What's up in
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.
Life might have originated in droplets that behave surprisingly like living cells.
Researchers have discovered that simple “chemically active” droplets grow to the size of cells and spontaneously divide, suggesting they might have evolved into the first living cells.
The biologist Marcus Feldman creates mathematical models that reveal how cultural traditions can affect the evolution of a species.
Bioluminescent organisms have evolved dozens of times over the course of life’s history. Recent studies are narrowing in on the complicated biochemistry needed to illuminate the dark.
Recent discoveries have led some researchers to argue that the modern evolutionary synthesis needs to be amended.
At first, the biologist Richard Lenski thought his long-term experiment on evolution might last for 2,000 generations. Nearly three decades and over 65,000 generations later, he’s still amazed by evolution’s “awesome inventiveness.”
The cell is equipped with multiple redundancies in case something goes wrong. Researchers have begun to map these systems.
The biologists Rosemary and Peter Grant have spent four decades on a tiny island in the Galápagos. Their discoveries reveal how new animal species can emerge in just a few generations.