Author: Marchelle Calnan

Why it’s hard to recognize the unlikely.

It’s easy to think of our cells’ inner workings as parts in a well-oiled machine—like tiny crankshafts and gears they chug along in their endless task of transcribing information from DNA, manufacturing proteins, and sending them off to transact the business of living. Much popular writing about cell biology emphasizes the exquisite precision of this […]

The mediocre universe… Depending on how you look at it, that is either a term of derision or an interesting, mind-warping concept. Cosmologists who are enamored of the theory that there are many, or perhaps infinite, universes like to look at our cosmic home and call it average, boring, run of the mill, vanilla. They […]

The reliability of some technologies depends on just the right amount of randomness.

Uncertainty in physics has gone from black sheep to overachiever.

We consume unlike any other.

What looks like the golden ratio is sometimes just fool’s gold.

The story that launched generations of scientists

A diet your grandmother would approve, why boredom isn’t edible, and what peas have to do with time travel.<

Lessons on love from two illustrated birds, or why we never really grow up.