2019

Apparently, design is okay if microbes do it: It seems so obvious that someone should have thought of it decades ago: Since parasites have plagued eukaryotic life for millions of years, their prevalence likely affected evolution. Psychologist Marco Del Giudice of the University of New Mexico is not the first researcher to suggest that the evolution of the human brain could have been influenced by parasites that manipulate host behavior. But tired of waiting for neurologists to pick up the ball and run with it, he has published a paper in the Quarterly Review of Biology that suggests four categories of adaptive host countermeasures against brain-manipulating parasites and the likely evolutionary responses of the parasites themselves. The idea has implications Read More ›

Watch a single cell become a complete organism in six minutes of timelapse. Hat tip Aeon: See also: Before you go: DNA uses “climbers’ ropes method” to keep tangles at bay DNA as a master of resource recycling The amazing energy efficiency of cells: A science writer compares the cell to human inventions and finds that it is indeed amazingly energy-efficient. In addition to DNA, our cells have an instruction language written in sugar Of course it all just tumbled into existence and “natural selection” somehow organized everything. As if. Cells find optimal solutions. Not just good ones. Researchers build “public library” to help understand photosynthesis Wait. “The part of the plant responsible for photosynthesis is like a complex machine Read More ›