Asimov Press

How computer scientists on the fringes of biology made sense of sequencing data. By Ella Watkins-Dulaney.

Asimov Press is pausing.

Why scaling AI won’t automatically lead to paradigm shifts. By Alvin Djajadikerta.Read all our work at press.asimov.com.

We tend to think of fermented foods as something humans invented and then chose to eat. But the evidence shows the opposite: fermented foods shaped human biology. By Rachel Dutton.Read all our work at press.asimov.com.

How a blood-stained surgeon's frock evolved into a pristine symbol of modern science. By Donna VatnickRead all our work at press.asimov.com.

In a recent survey, three-in-four respondents said they would prefer a once‑daily oral pill over a weekly injection of GLP-1s. So why aren't there more oral options? By David S. KimRead all our work, for free, at press.asimov.com.

While some bacteriophages play vital roles in laboratory research, others are bent on sabotage. By Antoine Vigouroux.Read all our work, for free, at press.asimov.com.

Viral capsid structure is a geometric packing problem under genetic constraints. By Ulkar AghayevaRead all our work for free at press.asimov.com.

Bioarchaeologists recently identified a murdered medieval royal. Now, they are trying to shed light on other ancient deaths. By David BrzostowickiRead all our work for free at press.asimov.com.

How a twisted triangle of glass tubing helped democratize chemistry and build the modern laboratory. By Spencer Wright.Read all our work for free at press.asimov.com.

What happens in a world where AIs make scientific discoveries that humans cannot understand? By Matthew CarterRead all our work at press.asimov.com.

First introduced into laboratories in 1881, agar remains indispensable as a culture medium. By Corrado Nai.Read all our work, entirely for free, at press.asimov.com.

[Fiction] A eulogy to the reference human. By Eliomer H. Kaas.Read all our work, for free, at press.asimov.com.

Once a primal instinct, olfaction is now being mapped, measured, and modeled by machines. By Taylor Rayne.Read all our work, entirely for free, at press.asimov.com.

The forgotten story of an invention found in every biology lab. By Ella Watkins-Dulaney.Read all our work, entirely for free, at press.asimov.com.

From early experiments on fertility and embryonic development to becoming the first cloned eukaryote from an adult cell, Xenopus frogs have had an outsized influence on the life sciences. By Matt Lubin.Read all articles, for free, by visiting press.asimov.com.

Finding evidence of “sentience” is fraught, whether in a comatose patient, an animal, or a neural net. By Ralph Stefan Weir.Read all our articles for free at press.asimov.com.

A roadmap for brain emulation models at the human scale. By Max Schons.Read all our work, entirely for free, at press.asimov.com.

A biological puzzle that made one researcher and ruined another might never be solved. By Brady Huggett.Read all of our articles, entirely for free, at press.asimov.com.

Cultivarium, a focused research organization, has built a custom electroporator to engineer non-model organisms at scale. By Niko McCarty.Read all our work for free at press.asimov.com.

What the evolution of scientific methods says about their future. By Andrew Hunt.Read all our work for free at press.asimov.com.

Despite attempts at variation, many new research organizations are canalized into just a handful of forms. By Sam Arbesman.Read all our work, entirely for free, by visiting press.asimov.com.

Since launching in 1869, Nature has evolved from a periodical offering commentary on pigeons to the prestige journal in science. But how did Nature build its reputation, and can it last? By Robert Reason.Read all of our work, entirely for free, at press.asimov.com.

Clinical trials are engines for scientific discovery. Better drugs require not just more trials, but also improved data collection, to create therapeutic feedback loops. By Ruxandra Teslo.Read all our work, for free, at press.asimov.com.

On the 90-year saga of oral phenylephrine. By Michael DePeau-Wilson.Read all articles from Asimov Press, for free, by visiting press.asimov.com.

On the origins of Arabidopsis thaliana, the premier model for plant biology. By Xander Balwit.Read all of our articles for free at press.asimov.com.

Competing theories seek to explain inconsistencies surrounding Alexander Fleming’s famed discovery. By Kevin Blake.Read all of our work for free at press.asimov.com.

