The distribution of the present-day native Brazilian peoples considerably differs from the one found by Portuguese explorers in the 15th century. At the time, a third of the Brazilian native population (about 900,000) lived on the Atlantic coast and were part of complex societies. Most... click to read more

Humans have kept honey bees for millennia, and scientists love to study them because of their unique societies (80,000 bees can live and work together in a single hive!) and communication (they exchange information by "dancing"). Honey bees also help produce much of the food... click to read more

Beer making is based on the conversion of starch into alcohol by saccharification and fermentation. While ethanol fermentation is usually carried out by single-celled yeasts, saccharification is one of the few processes in food production that requires the processed organism to, well... process itself. When a... click to read more

Enzymes are molecular machines that produce specific molecules with exquisite efficiency and near perfect control of the end product. Chemists have long sought to employ enzymes in laboratory settings, but are often limited to the specific reactions each enzyme evolved to execute. The efficiency and... click to read more

The Middle Triassic period, between 247 and 237 million years ago, was the age just before the rise of the dinosaurs and a time of great evolutionary innovation. The largest mass extinction event of all time, known as 'The Great Dying', destroyed almost all species... click to read more