Podcast Listen in: The Secret Body August 24, 2021 Imagine knowing years in advance whether you are likely to get cancer or having a personalized understanding of your individual genes, organs, and cells. Imagine being able to monitor your body’s well-being, or have a diet tailored to your microbiome. Read More
Essay The birth of biology July 29, 2021 It is impossible to pinpoint the precise moment when the first notions of our modern understanding of biology emerged. Our interest in the natural world is not a new phenomenon—a preoccupation with reproduction, birth, and the nature of disease, as well as descriptions of animal and plant species, can be traced back to ancient times. Read More
Podcast Listen in: Delicious April 22, 2021 Start listening to Chapter 1 of Delicious by Rob Dunn and Monica Sanchez—a savory account of how the pursuit of delicious foods shaped human evolution. Read More
Video A cordial invitation to explore the science and history of flavor April 13, 2021 Nature, it has been said, invites us to eat by appetite and rewards by flavor. But what exactly are flavors? Why are some so pleasing while others are not? Read More
Essay Wasps, and their unsung contributions to the ecosystem February 27, 2021 The sting. Pain is what we associate with the word “wasp,” because our definition of wasp is far too narrow. Read More
Essay Celebrating women in STEM February 11, 2021 International Day of Women and Girls in Science marks an opportunity to celebrate the brilliant women whose ideas have graced our bookshelves and touched our minds. Read More
Essay Jeremy DeSilva on A Most Interesting Problem January 22, 2021 On February 24, 1871 Charles Darwin published The Descent of Man, and Selection in Relation to Sex, a follow-up to his most famous book On the Origin of Species. Read More
Podcast Can we bring extinct species back? January 05, 2021 Could extinct species, like mammoths and passenger pigeons, be brought back to life? In How to Clone a Mammoth, Beth Shapiro, an evolutionary biologist and pioneer in ancient DNA research, addresses this intriguing question by walking readers through the astonishing and controversial process of de-extinction. Read More
Interview By Design | Setting A Series of Fortunate Events in motion October 26, 2020 In a world governed by chance, one book peers into the randomness of existence. From cosmic collisions and tectonic shifts to the infinitesimal accidents of biology, Sean B. Carroll’s A Series of Fortunate Events ranges across time and space, showing how chance occurrences brought us to where we are, fashioned us as we are, and contributed to all the beauty and diversity we see around us. Read More
Podcast Listen in: A Series of Fortunate Events October 23, 2020 A Series of Fortunate Events tells the story of the awesome power of chance and how it is the surprising source of all the beauty and diversity in the living world. Enjoy listening to this free audio sample, recorded by the author himself. Read More
Interview Sean B. Carroll on The Serengeti Rules October 12, 2020 “The Serengeti Rules” won the Emmy Award for Outstanding Nature Documentary during the 41st annual News and Documentary Awards ceremony on September 22 and was nominated as a finalist for best cinematography. In the fields of biological and environmental studies, Sean B. Carroll has made a name for himself not only as a scientist, writer, and educator, but as a storyteller. Read More
Video A Series of Fortunate Events book trailer September 17, 2020 Like every other species, we humans are here by accident. But it is shocking just how many things—any of which might never have occurred—had to happen in certain ways for any of us to exist. Read More
Interview Rethinking how we view and manage cancer March 16, 2020 When we think of the forces driving cancer, we don’t necessarily think of evolution. But evolution and cancer are closely linked, for the historical processes that created life also created cancer. Read More
Essay In Dialogue with Susan Mattern and Richard Bribiescas: Reframing how we think about aging October 09, 2019 Are we looking at male/female aging all wrong? Susan Mattern and Richard Bribiescas discuss. Read More
Essay In Dialogue: Reframing how we think about bugs August 26, 2019 We live in a world dominated by insects. Sometimes it may seem to us that all of them are pests, but in reality, pest species are an infinitesimally small component of our biodiversity. Read More
