Imagine the Earth before life. No forests. No oceans teeming with fish. No whisper of wind through leaves. Only a…
Category: Biology
The Mediterranean Ghost Shark That Just Reappeared After Decades of Silence
On April 20, 2023, something extraordinary surfaced in the nets of local fishermen off Spain’s eastern peninsula. Tangled among the…
This Deadly Foodborne Bacteria Is Being Reimagined as a Secret Weapon Against Cancer
For nearly 40 years, Daniel Portnoy has been chasing a microscopic fugitive. The culprit is Listeria monocytogenes, a foodborne bacterium…
Scientists Found a 300 Million Year Old Tyrant Digger That Chose Plants Over Prey
Long before forests rustled in the wind and long before mammals roamed the Earth, life clung to the oceans. Around…
Your Chin Might Actually Be a Biological Accident Rather Than an Evolutionary Tool
In the opening line of The Maltese Falcon, Dashiell Hammett introduces Sam Spade with a jutting chin. It is a…
Scientists Uncover Evidence of a Giant Predator Hiding in Taiwan’s Ancient History
In the tropical jungles and wetlands of much of Asia, pythons are almost expected. They move silently through the undergrowth…
Scientists Discover an Ancient Sharkansas Hidden Beneath the Earth
For most of history, sharks have left behind only whispers of their existence. A tooth here. A jagged edge there.…
The Ultimate Sacrifice Where Mother Cells Empty Their Entire Souls to Create Life
At the very start of life, before there is an organism, before there is even a recognizable cell with a…
The Harmless Fungi in Your Garden May Be One Small Shift Away From Becoming Human Pathogens
For most of their existence, fungi live unnoticed lives. They break down fallen leaves, recycle nutrients, and quietly keep ecosystems…
This 125 Million Year Old Fossil Just Revealed a Dinosaur Feature Never Seen Before
For two centuries, the dinosaur group known as Iguanodontia has felt familiar to science, studied, cataloged, and seemingly well understood.…
Scientists Have Found a Way to Force Bacteria to Unlearn Their Resistance to Drugs
For decades, antibiotics have been medicine’s most dependable weapons. They turned once-fatal infections into routine treatments and gave doctors confidence…
Humans Evolved to Survive Fire and It Permanently Altered Our DNA
For most living creatures, fire is an absolute boundary. It is something to flee, a danger written deep into instinct.…
This Hidden RNA Molecule Is the Secret Glue Holding Your Cells Together
Inside every living cell, there is a constant hum of activity so familiar to biologists that it can be easy…
This 400 Million Year Old Fish Brain Is Rewriting the Story of Human Evolution
Over 400 million years ago, a world of strange, armored fish thrived in the warm, shallow seas that would one…
This New Dinosaur Was No Bigger Than a House Cat but It Is Rewriting History
The bones were astonishing the moment they emerged from the rock. Not because they were massive or fearsome, but because…
Your Body Might Be Slowing Down Its Own Healing to Save Your Life
Anyone who has watched a scraped knee linger or a pulled muscle take its time to mend later in life…
Exoskeletons: The Technology Turning Humans into Super-Hulks
The idea of amplifying human strength has haunted the human imagination for centuries. Myths speak of heroes endowed with supernatural…
Meet the 5 Centimeter Amphibian That Outlasted the Dinosaurs for Millions of Years
One hundred and fifty million years ago, the Late Jurassic world was loud with giants. Dinosaurs dominated the land, their…
Meet the Million Year Old Kākāpō Relative That Might Have Actually Flown
Near Waitomo on Aotearoa’s North Island, a quiet cave has been holding its breath for a million years. Long before…
The Universe Was in a Huge Hurry to Grow Up and This New Discovery Proves It
In the deep darkness of the early universe, only about a billion years after everything began, something astonishing was already…
Scientists Found an Ancient Brain Rhythm That Links Your Sleep to 300 Million Year Old Reptiles
Sleep feels intimate and personal, something that happens quietly behind closed eyes. Yet beneath that stillness, brains hum with activity.…
9 Planets Where It Rains Diamonds, Glass, and Acid
Rain is one of the most intimate experiences we have with a planet. On Earth, rain smells like soil and…