mathematical biology – Quanta Magazine

How Is Science Even Possible?

Steven Strogatz — Thu, 20 Jun 2024 13:20:11 +0000

The universe seems like it should be unfathomably complex. How then is science able to crack fundamental questions about nature and life? Scientists and philosophers alike have often commented on the “unreasonable” success of mathematics at describing the universe. That success has helped science probe some profound mysteries — but as the physicist Nigel Goldenfeld points out, it also helps that...

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Can We Program Our Cells?

Steven Strogatz — Wed, 08 Mar 2023 21:41:58 +0000

Making living cells blink fluorescently like party lights may sound frivolous. But the demonstration that it’s possible could be a step toward someday programming our body’s immune cells to attack cancers more effectively and safely. That’s the promise of the field called synthetic biology. While molecular biologists strip cells down to their component genes and molecules to see how they work...

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How Do Fireflies Flash in Sync? Studies Suggest a New Answer.

Joshua Sokol — Tue, 20 Sep 2022 14:36:23 +0000

In Japanese folk traditions, they symbolize departing souls or silent, ardent love. Some Indigenous cultures in the Peruvian Andes view them as the eyes of ghosts. And across various Western cultures, fireflies, glow-worms and other bioluminescent beetles have been linked to a dazzling and at times contradictory array of metaphoric associations: “childhood, crop, doom, elves, fear, habitat change...

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Hidden Chaos Found to Lurk in Ecosystems

Joanna Thompson — Wed, 27 Jul 2022 13:29:09 +0000

Physical scientists seem to find the phenomenon of chaos everywhere: in the orbits of planets, in weather systems, in a river’s swirling eddies. For nearly three decades, ecologists considered chaos in the living world to be surprisingly rare by comparison. A new analysis, however, reveals that chaos is far more prevalent in ecosystems than researchers thought. Tanya Rogers was looking back...

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At the Dawn of Life, Heat May Have Driven Cell Division

Carrie Arnold — Tue, 23 Nov 2021 14:42:48 +0000

An elegant ballet of proteins enables modern cells to replicate themselves. During cell division, structural proteins and enzymes coordinate the duplication of DNA, the division of a cell’s cytoplasmic contents, and the cinching of the membrane that cleaves the cell. Getting these processes right is crucial because errors can lead to daughter cells that are abnormal or unviable.

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