One of the most important events in the history of life on Earth was the emergence of multicellularity. In this episode, Will Ratcliff discusses how his snowflake yeast models provide insight into what drove the transition from single-celled to multicellular organisms.
Jun 4
More Conversations, Complex Questions, and Bold Ideas in Season Five of 'The Joy of Why'
What is the future of gene editing with CRISPR? Has AI changed mathematics forever? Will we find other civilizations in the universe? What if we’ve been wrong about dark energy all along? These are just a few of the big, bold questions we’ll be exploring in the new season of The ... Show More
1m 23s
Aug 2025
How Can Math Protect Our Data?
<p>Every time data travels — from smartphones to the cloud, or across the vacuum of space — it relies on a silent but vigilant guardian in the form of error-correcting codes. These codes, baked into nearly every digital system, are designed to detect and repair any errors that no ... Show More
39m 40s
Nov 2024
LUCA, the Last Universal Common Ancestor
We're experimenting and would love to hear from you!In this episode of Discover Daily, we explore LUCA, the Last Universal Common Ancestor. Scientists have dated this single-celled organism from which all modern life descends, to 4.2 billion years ago - just 400 million years aft ... Show More
4m 51s
Dec 2024
299 | Michael Wong on Information, Function, and the Origin of Life
Living organisms seem exquisitely organized and complex, with features clearly adapted to serving certain functions needed to survive and procreate. Natural selection provides a compelling explanation for why that is so. But is there a bigger picture, a more general framework tha ... Show More
1h 13m