don't create, evolve

I've taken the recent media attention around an effort to create "artificial cells" as an excuse to revisit the boundary between non-life and life, and how life emerges from non-living material. To me, evolution removes the entire question of "creating" complexity, as complexity tends to evolve from simpler forms all by itself. What we really need to find is the point where chemicals, instead of just sitting there, start to evolve.

Based on this philosophy, I was quite underwhelmed by those artificial cells, which, in the tradition spanning from Frankenstein to Craig Venter, represent another attempt to create something with dubious credentials as a living being but still much too complex to count as an origin of life. Luckily, there has been a significant breakthrough in self-replicating ribozymes recently, so I covered this as a positive example of what I would like to see instead of all the "creator" hybris.

Anyhow, the resulting feature is out now:

Making life from scratch

Current Biology Volume 36, Issue 16, 17 August 2026, Pages R875--R877

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Mythological and fictional accounts of the origins of life feature the creation of complexity (Prometheus producing humans, in this case). As we now know that complexity evolves, we only need to find the origin of evolution. (Image: marble relief by an unknown artist courtesy of the Louvre Museum.)

how many insects are there?

Attempts to get an overview of all living species on Earth always run into trouble when it comes to insects. There isn't even a clear consensus on how many species there may be. Historically, estimates have gone as high as 30 million, with a recent trend towards lower figures around 6 million. New research now suggests that this last figure needs to be multiplied by three.

This is in line with the fact that wherever researchers have a closer look at insect diversity, they tend to discover several times more species than were previouslly known. I've combined both the challenge of the global count and some recent discoveries, together with the threat of population losses and extinctions to a feature about insect numbers which is out now:

Counting insects

Current Biology Volume 36, Issue 15, 03 August 2026, Pages R833--R835

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A study of rove beetles in China revealed 61 new species. (Photos: Qing-Hao Zhao.)

antarctic in danger

The Antarctic is in danger of losing both its ice shield and its biodiversity. These two issues are typically treated separately, but are both linked via the climate catastrophe we are causing, so I hooked them up together in my latest feature, which is out now:

The Antarctic faces climate threats

Current Biology Volume 36, Issue 14, 20 July 2026, Pages R777--R779

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Gentoo penguins (Pygoscelis papua) have recently been recognised as four separate species,
three of which are threatened. (Photo: Liam Quinn/Flickr (CC BY-SA 2.0).)

missing megafauna

There is so much exciting research based on sequencing of ancient DNA coming out now that it's easy to lose track of the historic and prehistoric humans and hominins getting sequenced and sorted into family trees. Not quite as much ancient DNA work targets animals, if only because they are more likely to get eaten after death, rather than being buried in a form that benefits genome analysis.

A recent paper on a dozen well-preserved cave lions found in permafrost soil and sequenced in comparison to modern lions caught my eye, however. I used it as an excuse to revisit megafauna extinctions, this time through the lense of genomic studies. It's always useful to have a mascot to remember a feature by, so this is now the cave lion feature, although other species of Pleistocene megafauna also appear, including elephants, ground squirrels and giant echidnas.

The resulting feature is out now:

Charting the missing megafauna

Current Biology Volume 36, Issue 13, 6 July 2026, Pages R729--R731

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This exceptionally well-preserved female cave lion cub named Sparta was discovered in 2018 in Belaya Gora, near the Indigirka River in northeastern Siberia. Her genome was one of the twelve studied by David Stanton and colleagues. (Photo by Love Dalén.)

our less famous microbiomes

I attended a Cell Press symposium about microbiomes and their interactions with the host organism at Bruges in May. It was mostly about the one in the human gut and its interaction with the immune system, but for my feature I chose the road less travelled and focused on the microbiomes of other body parts, including vagina, skin and nose. I was really most inspired by the Belgian project Isala, which due to the lack of an animal model for the vaginal microbiome, relied on actual humans sending in their samples.

The resulting feature is out now:

Know your microbiomes inside and out

Current Biology Volume 36, Issue 12, 22 June 2026, Pages R677--R679

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The Isala project studying the vaginal microbiome was launched as a citizen science project and has received overwhelming support from thousands of participants. Symbolic picture on the theme of sisterhood, not actual participants of the project as far as I know. (Photo: Colin Anderson Productions pty ltd/Getty Images.)

The view from the top floor of the (otherwise horrible) conference venue was ok.

preventing pandemics

In mid-May, at the tail end of my recent travel, the hantavirus outbreak on board the cruiseship Hondius dominated the news for a few days to be swiftly replaced by news from the Ebola epidemic in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. So I decided to do another feature on infectious diseases and what we can do to stop them from becoming pandemics.

Thankfully, the hantavirus hasn't spread further beyond the people already known to be infected at the time when it made the headlines. Meanwhile, the Ebola problem is still with us and growing, with various issues including deforestation and the cutting of aid budgets making it worse and more dangerous for the rest of the world.

My feature is out now:

Preparedness prevents pandemics

Current Biology Volume 36, Issue 11, 8 June 2026, Pages R465--R467

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The MV Hondius anchored in the port of Granadilla de Abona, during the outbreak of hantavirus disease. (Image: AcfiPress Noticias Canarias/Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 4.0).)

PS: Note also that today's issue is a special issue about plant evolution, with lots of reviews, articles, primers and quick guides on that field. All looks very exciting.

a forest under the sea

A recent paper on the evidence of early forests on Doggerland, a landmass in the location that is now known as the North Sea, inspired me to revisit the issue of losing our forests. Like the ones that literally disappeared under the North Sea, there are lots of other forests that have fallen into oblivion after millennia of agriculture made us believe that pastures and fields are a natural landscape.

