Biology

A project to decipher the brain’s learning rules could revolutionize machine learning.

Scientists have created a synthetic organism that possesses only the genes it needs to survive. But they have no idea what roughly a third of those genes do.

New insights from neuroscience — aided by a small zoo’s worth of dancing animals — are revealing the biological origins of rhythm.

The biologist David Deamer proposes that life evolved from a collection of interacting molecules, probably in a pool in the shadow of a volcano.

A disarmingly simple model of ecology does everything well — except predict how rapidly nature can change. Can it become more realistic while still avoiding all of biology’s messy complexities?

The biologist Sean B. Carroll rediscovers the scientific thrill of an unexpected revelation.

Perhaps chemistry played a more instrumental role in the origin of life than scientists thought.

Searching for signs of life on faraway planets, astrobiologists must decide which telltale biosignature gases to target.

The same brain cells that track location in space appear to also count beats in time. The research suggests that our thoughts may take place on a mental space-time canvas.