Single Cells Evolve Large Multicellular Forms

It took just two years.

Math and Science News from Quanta Magazine View this email in your browser EVOLUTION | ALL TOPICS   Single Cells Evolve Large Multicellular Forms in Just Two Years By VERONIQUE GREENWOOD Researchers have discovered that environments favoring clumpy growth are all that's needed to quickly transform single-celled yeast into complex multicellular organisms. Read the article COMBINATORICS   Mathematician Answers Chess Problem About Attacking Queens By LEILA SLOMAN The n-queens problem is about finding how many different ways queens can be placed on a chessboard so that none attack each other. A mathematician has now all but solved it. Read the blog Related:  A Child's Puzzle Has Helped Unlock the Secrets of Magnetism by Marcus Woo (2019) DEVELOPMENTAL BIOLOGY   Mathematical Analysis of Fruit Fly Wings Hints at Evolution's Limits By ELENA RENKEN A painstaking study of wing morphology shows both the striking uniformity of individuals in a species and a subtle pattern of linked variations that evolution can exploit. Read the blog Related:  What Is an Individual? Biology Seeks Clues in Information Theory.  by Jordana Cepelewicz (2020) QUANTIZED ACADEMY   The Simple Math Behind the Mighty Roots of Unity By PATRICK HONNER Solutions to the simplest polynomial equations — called "roots of unity" — have an elegant structure that mathematicians still use to study some of math's greatest open questions. Read the column Related:  Mathematicians Find Long-Sought Building Blocks for Special Polynomials by Kelsey Houston-Edwards Around the Web Lost in the Dark The universe seems to be expanding too quickly, according to clashing measurements. Now, two studies find that the source of the conflict may lie in the past, possibly in a form of dark energy that no longer exists, Davide Castelvecchi reports for Nature. Early dark energy" is just one way to speed up the universe's expansion. Thomas Lewton reported on it, along with decaying dark matter and other proposals, for Quanta last year. Coral, a Climate Canary Half of the ocean's corals have died since 1950, Corryn Wetzel reports for Smithsonian Magazine, causing the ecosystems' biodiversity to plunge by nearly two-thirds. Corals' climate sensitivity lets researchers use the marine relics to understand past oceans and to predict their future, Elizabeth Svoboda reported for Quanta in 2018. Follow Quanta Simons Foundation 160 5th Avenue, 7th Floor New York, NY 10010 Unsubscribe | About Quanta Privacy Policy | Terms | Contact Us   Copyright © 2021 Quanta Magazine, an editorially independent division of the Simons Foundation