Richard Dawkins's review of The Social Conquest of Earth, by Edward O Wilson (WW Norton, £18.99, May)

One of the first creatures to step on land could not have walked on four legs, 3D computer models show.

Cells linked to empathy and consciousness in primates may offer clues to human self-awareness

Researchers have encoded a form of rewritable memory into DNA.

Live Slow, Die Old
Ancient bacteria living in deep-sea sediments are alive—but with metabolisms so slow that it’s hard to tell.

Group finds circadian clock common to almost all life forms
- A group of biology researchers, led by Akhilesh Reddy from Cambridge University have found an enzyme that they believe serves as a circadian clock that operates in virtually all forms of life. In a paper published in the journal Nature, they describe a class of enzymes known as peroxiredoxins which are present in almost all plants and other organisms and which appear to serve as a basic ingredient in non-feedback loop biological clocks.