How in the world did a creature as odd as the duck-billed platypus originate? This creature lays eggs like a reptile, has venom like a reptile, spurs like a chicken, excretes milk from belly patches to nurse its young, has fur that glows, webbed feet like a duck, and uses its sensor-filled duck-like bill to find aquatic prey like paddlefish do since it swims with its eyes closed.

All plant and animal genomes studied so far exhibit complex and distinct three-dimensional (3-D) structures in their chromosome configurations depending on the type of cell (e.g., heart, liver, brain, etc.). Given the incredible variability among genome configurations within a single type of creature, let alone that which exists between creatures (e.g., human vs.

Dogs don’t read the words on a page. Neither did Coco, the famous gorilla that learned to communicate using simple hand signs. So what affords humans the unique ability to read and write, and why do we do it? These kinds of questions drive Zeynep Saygin’s research at Ohio State. Her team’s recent discovery sets the stage for some answers.

The standard theme often given for Viking history is that of blond-haired, blued-eyed, burly men exploring, trading, ransacking, and pillaging across Europe, Asia, and the North Atlantic.

Today’s secular mindset replaces “In the beginning God…” with “In the beginning, hydrogen….” The extreme specificity of life’s chemical building blocks—let alone the innumerable, precise ways those chemicals combine to form living cells—demands a divine engineer. What natural processes ever generate even the most basic chemicals that go into living cells?