The goal of CASP is fourfold: (1) capacity building of conceptual, theoretical, and empirical resources to facilitate new research configurations and strategies that advance inquiry distinctly; (2) community formation and sustenance to nurture an ever-increasing group of scholars pursuing these themes through a variety of methods and mechanisms; (3) synergy across different research projects and disciplinary approaches to capitalize on researchers who are unaware of or not connected with others working on the core ideas reflected in the Science of Purpose initiative; and (4) visibility, to raise the profile of these researchers and their projects to a wider audience, both within and outside academia, and ultimately to the general public.
In support of these goals, we post news here about consortium members' work and accolades as well as consortium-led opportunities for involvement in meetings, workshops, essay contests, collaborations, and more.
If you have a news item you would like to share here, please email Keely.
We are excited to announce the first in a series of research videos showcasing the work being done by members of the Consortium.
In this video, authors César Flores López, Natsuko Rivera-Yoshida, Alejandro V. Arzola, Adrian Arturo Huerta Hernández, and Mariana Benítez explain some of the work they are doing to show that the trails Myxococcus bacteria form as they move eventually percolate into a highly connected network, which promotes encounters at the population level and the formation of increasingly large cellular aggregates. The authors go on to say that, "while modifying their environment, these bacteria build conditions that favor their multicellular organization."
Does life have a purpose? PI of CASP Alan Love argues that the answer is not as simple as yes or no. Watch below or on YouTube.
Join host Siddhant Pusdekar as he explores "How the earth shapes life and natural selection with Richard Boyle" in the start of the Purpose Podcast's second series.
Listen to S2, Ep1.
Du, M., Wang, Y., Tan, J., Wang, W., Hu, R., Algeo, T. J., Boyle, R. A., Harper, D. A. T., & Servais, T. (2026). Heterogeneous diversification dynamics reshaped early Paleozoic marine evolutionary history. Earth-Science Reviews, 276, 105427.
Alpay, B. A., Nanda, P., Nagy, E., & Desai, M. M. (2026). Amino acid exchangeability and surface accessibility underpin the effects of single substitutions. Genetics, iyag104.