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 Joan Strassmann discusses cooperation in social insects, how amoebas can teach us about competition, and why the definition of “organism” needs an overhaul.
By examining regions shared between some of nature’s most variable genes, malaria researchers are piecing together an understanding of a deadly parasite.
Cellular clocks are almost everywhere. Clues to how they work are coming from the places they’re not.
Disease is the result of failure somewhere along the line in a complex dance of biological components. Now statistical physicists are using enormous databases of medical records to study connections between illnesses.
Nature’s large-scale patterns emerge from incomplete surveys that borrow ideas from information theory.