Cohort Program Blog, Interviews and Other Writing

Mangan, R. J. (Spring 2023). Our “Junk DNA” Is More Important Than We Once Thought. PBS Eons.

Almost two and half millions of years ago, the microscopic marine plankton species Globoconella puncticulata went extinct during a period of intense glacier formation across the Northern Hemisphere. Why did G. puncticulata go extinct when other ecologically similar species survived, including some to the present data? And what might its story have to teach…

The star-nosed mole is aptly named. Its distinctive snout consists of twenty-two tendrils ringing a pair of nostrils and, from some angles, the entire setup resembles a misshapen star. The tendrils are fleshy and look a bit like fingers and, like fingers, they have a certain “manual” dexterity. But why? Why does the mole have such a singular appendage as opposed to…