Local Adaptation: How Populations Diverge Despite Gene Flow
How natural selection builds locally specialized populations even when migration keeps shuffling the genetic deck
The Evolution of Dominance: Why Some Alleles Are Recessive
The hidden biochemistry that determines whether mutations show their effects or stay silent in carriers
Selective Sweeps: Detecting Evolution's Footprints in DNA
Beneficial mutations leave characteristic wakes in surrounding DNA, revealing where natural selection has recently acted.
Sexual Selection: The Evolutionary Force That Creates Extravagance
How mate choice creates nature's most absurd displays through feedback loops, honest signals, and evolutionary conflict
The Selection Coefficient: Quantifying Evolution's Pressure
How a single number predicts the pace and power of evolutionary change across all life
Gene Duplication: Raw Material for Evolutionary Innovation
How copying genes gives evolution a sandbox for innovation without risking what already works
The Effective Population Size: Evolution's True Census
Why evolution counts breeding success, not just bodies, when tallying a population's genetic future
Balancing Selection: Why Evolution Maintains Harmful Alleles
Evolution's refusal to eliminate disease alleles reveals how selection maintains the genetic diversity populations need to survive
Why Most New Species Form in Geographic Isolation
How mountains, rivers, and oceans write new chapters in life's diversification story
How Background Selection Reduces Genetic Diversity
Why purging harmful mutations quietly strips away neutral variation across the genome
Why Polyploidy Creates New Species Instantly
When chromosomes double, reproductive barriers appear overnight—revealing evolution's most dramatic shortcut to creating new species.
Recombination: Evolution's Shuffling Mechanism
How chromosomes swap segments to create genetic combinations that mutation alone could never produce, powering adaptation's speed
The Hardy-Weinberg Equilibrium: Evolution's Null Hypothesis
The mathematical baseline revealing how populations evolve by defining what perfect genetic stasis would look like
Natural Selection Measured in Real Time: The Galapagos Finches
Four decades of measuring finch beaks revealed evolution operating faster than Darwin ever imagined possible.
How Gene Flow Prevents Speciation—Until It Doesn't
Discover why migration keeps populations unified for millennia—and the powerful forces that finally break those genetic bonds to create new species.
Genetic Drift: The Evolutionary Force That Doesn't Care About Fitness
Discover how random chance reshapes populations independently of survival advantages, explaining genetic patterns that natural selection alone cannot.
Why Most Mutations Are Invisible to Natural Selection
The mutations that escape natural selection's notice still shape evolution—and they keep remarkably good time.
Why Reproductive Isolation Is Evolution's Point of No Return
How genetic and behavioral barriers accumulate until diverging populations can never reunite, permanently splitting one species into two