The Origins of Flight: Three Different Paths to the Sky
Four lineages, four inventions, one sky — how evolution kept solving flight from scratch
Why Some Animals Live in Groups: The Mathematics of Sociality
Natural selection runs the numbers on when joining a group pays off — and when it doesn't
How Fear Gets Inherited: The Rapid Evolution of Predator Recognition
Prey animals don't always need millennia to evolve fear — sometimes a few generations will do
Why Monogamy Is Rare: The Evolution of Mating Systems
Why geography, offspring vulnerability, and resources—not romance—determine whether species pair for life or play the field.
Why Viruses Get Less Deadly: The Evolution of Virulence
Killing your host is usually bad strategy—how transmission ecology shapes whether diseases devastate or merely inconvenience
Why Animals Commit Infanticide: The Dark Logic of Killing Young
Evolution doesn't care about suffering—it cares about reproductive success, and sometimes killing infants wins.
Why Cooperation Beats Selfishness: Game Theory in the Wild
How mathematical logic explains why helping others became evolution's winning move
The Secret Social Lives of Trees: Competition and Cooperation in Forests
Trees share resources, recognize kin, and communicate through underground fungal networks—forests are far more connected than they appear.
Why We Age: The Evolutionary Theory Behind Growing Old
Evolution doesn't make mistakes with aging—it makes trade-offs that favor reproduction over longevity
Island Giants and Dwarfs: Why Evolution Works Differently on Islands
Islands rewrote evolution's rules—and created creatures tragically unprepared for a changing world
Mimicry Masters: How Harmless Animals Steal Dangerous Disguises
How evolution turns harmless creatures into convincing imposters, exploiting predator memory to survive without the cost of being truly dangerous.
The Evolution of Sleep: Why All Animals Risk Unconsciousness
Every animal on Earth accepts the danger of unconsciousness—because the alternative is worse.
Why Birds Migrate Thousands of Miles Instead of Staying Put
The evolutionary math behind why some birds risk everything to travel while others stay home.
The Evolution of Disgust: Why Rotten Food Repels and What It Reveals About Human Nature
How an ancient defense against parasites became the foundation for human morality and social judgment
The Arms Race That Never Ends: How Predators and Prey Shape Each Other
Why evolution's most spectacular innovations emerge from the relentless pressure of predators and prey constantly adapting against each other
The Selfish Gene Paradox: Why Animals Help Relatives at Their Own Cost
How William Hamilton's simple equation revealed that evolution favors helping relatives because shared genes make sacrifice profitable.
Why Sex Exists: Evolution's Most Expensive Invention
Discover why evolution pays the steep price of sexual reproduction to outrun parasites and escape genetic decay.
Why Grandmothers Exist: The Evolutionary Puzzle of Post-Reproductive Life
Human grandmothers evolved because helping grandchildren survive spreads genes more effectively than continuing to reproduce—a strategy shared only with killer whales.
Why Zebras Have Stripes: The Surprising Truth Behind Nature's Most Debated Pattern
How scientists finally solved a 150-year evolutionary mystery by looking past the lions to the flies
The Peacock's Dilemma: How Costly Displays Actually Help Survival
Discover why evolution's most extravagant displays are actually unfakeable proof of genetic quality—and what this reveals about human luxury and achievement.
How Plants Wage Chemical Warfare: The Hidden Battle in Every Garden
Discover how 400 million years of plant-herbivore warfare accidentally created modern medicine's most powerful compounds.