There is a habit of describing sea organisms using land vocabulary, and it causes a persistent misunderstanding about seaweed.
The words used — root, stem, leaf — describe a land…
There is an idea about sailing that seems obviously true and is only half the story.
The idea is that a sail is a bag that catches the wind and…
There is a question that sounds simple and is not: what is the minimum an animal needs in order to be an animal?
Most of the answers people reach for…
There is a distinction that changes how a whole category of coastal feature should be thought about, and it comes down to whether something is a population or a structure.…
Almost nothing about a reef is the animals. It is a structure they built, shaped by light, waves and water depth, and every part of its form is a record…
There is a recurring result in materials science that is worth stating as a general principle: arrangement frequently matters more than composition.
The lining of certain shells is the standard…