Optimal packing problems have inspired mathematicians for centuries. Biophysicists now add a layer to the question: how do chloroplasts arrange themselves optimally within cells, when the meaning of ...

There’s often little agreement when it comes to Chautauqua Lake. This year, in our opinion, most reasonable people agreed that conditions on the lake were a mess, particularly in the south basin. The ...

This week, a friend sent me our horoscope—we’re both Gemini—from Seven Days, a beloved Vermont weekly, because, improbably, it was about the sea slug I’d been telling her about just days before. “The ...

SOME SEA slugs are kleptomaniacs. Elysia crispata, a species of these marine molluscs found in the western Atlantic and the Caribbean, is among the most notorious. When the slugs eat algae, their ...

A certain species of sea slug steals chloroplasts from algae and houses its contraband in special organelles that it can raid for food in times of need “It was the wildest thing that we had seen,” ...

More than a billion years ago a hungry cell devoured a tiny blue-green alga. But instead of the former simply digesting the latter, the duo struck a remarkable evolutionary deal. Now scientists are ...

Known for its uncanny resemblance to the TV character Shaun the Sheep, this adorable sea slug munches on algae to steal its ability to photosynthesize and become solar-powered. When you purchase ...

Breakthroughs, discoveries, and DIY tips sent six days a week. Terms of Service and Privacy Policy. Researchers say they have successfully cultivated animal cells ...

How would you like it if you could recharge just by sitting out in the Sun? The ability to use sunlight to convert carbon dioxide (CO2) and water into oxygen and energy is traditionally the exclusive ...

Chloroplasts, the parts of cells that allow plants and algae to photosynthesize, are thought to have originated more than 1 billion years ago, when photosynthetic cyanobacteria lived symbiotically ...

The ability of plants to convert sunlight into food is an enviable superpower. Now, researchers have shown they can get animal cells to do the same thing. Photosynthesis in plants and algae is ...