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Why Extraterrestrial Life May Not Seem Entirely Alien
The zoologist Arik Kershenbaum argues that because some evolutionary challenges are truly universal, life throughout the cosmos may share certain features.
What Is Life? Its Vast Diversity Defies Easy Definition.
Scientists have struggled to formulate a universal definition of life. Is it possible they don’t need one?
New Season of The Joy of x Podcast Explores Scientists’ Inner Lives
In a second season of enlightened conversations, Steven Strogatz and leading researchers nourish our pandemic-starved minds.
How to Understand COVID-19 Variants and Their Effects on Vaccines
Researchers are tracking the different strains of SARS-CoV-2 and studying how they spread through our population and our bodies.
Artificial Neural Nets Finally Yield Clues to How Brains Learn
The learning algorithm that enables the runaway success of deep neural networks doesn’t work in biological brains, but researchers are finding alternatives that could.
Brain’s ‘Background Noise’ May Hold Clues to Persistent Mysteries
By digging out signals hidden within the brain’s electrical chatter, scientists are getting new insights into sleep, aging and more.
Some Proteins Change Their Folds to Perform Different Jobs
Unusual proteins that can quickly fold into different shapes provide cells with a novel regulatory mechanism.
The Hard Lessons of Modeling the Coronavirus Pandemic
In the fight against COVID-19, disease modelers have struggled against misunderstanding and misuse of their work. They have also come to realize how unready the state of modeling was for this pandemic.
Plant Cells of Different Species Can Swap Organelles
In grafted plants, shrunken chloroplasts can jump between species by slipping through unexpected gateways in cell walls.