There is a useful way of framing biological questions that makes familiar things strange, and sleep is the clearest case.
The framing is to ask what a trait costs, and…
There is an assumption embedded in ordinary language about growing old, and it is worth examining because it turns out to be misleading.
The assumption is that ageing is what…
There is a phrase that gets used dismissively — that something is just a placebo — and it carries an assumption worth examining.
The assumption is that a placebo response…