Blogs

A closed green notebook, a cup of tea, and a sprig of rosemary on an oak desk.

Essays

Blogs

Five essays you can read in any order. They stay until the science in them changes.

Essays

A rounded translucent green cell with a glowing gold nucleus against a black background.EssayThe cell is not a factoryWhy the most successful metaphor in cell biology starts to lie, and which picture to use instead.
Tall beech trunks seen from below, rising into a green canopy.EssayHow to read a phylogenetic treeTips are not ancestors. Time has a direction. “More evolved” is not a place on the diagram.
Two outdoor rows of leafy plants, one tall and one low, held by unmarked wooden stakes.EssayWhat “significant” meansA p-value is a piece of surprise, not a measure of importance. A fictional plant trial shows the difference.
A glass dish of pale agar with scattered cream and gold colonies.EssayA planet of microbes, without the sales pitchFrom Leeuwenhoek to Woese to a sequencing read, and a warning about products that borrow the vocabulary.
A canvas field satchel and a green fern frond resting on a mossy log.PracticeKeep a field notebookDate, place, sketch, question, and the result that would change your mind.

If you want to propose another, use Contacts and say what question the essay would answer that these do not.