The New York Times, August 16, 2005

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Michael Ellison has a dream: to reconstruct a living thing inside a computer, down to every last molecule. It is, he said, “the ultimate goal in biology to be able to do this.”

It’s a dream that Dr. Ellison, a biologist at the University of Alberta, shares with other scientists, who have imagined such an achievement for decades.

Understanding how all of the parts of an organism work together would lift biology to a new level, they argue. Biologists would be able to understand life as deeply as engineers understand the bridges and airplanes that they build.

Continue reading “Building a Virtual Microbe, Gene by Gene by Gene” →

The New York Times, August 11, 2005

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Malaria is a devastating disease, striking an estimated 300 million to 500 million people a year and killing more than a million of them.

Scientists have long wondered how the parasite that causes malaria manages to be so successful.

New research has shown an unexpected source of its success. The parasite – a single-cell creature, plasmodium, carried by mosquitoes – makes infected humans smell more attractive to mosquitoes.

Continue reading “New explanations for malaria’s reach” →

The New York Times, August 9, 2005

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I recently spent a few days recovering from having my appendix removed. As I padded around my house in my pajamas, I pondered that dear departed bit of my gut.

I only became aware of my appendix when it flared with infection. Soon I was lying in an ambulance, with a paramedic poking at my abdomen. “Oh yeah,” he said, and went back to filling out paperwork.

Continue reading “The Riddle of the Appendix” →

The New York Times, August 9, 2005

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Malaria is a staggeringly devastating disease, striking an estimated 300 million to 500 million people a year and killing more than a million of them. Scientists have long wondered how the parasite that causes malaria — a single-cell creature, plasmodium, carried by mosquitoes — manages to be so successful.

New research has shown an unexpected source of its success. The parasite makes infected humans smell more attractive to mosquitoes.

Continue reading “Manipulative Malaria Parasite Makes You More Attractive (to Mosquitoes)” →

The New York Times, August 2, 2005

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Richard Prum, a Yale ornithologist, was hiking through an Ecuadorean forest 18 years ago when he had one of the strangest experiences an ornithologist can have. He watched a bird sing with its wings.

Dr. Prum was observing a male club-winged manakin. The tiny red-headed bird was hopping acrobatically from branch to branch in order to attract female manakins. And from time to time, the male would wave its wings over its back. Each time the manakin produced a loud, clear tone that sounded as if it came from a violin.

“I was just utterly stunned,” Dr. Prum said. “There’s literally no bird in the world that does anything that prepares you for it. It’s totally unique.”

Continue reading “A New Kind of Birdsong: Music on the Wing in the Forests of Ecuador” →