Enzymes are molecular machines that carry out the chemical reactions that sustain all life, an ability that has captured the attention of scientists like me[1].

Consider muscle movement. Your body releases a molecule called acetylcholine to trigger your muscle cells to contract. If acetylcholine sticks around for too long, it can paralyze your...

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Most major biological molecules, including all proteins, DNA and RNA, point in one direction[1] or another. In other words, they are chiral, or handed[2]. Like how your left glove fits only your left hand and your right glove your right hand, chiral molecules can interact only with other molecules of compatible handedness.

Two chiralities...

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a large white buidling with tall greco-roman columns

The city of Lancaster, Pennsylvania, was shaken by revelations in December 2023 that two local teenage boys shared hundreds of nude images[1] of girls in their community over a private chat on the social chat platform Discord. Witnesses said the photos easily could have been mistaken for real ones, but they were fake. The boys had used an...

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Do artists and scientists see the same thing in the shape of trees? As a scientist[1] who studies branching patterns in living things, I’m starting to think so.

White, red, yellow, blue and black rectangles separated by an irregular grid of black lines.
‘Tableau I’ by Piet Mondrian, 1921. Kunstmuseum Den Haag

Piet Mondrian[2] was an early 20th-century abstract artist and art theorist obsessed with simplicity and essence of...

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