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Swirling Bacteria Linked to the Physics of Phase Transitions
The new experiments suggest that simple models can explain the behavior of thousands of interacting organisms.
A Map of Human History, Hidden in DNA
The computational biologist John Novembre uses our genetic code to rewrite the history of humanity.
Solution: ‘A Ticking Evolutionary Clock’
How to calculate when a gene’s rate of evolution will slow to a crawl.
A Ticking Evolutionary Clock
How quickly will a gene’s rate of evolution slow to a crawl?
Evolution Runs Faster on Short Timescales
Examine evolution over the course of years or centuries, and you’ll find that it progresses much more quickly than it does over geologic time.
Why Did Life Move to Land? For the View
The ancient creatures who first crawled onto land may have been lured by the informational benefit that comes from seeing through air.
Researchers Tap a Sleep Switch in the Brain
Powerful new experiments have uncovered some of the molecular underpinnings of sleep.
How Life Turns Asymmetric
Scientists are uncovering how our bodies — and everything within them — tell right from left.
How Life (and Death) Spring From Disorder
Life was long thought to obey its own set of rules. But as simple systems show signs of lifelike behavior, scientists are arguing about whether this apparent complexity is all a consequence of thermodynamics.