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Viviane Callier

Contributing Writer

Looping video of chloroplasts moving within the walled cells of the pond plant Elodea.
Abstractions blog

Plant Cells of Different Species Can Swap Organelles

By Viviane Callier
January 20, 2021
Read Later

In grafted plants, shrunken chloroplasts can jump between species by slipping through unexpected gateways in cell walls.

Video artwork showing yellow blobs move, merge, split, shrink and enlarge inside a clear cube.
molecular biology

A Newfound Source of Cellular Order in the Chemistry of Life

By Viviane Callier
January 7, 2021
Read Later

Inside cells, droplets of biomolecules called condensates merge, divide and dissolve. Their dance may regulate vital processes.

Colorized micrograph of a cell’s nucleus, showing euchromatin and heterochromatin.
Abstractions blog

Scientists Find Vital Genes Evolving in Genome’s Junkyard

By Viviane Callier
November 16, 2020
Read Later

Even genes essential for life can be caught in an evolutionary arms race that forces them to change or be replaced.

Close-up photo of a carpenter ant queen carrying eggs.
evolution

How Two Became One: Origins of a Mysterious Symbiosis Found

By Viviane Callier
September 9, 2020
Read Later

Carpenter ants need endosymbiotic bacteria to guide the early development of their embryos. New work has reconstructed how this deep partnership evolved.

Illustration of two fantastical creatures. One lifts an urn in its arms. The other lacks arms but lifts the urn on its tail.
evolution

By Losing Genes, Life Often Evolved More Complexity

By Viviane Callier
September 1, 2020
Read Later

Recent major surveys show that reductions in genomic complexity — including the loss of key genes — have successfully shaped the evolution of life throughout history.

genomics

Where Do New Genes Come From?

By Viviane Callier
April 9, 2020
Read Later

In their search for sources of genetic novelty, researchers find that some “orphan genes” with no obvious ancestors evolve out of junk DNA, contrary to old assumptions.

Illustration of two strips of movie film coiled around each other in a double helix.
behavior

Inherited Learning? It Happens, but How Is Uncertain

By Viviane Callier
October 16, 2019
Read Later

Studies suggest that epigenetics allows some learned adaptive responses to be passed down to new generations. The question is how.

Illustration of DNA that combines elements of mealybug and bacterial imagery.
evolution

Cell-Bacteria Mergers Offer Clues to How Organelles Evolved

By Viviane Callier
October 3, 2019
Read Later

Cells in symbiotic partnership, sometimes nested one within the other and functioning like organelles, can borrow from their host’s genes to complete their own metabolic pathways.

Illustration: a virus broken up into parts over several cells
viruses

Viruses Can Scatter Their Genes Among Cells and Reassemble

By Viviane Callier
May 21, 2019
Read Later

Some viruses can replicate without infecting any one cell with all their genes.


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