11/11/2014

How mutualisms evolve in a world of selfish genes

Reproduction for a female fig wasp can be a nightmarish process. When she is ready to lay her eggs, she leaves the fig in which she was born and became pregnant and searches for another. After she finds it, she enters it ...

It's possible to write flaw-free software, so why don't we?

Legendary Dutch computer scientist Edsger W Dijkstra famously remarked that "testing shows the presence, not the absence of bugs". In fact the only definitive way to establish that software is correct and bug-free is through ...

Arctic ground squirrel sheds light on circadian rhythms

The Arctic ground squirrel has developed highly specialized adaptations to extreme environments, and it has a lot to teach us about circadian rhythms and biological clocks. This species maintains circadian rhythms throughout ...

A close-up with a comet

Even as Tom Economou approached retirement age in 1994, he began planning an instrument for the European Space Agency's Rosetta mission to a comet. He still remembers the reaction of Riccardo Levi-Setti, then director of ...

page 9 from 11