Metaphors like the Great Chain of Being can lead people to misunderstand evolution and humanity’s place in the web of life.
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A gigantic bacterium evolved differently than fundamental models of biology would have predicted. Simply put, these bacteria shouldn’t exist.
Tech entrepreneur Alvin Wang Graylin sketches out a bold new age of AI-led enlightenment underscored by compassion.
Bathybius haeckelii was briefly thought to be the link between inorganic matter and organic life.
Livestock now outweighs wild mammals and birds ten-fold.
Observations of an enormous cosmic structure, dubbed the “Big Ring,” seem to violate the Copernican principle.
There might be a hard limit to our knowledge of the Universe.
Evolution repeatedly hit upon this solution simply because it works.
Like sneaking veggies into dessert, these board games teach STEM, strategy, and executive functions through the joys of play.
Known as the Great Oxygenation Event, Earth froze over as oxygen accumulated in our atmosphere, nearly driving all life extinct.
Public mass shooters almost always have worldviews shaped by the “3 Rs”: rage, resentment, and revenge.
Human beings are descendants of these early tetrapods – at least those who made a new life on land.
Researchers are finding signs of multiple phases of sleep all over the animal kingdom. The ‘active’ sleep phases look very much like REM.
There will always be “wolf-criers” whose claims wither under scrutiny. But aliens are certainly out there, if science dares to find them.
33 years ago, the theoretical biologist Robert Rosen offered an answer to the question “Is life computable?”
Neuroscientist Christof Koch on human minds, AI, and bacteria.
The laws of physics don’t prefer matter over antimatter. So how can we be certain that distant stars & galaxies aren’t made of antimatter?
The world is facing many crises, and we should look to natural interdependence and ancient wisdom as we explore science for solutions.
A reader asks whether we have an ethical responsibility to always debate bad beliefs, especially those that come from our elders.
As the world warms, trees in forests such as those in Minnesota will no longer be adapted to their local climates. That’s where assisted migration comes in.
According to Peter Ward’s “Medea hypothesis,” photosynthesizing organisms regularly doom most life on Earth by over-consuming carbon dioxide.
Its apples taste bad, but institutions all over the world want a descendant or clone of the tree, anyway.
Although mammals may be the dominant form of life today, we’re relative newcomers on planet Earth. Here’s our place in natural history.
Probably not. Even though we’re still investigating the origin of life, the evidence suggests that cells came much later.
We don’t know what causes Miyake events, but these great surges of energy can help us understand the past — while posing a threat to our future.
To be successful at bonsai cultivation, you must acquire the perseverance and unconditional kindness normally reserved for devout monks.
Financial expert Paula Pant explains how you can afford anything, but not everything.
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Mammals have a history stretching back 325 million years. To study that ancient history is to know our own origins.
Ignoring the legacy of William Shakespeare is difficult for any writer, let alone one as quintessentially English as “Lord of the Rings” author J.R.R. Tolkien.