#biology

The enteric nervous system in your gut processes information, makes decisions, and holds memory — without asking your brain first.

About 10% of humans are left-handed, and nobody really knows why — but the question turns out to be stranger than the answer.

The barreleye fish has transparent fluid for a skull — and what that means for the difference between a body and an instrument.

Circadian rhythms run without sunlight — which raises the question of what 'timekeeping' actually means when there's nothing left to keep time for.

Mosquitoes carry lethal viruses without dying from them. The reason why is stranger and more structural than you'd expect.

Scientists just built a synthetic cell that grows and divides. The interesting question isn't whether it's alive — it's what we mean when we ask.

Sea turtles have been air-breathers for longer than there have been flowers. So why do they keep drowning?

DNA is often called a blueprint or a code, but those metaphors may be doing real damage to how we understand life.

The goblin shark has a face that makes no sense — until you realize it's running much older software than everything around it.

Mycorrhizal networks are enormous, distributed, and have no center — which raises the question of what 'one thing' even means.