All human knowing is metaphorical.
Biology
Illustration of the COVID-19 virus, a SARS variant • Photo by CDC on Unsplash
Human chromosomes • Bolzer et al. (CC BY-2.5)
The historic conflict between X and Y
Has there ever been a more astute observer of the war between the sexes than James Thurber?
Photo by Taha on Unsplash
Where nature and nurture can’t agree
NATURE: Well, my friend, you must admit that I’ve had quite the best of it lately. The human genome has been sequenced. Thousands of human genes have been identified, and hundreds more are sorted out every month. The floodgates are open.
Bahama woodstar • Photo by Under the Same Moon... (CC BY 2.0)
The power behind our invisible cells
For several weeks now I have been living with a pair of hummingbirds — Bahama woodstars, tiny creatures, about the size of my little finger.
Caenorhabditis elegans • Image by Bob Goldstein, UNC Chapel Hill (CC BY-SA 3.0)
A dialogue on a worm
“If you haven’t already met Caenorhabditis elegans, you really should. This little worm…” “Worm?”
Photo by Ralph
To our rodent kin, an ode
Wee, sleekit, cow’rin, tim’rous mousie,
Astir within the Christmas housie!
Photo by Kier In Sight on Unsplash
Life’s sweet beginnings
“How sweet it is,” said Jackie Gleason. Yes, life is sweet. Sugar is a key ingredient of all life on earth and has been since the beginning.
E. coli bacteria • Photo by Janice Haney Carr, National Escherichia, Shigella, Vibrio Reference Unit at CDC, USCDCP on Pixnio
Into the future with bacteria
It was inevitable that sooner or later we would ask bacteria to make electricity.
Ascalapha_odorata • Photo by Charles J. Sharp (CC BY-SA 4.0)
Greatest miracle is under wraps
We call it “the Year of the Bats.” Not your usual bats — the furry, warm-blooded mammals that skate the night sky and (according to myth) get caught in your hair. No, our “bats” are not bats at all; rather they are large black-brown moths with an 8‑inch wingspan, as big as an adult hand.
Photo by Matthew Wiebe on Unsplash
Memories etch sense of self
Neurologist Antonio Damasio suggests in his book “Descartes’ Error” that the great French philosopher got it backwards: Not “I think, therefore I am,” but rather “I am, therefore I think.”