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Genome Duplication Is a Radical Evolutionary Gamble
By doubling their entire genome, organisms can evolve extremely rapidly — or they can lose it all. New studies reveal how to survive the high-risk, high-reward evolutionary event.
A New Framework for How the Brain Compresses Our Noisy World
An updated view of categorization reflects the modern understanding that the nervous system is more of a prediction engine than a filing cabinet.
Why Aging May Be a Program, Not a Breakdown
By deciphering the molecular signatures of millions of mouse cells, Junyue Cao has found that aging is not haphazard wear and tear but rather a “remodeling of the cell society.”
How Does Touch Lead To Pain Or Pleasure?
Neuroscientist Ishmail Abdus-Saboor discusses efforts to understand how skin contact can be painful or pleasurable, and what touch-obsessed naked mole rats might teach us about human social behavior.
Corals Spin Tiny Vortices to Get Oxygen, but Not if It’s Too Hot
New research is helping biologists understand how an overlooked aspect of coral physiology may affect their fate under climate change.
A New Way That a Cow’s Inner World Shapes Earth’s Atmosphere
An organelle discovered inside a microbe inside a cow’s gut helps explain how livestock burps contribute to warming our planet.
The Organisms That Make Earth’s Harshest Places Home
Extremophiles that thrive in the most unforgiving environments aren’t just biological curiosities. Understanding their resilience has many implications for us.
Martin Picard’s Mitochondrial Theory of Mind
The biologist’s bold “energetic view of life” looks to the body’s strangest organelles as the link between cells, health, and mind and the foundation of our experience of being alive.
Why Am I Left-Handed?
An invisible difference in 10% of humans poses deep mysteries in several fields at once.