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Cells Across the Tree of Life Exchange ‘Text Messages’ Using RNA
Long known as a messenger within cells, RNA is increasingly seen as life’s molecular communication system — even between organisms widely separated by evolution. For a molecule of RNA, the...
The Viral Paleontologist Who Unearths Pathogens’ Deep Histories
...Calvignac-Spencer’s experience working modern viruses convinced him of the need to reconstruct their evolutionary histories. He now leads the department of pathogen evolution at the Helmholtz Institute for One Health....
The Physics of Cold Water May Have Jump-Started Complex Life
...his idea over the years but was otherwise uninvolved with the work. The field is overflowing with papers about triggers for the evolution of animal multicellularity that draw on geochemical...
Tracing the Hidden Hand of Magnetism in the Galaxy
...magnetism on the evolution of stars and galaxies, and Clark is one of the scientists spearheading this effort. As the leader of the Cosmic Magnetism and Interstellar Physics group at...
How Is Science Even Possible?
...like, the reasonable ineffectiveness of mathematics in biology. Because, in fact, the real code is a product of evolution. And there’s nothing special about the number 20. So, this is...
The Mystery of the Missing Multicellular Prokaryotes
...flaw in the way many people were thinking about evolution. It is easy to assume that evolution is synonymous with natural selection, the force that weeds out less advantageous forms...
Tiny Tweaks to Neurons Can Rewire Animal Motion
Altering a protein in the neurons that coordinate a rattlesnake’s movement made a slow slither neuron more like a speedy rattle neuron, showing one way evolution can generate new ways...
Cellular Self-Destruction May Be Ancient. But Why?
...membrane are all that remains. “It’s really amazing how fast, how organized it is,” said Aurora Nedelcu, an evolutionary biologist at the University of New Brunswick who has studied the...
Mollusk Eyes Reveal How Future Evolution Depends on the Past
The visual systems of an obscure group of mollusks provide a rare natural example of path-dependent evolution, in which a critical fork in the creatures’ past determined their evolutionary futures....