Shaking the foundations of life
Evolution never stops – and disruptions can speed up the process. Now ETH researchers are delving deeper into the secrets of evolutionary change.
Change is one of the driving forces behind evolution: all organisms, from bacteria to elephants, must constantly change and adapt to deal with challenges such as increasing competition for food and space, food scarcity, environmental changes and climate change. Failure to adapt means extinction.
Two examples:
Success through cooperation, research by Gregory Velicer, Professor of Evolutionary Biology. He studies the social behaviour of microbes.
Dramatic doubling of the genome, research by Kirsten Bomblies, Professor of Plant Evolutionary Genetics. She conducts research into adaptive evolution in plants and member of the Swiss Plant Science Web.