A retinal implant designer must decide if translating mourning into light is progress or a refusal to let go. By Spencer Nitkey.Read all of our articles, entirely for free, at press.asimov.com.

Advances in cryo-electron microscopy are revealing the molecular intricacies of cell movement. By Niko McCarty.Read all of our articles, entirely for free, at press.asimov.com.

A beautiful experiment is not just a reflection of human ingenuity but also efficient science. Written by Ulkar Aghayeva.Read all of our articles, entirely for free, at press.asimov.com.

To make things better, first prove how good they can possibly be. By David Jordan.Read every article, for free, at press.asimov.com.

A new broad-coverage antivenom, made by mixing eight different nanobodies, protects mice against snakebites from 17 of 18 deadly species in Africa. By Xander Balwit.Read all of our stories for free at press.asimov.com.

In a little over a century, the electron microscope evolved from a tool barely capable of resolving virus particles into one able to capture atomic detail. By Smrithi Sunil.Read every article from Asimov Press by visiting press.asimov.com.

Genetically modified crops are finding a foothold in the Global South, producing some unlikely leaders in agritech. By Dr. Alex Wakeman.Read every article, for free, at press.asimov.com.

How aquaporin and potassium channels filter hundreds of millions of water molecules or ions each second, by positioning the correct amino acid in the perfect place. By Niko McCarty.Read every essay from Asimov Press by visiting press.asimov.com

How a liver goes from a brain-dead donor to a living recipient. By Donna Vatnick. Read every article from Asimov Press, for free, at press.asimov.com.

There has been a push toward animal-free alternatives in scientific research. But the success of such alternatives hinges upon whether and where they can outperform standard animal models. By Celia Ford.Read all Asimov Press articles for free by visiting press.asimov.com.

Biotechnology needs more and better transducers. A column by Niko McCarty.Read all our articles by visiting press.asimov.com.

In 4,000 years, cataract surgery went from a crude procedure involving thorn instruments to a 20-minute operation with a 95 percent clinical success rate. The next step is broadening access. By Dr. Sangeetha AravindaVisit press.asimov.com to read all of our articles and subscribe.

A new paper from Arc Institute shows that a generative AI model can be used to design viable bacteriophages. By Niko McCarty.Read all of our work for free at press.asimov.com.

Our ancestors once spread their excess effluent on their fields; now we mine it for vital molecules. By Calum Drysdale.Visit press.asimov.com to read all articles.

Seasonal dormancy features in the life cycle of many insects. We can harness it for biological control, insect farming, and disease vector management at scale. By Ulkar Aghayeva.Read every article from Asimov Press by visiting press.asimov.com.

A single yeast cell weighs about one million times less than a grain of sand. But how do we know this? By Niko McCarty.Visit press.asimov.com to read all of our articles for free.

While we’ve derived useful molecules from the leech, live leech therapy has been largely marginalized in the West. It is time we reevaluate why. By Khushi Mittal & Xander Balwit.Read every article by visiting press.asimov.com.

A plant biologist’s quest to design and create 1,000 unique flowers, mostly in his spare time. By Niko McCarty.Read every article from Asimov Press by visiting press.asimov.com.

Sunlight represents a seemingly endless source of largely untapped energy. Just how endless is it? Written by Sam Clamons.Visit press.asimov.com to read all of our articles.

A look inside Parallel Squared Technology Institute, a focused research organization trying to make analyzing a proteome as easy as DNA sequencing. By Niko McCarty.Read all of our articles by visiting press.asimov.com.

By spinning bacteria in circles, scientists figured out how phage viruses time their escape from an infected cell. By Kamal Nahas.Visit press.asimov.com to read more articles about biology.

How a discovery in a Danish lake changed our understanding of biological communities and energy. By Niko McCarty.Visit press.asimov.com to read more.

Mechanism alone cannot make a science credible. It must describe its subject matter in terms of entities, properties, and rules. By SLIME MOLD TIME MOLD.Read every article from Asimov Press, for free, at press.asimov.com.