The mid-19th century was fossil time in science.
Biology
Model of a DNA molecule • Photo by CGP Grey (CC BY 2.0)
A juvenile Rhesus macaque • Photo by Charles J. Sharp (CC BY-SA 4.0)
Grappling with moral arithmetic
An adorable 3‑month-old rhesus monkey looks out at us from the pages of the journal Science. His name is ANDi. He has, apparently, not a care in the world; a healthy little scamp who is presumably treated affectionately by his keepers.
“The Triumph of Death” by Pieter Bruegel the Elder (1562)
Plague’s cause had a job to do
For many of us of a certain age, the words “Black Death” evoke images from Ingmar Bergman’s film, “The Seventh Seal.”
Photo by Milad Fakurian on Unsplash
We’re studying our thinking
“It is not easy to live in that continuous awareness of things which alone is true living,” writes the naturalist Joseph Wood Krutch. And, of course, he is right. Our brains are separated from the world by a permeable membrane. Attention flows outward. Sense impressions flow inwards. Of this two-way traffic we create a soul.
Photo by Kelly Sikkema on Unsplash
By nature, man can turn it off
The teaser on the cover of the August [2000] issue of Scientific American was irresistible: “Men’s Sexual Circuitry.”
Photo by Levi Meir Clancy on Unsplash
Genome is not a map to the human self
“Today we are learning the language in which God created life,” gushed President Bill Clinton. “The first great technological triumph of the 21st century,” purred British Prime Minister Tony Blair.
Photo by Fusion Medical Animation on Unsplash
Those beautiful, terrible viruses
We can’t do without bacteria. Some of them cause mischief but others are essential for our survival.
Caenorhabditis elegans • Image by Bob Goldstein, UNC Chapel Hill (CC BY-SA 3.0)
In this worm, the being pulls itself into being
“How do you make a worm?”
Drosophila melanogaster • Photo by Hannah Davis (CC BY-SA 2.0)
Fruit fly joins the quest to unveil secrets of life
Drosophila melanogaster, the “black-bellied dew lover,” better known as the fruit fly, has joined the list of creatures whose DNA has been sequenced. It is the second multicelled animal to achieve this distinction, with the tiny worm Caenorhabditis elegans.
Photo by Alex Guillaume on Unsplash
Flutter of monarchs inspires gushy prose
Getting here wasn’t easy: A six-hour drive from Mexico City over sometimes terrifying mountain roads, with an overnight stay along the way in Zitácuaro; a mile-long climb by foot along a rugged trail deep in volcanic dust to 10,500 feet, then a drop into a canyon forested with fir trees.