by Christoph — Can you imagine a children's party in Mexico without a piñata as the main attraction? One of the kids hits the suspended piñata with a stick until it bursts and the entire contents, usually sweets, splatters onto those standing around waiting expectantly. Microbiologists sometimes throw a party, too, though...
by Elio — Not long ago, we posted a piece entitled "The Awesomest Thing in Biology" in which we celebrated the mind-boggling complexities of the ocelloid, an organelle that closely resemble the vertebrate eye – in a unicellular protist! It turns out that further surprises come our way...
by Elio — Ah, endosymbiosis and the origin of eukaryotic cells… Wasn't this one of the grandest of all the grand events in Biology? In its ability to boggle the mind, it comes in second only to the origin of life. This, one of the most decisive events in evolution, had a unique character. Instead of new traits being acquired gradually, a whole bunch of them were transferred at once to a willing recipient. A single step...
