Ants Take Over Space Station
A generation ago, the hopes for a colony on the moon or elsewhere beyond the Earth’s atmosphere were great, so great that a replica of [...]
How to turn any dataset into a glowing worm
A few decades ago gene expression, the process by which the code books of genes are turned into proteins, was invisible. It happened in every [...]
A Hundred Eager Kids: The Fred A. Olds Soap Biodiversity Project
Recently, I started going back to elementary school. The goal was simple; I was going to try to do real science in the classroom. We [...]
Revealing the twenty most important species living in your body
What lives in you? It is a simple enough question. Yet, for most of history, it has been unanswerable. Finally, in just the last few [...]
The Belly Buttons Will be Revealed, Slowly
We are finally revealing our last batch of results about Belly Button Biodiversity, results of samples of 583 people. In doing so, we are going [...]
Citizen Scientists Document the Spread of Giant Cricket, Basement to Basement
It is an animal the size of a pinky finger. It hops wildly, blindly out of the dark. And still, somehow, it has moved unstudied [...]
The Biggest Microscope in the World
and it is focused on your toilet seat… My grandmother, Barbara, often talked about growing up in a bedroom that was an observatory. She also, [...]
New Revelations about the Biodiversity of Belly Buttons
*This post first appeared on the Scientific American Guest Blog on September 9, 2013.* When it comes to science, I have the patience of a [...]
How Many Ants Live in New York City?
by Rob Dunn Every so often for the last ten years, one of my collaborators, students or I could be seen standing in a median [...]
The Climate Inside
Our houses modify the climate around them. In great densities, our houses and other buildings can change weather patterns. Urbanization increases temperatures. It can also [...]
Dear Students
Last week, we hosted an outstanding group of students from the NC School of Science and Mathematics for a two-day research experience in the lab, [...]
The Day My Cat Went Home
Photo credit: Megan Halpern Recently, my friend Roland Kays, the Director of the Biodiversity Lab at the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences approached [...]
Advice for Scientists Who Want to Write for the Public
by Rob Dunn We are working on a new book in the lab called The Book of Invisible Life. In this book, we will compile [...]
Dogs Make Me (and You) Wild: Ten Effects of Dogs on Dog People
Yesterday I got a call from the outside world but I said no in thunder. I was a dog on a short chain and now [...]
The Future of Domestic and Urban Evolution
Man, it totally happens. Evolution happens everywhere at every moment. It happens in your refrigerator. It happens in your stomach. It is happening right now [...]