Biology

Latest Articles

Could algae be the answer for Rhode Island’s heating needs?

Weird Science
Scot Comey believes old mills in places like Pawtucket can be turned into incubators for strains of algae that can be grown without sunlight and turned into home heating oil.
By CARROLL ANDREW MORSE | September 10, 2008

The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2

Disjointed, sketchy, and saccharine
Like Sex and the City: The Movie, Sanaa Hamri’s continuation of the journey of a pair of jeans that magically fit four girls of disparate genes feels tailored for the small screen.
By BRETT MICHEL | August 05, 2008

Rage against the machines!

Could robots take over the world? In many ways, they already have.
We’re on the cusp of a perilous era. Our pitiful carbon bodies are evolving much slower than the silicon and steel gizmos we’re inventing. And the guys in the lab coats and pocket protectors are starting to worry we’ve opened Pandora’s hard drive.
By MIKE MILIARD | May 28, 2008

Springtime for Darwin

The wars of evolution are louder than ever. What Ben Stein, Bad Religion, and a physics professor from Quincy can tell you about where you came from.
There are two stories, and two stories only.
By JAMES PARKER | May 07, 2008

Biolab follies

How did BU's research facility go from slam dunk to almost sunk?
In the beginning — way back in the fall of 2003, when the “War on Terror” was still young — the notion that anything could derail the Boston University biolab seemed absurd.
By ADAM REILLY | April 07, 2008

The problem with the Pope’s new list of deadly sins

Morality
The pope recently declared obscene riches, pedophilia, and causing social injustice as three of the newest deadly sins.
By MARY ANN SORRENTINO | April 02, 2008

Less is best

The spare science of José González
González possesses the will power and the patience to dig into each of his songs until he has exhumed its bleeding heart.
By SHARON STEEL | March 04, 2008

Learning not to kill

New techniques mean that medical students can learn without killing animals. So why won't BU get with the program?
This article originally appeared in the February 27, 1998 issue of the Boston Phoenix.
By SARAH MCNAUGHT | February 28, 2008

You light up my litter tray

Could be verse: poetry ripped from the headlines
Lines upon learning that South Korean scientists, by manipulating a fluorescent protein gene, have produced cloned cats that glow in the dark.
By JAMES PARKER | December 19, 2007

They shall not pass gas

Could be verse: poetry ripped from the headlines
Lines upon learning that scientists have recently isolated methane-mitigating microbes in the intestinal lining of the kangaroo, and plan to replicate them in cattle to reduce the emission of “cow-created” greenhouse gas
By JAMES PARKER | December 12, 2007

Last man standing

Once a cautionary tale about human folly, has the doomsday myth become just more fun and games?
In his 1954 novel I Am Legend , Richard Matheson conjured up a terrifying scenario: a man-made plague has killed most of humanity.
By PETER KEOUGH | December 12, 2007

Antidote to modern life

Bigos, the Old-World comfort stew
Finally, she says, “We have in our genes to eat bigos.” No matter where we’re from, I think we all do.
By LINDSAY STERLING | November 20, 2007

World of wonder

David Wilson's wry offerings
You’d be surprised at how many people take the wry offerings of David Wilson’s Museum of Jurassic Technology completely seriously.
By BILL RODRIGUEZ | September 25, 2007

Keep it moving

The ever-evolving Pilobolus
The Pilobolus troupe was named after a common barnyard fungus whose spores accelerate from 0-40 mph in the first millimeter of flight.
By JOHNETTE RODRIGUEZ | September 25, 2007

Common ground

Ann Patchett’s Boston allegory
Like the American naturalists of the last century, Ann Patchett examines race and class in her new novel, Run .
By DANA KLETTER | September 18, 2007

Impossible dream

BioShock plumbs uncharted depths
It wasn’t impossible to build Rapture at the bottom of the ocean, Andrew Ryan would say of his creation. It was impossible to build it anywhere else.
By MITCH KRPATA | August 28, 2007

Maggots ate my flesh!

As antibiotics increasingly lose their potency, medical professionals are turning to (yecch!) fly larvae to take a bite out of wound recovery
If you met Dana — attractive, athletic, and tan, somewhere in her 30s — you’d never guess her secret.
By AUDREY SCHULMAN | July 16, 2007