Biology

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.

Coils and twirls in DNA’s double-helix change how the molecule behaves, opening a new role for topology in the study of life.

Nature offers species a panoply of ways to determine an organism’s sex. That flexibility suggests we need not be concerned about losing sex chromosomes, but it raises the question of why such a fundamental property is so variable.

The polymath Christoph Adami is investigating life’s origins by reimagining life as self-perpetuating information strings.

Scientists have begun to identify the symphony of biological triggers that powered the extraordinary expansion of the human brain.