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by Ziqi Chen figures by Rebecca Senft We live in a universe of viruses. It is estimated that there are billions of types of viruses on earth, and ~320,000 types that infect mammals alone. Many viral species exist in our surrounding environment. As we…

by Stephanie Smelyansky figures by Jovana Andrejevic Nature knows to quit when it’s ahead–just take a look at the horseshoe crab. Since its origins 450 million years ago, the animal has remained relatively unchanged. This living fossil continues to…

by Kevin Dervishi figures by Tal Scully You’re in the frozen goods aisle of the grocery store, surveying ice cream flavors. You’re cradling a bottle of wine–or maybe it’s a six-pack of beer. It doesn’t matter. Suddenly, someone down the aisle calls your…

by Rebecca Silberman figures by Aparna Nathan Seen through the harsh, unsentimental lens of evolutionary biology, menopause doesn’t make sense. Why don’t women live like giraffes, like tarantulas, like pigeons, reproducing throughout their lives in…

by Catherine Gutierrez figures by Aparna Nathan Forty-nine years ago, President Richard Nixon launched a “War on Cancer”. That war has not ended—it rages on today, with cancer right behind heart disease as the leading cause of death in the United States.…

by Anthony Badea figures by Anastasia Ershova Long before our world took shape, The Big Bang sent a shockwave of energy irradiating through a violently expanding Universe. In one millionth of a millionth of a second, the primordial fabric of existence…

by Lorena Lyon figures by Rebecca Senft Today, the discussion of climate change generally relates to human impact on the environment since the Industrial Revolution (1760 to mid-1800s). But, how have humans been impacting the planet before then? And how…

by Gregory Brunette figures by Daniel Utter Every year, new biology students dig for tiny, bacteria-infecting viruses called phages. Short for bacteriophages, these ubiquitous viruses thrive unseen in the world around us, replicating endlessly through…

by Sam Zimmerman  figures by Hannah Zucker If we were all mice, Alzheimer’s disease, cancer, diabetes, and most inherited disorders would be a thing of the past. We could nibble on as much cheese as we wanted without fear of heart disease and run around…