanning up to 24 years found methane absorption increasing by an average ...
Oct. 16, 2026 Stanford scientists have developed a revolutionary microscope that reveals the hidden inner workings of living cells in real time, without the fluorescent labels that can interfere with observations. The breakthrough could provide new insights into ...
Oct. 16, 2026 Scientists have discovered a remarkable “Pac-Man enzyme” that helps bacteria devour certain types of plastic and may offer new hope in the fight against plastic pollution. Researchers found that ...
Oct. 15, 2026 Scientists have discovered a potential new weapon against a devastating fungus that threatens rice, wheat, and barley worldwide. By engineering a special type of plant immune receptor, researchers ...
Oct. 14, 2026 Two unusually long-legged cats have helped scientists uncover the first genetically confirmed cases of Marfan syndrome in domestic felines. Researchers at Cornell University discovered that the ...
Oct. 13, 2026 Scientists have traced the development of a mouse embryo from its first two cells to the formation of organs, using a remarkable DNA recording system that reveals the family history of individual cells. Their findings uncover how different cell ...
Oct. 12, 2026 Scientists may have solved a 2.3-billion-year-old mystery about how Earth maintained enough oxygen to support life. Ancient rocks reveal that phosphorus recycling in the oceans created a ...
Oct. 11, 2026 Scientists have uncovered a surprising secret behind a mushroom disease that has frustrated growers for more than a century: It involves more than 17 species of harmful bacteria, not just one. The discovery could explain why treatments have ...
Latest Headlines
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Nov. 1, 2026 A 17- to 18-million-year-old ape fossil discovered in Egypt is challenging long-held beliefs about where the ancestors of humans and other modern apes first evolved. Scientists now suspect that North ...
Oct. 31, 2026 Scientists have discovered that trees can sense their own shape and straighten their trunks using specialized wood that acts like opposing muscles. ...
Oct. 30, 2026 Scientists may have solved a 66-million-year-old mystery: how crocodiles survived the asteroid that wiped out the dinosaurs. A sweeping analysis of fossils and ancient climates suggests that their ...
Oct. 30, 2026 A startling new study suggests that venomous snakebites are killing far more people worldwide than official statistics indicate, with an estimated ...
Oct. 29, 2026 Scientists have discovered that three bizarre deep-sea fish that look exactly like seahorses actually belong to a separate evolutionary group, ...
Oct. 28, 2026 Researchers have discovered a surprising hidden ability in Europe's familiar black-and-yellow fire salamanders: they glow green and cyan under ultraviolet light. The mysterious fluorescence comes ...
Oct. 27, 2026 The asteroid that killed the dinosaurs may have set the stage for ants to conquer the planet, with a surprising boost from “jumping genes” hidden ...
Oct. 27, 2026 Scientists have discovered that spiders may sleep in ways surprisingly similar to humans, complete with distinct sleep stages and a dream-like REM state. Researchers at the University of Bonn studied ...
Oct. 26, 2026 Scientists have discovered a giant new fungus in China that grows up to 20 inches tall and weighs nearly five pounds, making it the largest known of ...
Oct. 25, 2026 Millions of years after animals first conquered land, some took an extraordinary evolutionary U-turn and returned to the water. Using machine learning and thousands of fossil measurements, Yale ...