Feature Life

Scientists dig up proteins from the past

Evolutionary biochemists are treating ancient proteins like storytelling fossils

illustration of ancient proteins

BLAST FROM THE PAST  To learn how today’s proteins evolved, scientists are reconstructing ancient molecules.

James Provost

By Jennifer Michalowski

This article is only available to Science News subscribers.

Subscribers, enter your e-mail address to access our archives.

Not a subscriber?

Science News is a nonprofit.

Support us by subscribing now.

More Stories from Science News on Life

  1. Ancient ostracod species mating
    Animals

    A tiny crustacean fossil contains roughly 100-million-year-old giant sperm

    By Curtis Segarra
  2. Pit viper
    Animals

    Cheap, innovative venom treatments could save tens of thousands of snakebite victims

    By Christie Wilcox
  3. SARS-Cov-2, the virus that causes COVID-19 (left) and influenza (H1N1 shown in green)
    Health & Medicine

    What will happen when COVID-19 and the flu collide this fall?

    By Tina Hesman Saey
  4. San Francisco Bay bridge smoky skyline
    Environment

    What we know and don’t know about wildfire smoke’s health risks

    By Aimee Cunningham
  5. a microscopic image of Naegleria fowleri
    Microbes

    50 years ago, scientists were on the trail of a brain-eating amoeba

    By Maria Temming
  6. illustration on an ancient Lystrosaurus
    Paleontology

    Ancient Lystrosaurus tusks may show the oldest signs of a hibernation-like state

    By Susan Milius
  7. tobacco hawkmoth drinking from a plant
    Environment

    This moth may outsmart smog by learning to like pollution-altered aromas

    By Carmen Drahl
  8. New Zealand wine grape field
    Agriculture

    How does a crop’s environment shape a food’s smell and taste?

    By Carolyn Beans

From the Nature Index

Paid Content