Topics
Cellular, molecular, evolutionary, and developmental biology — the mechanisms that connect a single sequence of bases to the diversity of living form.
Where the biology writing on this site is organized.
The cell as the fundamental unit of life — its architecture, energetics, signaling, and the methods used to study it.
Molecular genetics, genomics, and the evolution of genetic systems — what sequencing has revealed, what it cannot resolve.
Selection, drift, development, and the modern synthesis — including the parts of it that are quietly being revised.
One in-depth foundation article per subtopic — the recommended entry point.
A cell is the smallest unit that can sustain itself, copy itself, and respond to its environment. Each of those requirements rules out what "cell" doesn't mean — and explains why borderline cases are interesting.
DNA is a four-letter molecular code that stores the information needed to build and run a cell. Understanding what it does — and the equally important things it does not do — is the foundation of modern biology.
If cell types — not organs or networks — are what selection conserves, the standard textbook story about animal evolution needs structural revision.
Most recently updated writing across all subtopics.
Beyond Symbiodinium shuffling, the bacterial community surrounding coral tissue appears to mediate heat tolerance — and it can be partially seeded.
A cell is the smallest unit that can sustain itself, copy itself, and respond to its environment. Each of those requirements rules out what "cell" doesn't mean — and explains why borderline cases are interesting.
Cell-type atlases across species are revealing that the conserved unit of evolution may be the cell type, not the gene network.
DNA is a four-letter molecular code that stores the information needed to build and run a cell. Understanding what it does — and the equally important things it does not do — is the foundation of modern biology.
If cell types — not organs or networks — are what selection conserves, the standard textbook story about animal evolution needs structural revision.
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