• A Thing of Beauty

    by Elio — We can at­test to these truths through a lone piece of am­ber. Be­tween 50 and 35 mil­lion years ago, a spring­tail (Collem­bola) got stuck in some resin, prob­a­bly from a conifer. Be­fore it could free it­self, more resin dripped on it, even­tu­ally en­tomb­ing it com­pletely. In time, the resin be­came am­ber, but be­fore that hap­pened, a fun­gus grew...

  • Lin­gua Franca (Lipid Di­vi­sion)

    by Elio — A long, long time ago, a bio­chemist friend of mine said to me jok­ingly (I think): "When I hear the word lipid, I reach for my gun!" I'm not sure it was all that funny then, but any at­tempts at dis­parag­ing hu­mor must cease now. A month doesn't go by with­out a re­port of a new role that lipids play in es­sen­tial life processes.