And there are the ones that are quietly disappearing right now, not just in the tropics but also at higher latitudes, even though we could really use their carbon sequestration services to fight climate change ...

The resulting feature is out now:

Forgotten forests

Current Biology Volume 36, Issue 10, 18 May 2026, Pages R421--R423

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Toby Kiers of the Society for the Protection of Underground Networks takes a sample next to an ancient alerce tree (Fitzroya cupressoides). (Photo: Tomás Munita/SPUN.)

all about oysters

I didn't know much about oysters until three weeks ago, but a member of the editorial team at Current Biology suggested to do a feature on the restoration of oyster reefs, so I educated myself and found out a lot of interesting things about the ecosystems we lost, but could in some cases restore quite easily, for instance by dumping discarded oyster shells in the sea.

The resulting feature is out now:

Returning shells to the sea

Current Biology Volume 36, Issue 9, 4 May 2026, Pages R363--R365

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Oyster reefs declined severely in the 19th and 20th centuries but are now being restored in many places. (Photo: The Tampa Bay Estuary Program/Unsplash.)

staying alive

In the madness of the UK's Covid response, public health expert Devi Sridhar was a lone voice of reason. Remembering this, I was keen to read her book about the wider application of her thinking to population scale life and death from all causes and found it quite enlightening. Most importantly, she demonstrates how dramatically the political decisions affecting public health differ between countries and how that leads to very different results in avoidable deaths from causes ranging from guns to cars.

How Not to Die (too soon): The Lies We’ve Been Sold and the Policies That Can Save Us
Devi Sridhar
Penguin Viking 2025

My review of the book is now out in the April issue of Chemistry & Industry:

Health accountability

Chemistry & Industry Volume 90, Issue 4, April 2026, Page 34

access via:

Wiley Online Library (paywalled PDF of the whole review section)

SCI (premium content, ie members only)

In the same issue I also have a feature about plant microbiomes. I've covered the field a couple of times in Current Biology (most recently in 2022), but this one is slightly different in emphasis as C&I wanted more about the application side of it than I have previously covered.

Plant probiotics

Chemistry & Industry Volume 90, Issue 4, April 2026, Pages 22-25

access via:

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survival secrets of the koalas

After the rather depressing outlook on AI safety (or lack thereof) I needed a bit of comfort and joy, so I jumped at the opportunity presented by a paper on the genomes of more than 400 cuddly koalas. They serve as the mascot for the feature on the subject of conservation genomics which also takes in other life forms such as sea snails, snow leopards, and lemurs.

The resulting feature is out now:

Survival in their genomes

Current Biology Volume 36, Issue 7, 20 April 2026, Pages R299-R301

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Although it is now widely adored as an icon of Australia, the koala has experienced severe population declines and is still in need of conservation attention, as a new study analysing hundreds of genomes confirms. (Photo: Mathias Appel/Flickr.)

the AIpocalypse starts here

I'm not particularly interested in AI, and just wish the bubble would burst and go away, but every once in a while the problems it creates get so urgent I can't avoid writing about them. Two years ago it was the environmental footprint of all the fancy new data centres. Now, I'm afraid, it's everybody's safety. I started from the recent safety report that was covered in the media and addresses issues like deep fake videos, fraud, job losses, false health advice etc.

What I found to be missing from the report, however, is a lot more worrying than that, namely the fact that AI is already choosing targets in the wars in Gaza and Iran. So we allow it to kill humans. What could possibly go wrong . Well, it only gets more depressing from there (eg there's the AI2027 scenario which came out last year), so the latest feature is not for the faint-hearted:

Handing over to AI

Current Biology Volume 36, Issue 7, 6 April 2026, Pages R265-R267

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Drones guided by AI are already a common feature of current conflicts. (Photo by Mass Communication Specialist 1st Class Victoria Granado/Wikimedia Commons.)

save the microbes

Over the last few decades, there has been a growing awareness of the fact that commensal microbiota are important just about everywhere, from our bodies to the leaves of tomato plants. Funnily enough this hasn't quite translated into the realisation that saving life on Earth from another mass extinction will also require saving the microbes that are the foundation of all ecosystems as well as the little helpers in many symbiotic relationships.

Only last year did the IUCN (which looks after the Red List of endangered species) launch a specialist group focused on microbial conservation. Reason enough to write a feature about it which is out now:

Towards a Red List for microbes

Current Biology Volume 36, Issue 6, 23 March 2026, Pages R229-R231

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The cyanobacterium Prochlorococcus is a major contributor to photosynthesis globally but may be more vulnerable to ocean warming than previously predicted. (Image taken by Anne Thompson, Chisholm Lab.)

the mysteries of syphilis

Many infectious diseases have managed to establish themselves in human populations after the advent of agriculture, when dense settlements enabled them to spread and persist. Later, trade and warfare carried them around the world, typically from densely populated Eurasia to other parts of the world where the lack of immunity led to catastrophic consequences.

Syphilis is the great exception to this scenario. It likely originated in the New World (if it hasn't spread with humans since the expansion out of Africa) and has now been shown to predate intensive agriculture and dense settlements. The pathogen Treponema pallidum has been challenging researchers, but ancient DNA is now showing up that clarifies the origins and early evolution of this disease, which has terrified Europeans since Columbus came back from his transatlantic voyages.

Read all about it in my latest feature which is out now:

An ancient disease from the New World

Current Biology Volume 36, Issue 5, 9 March 2026, Pages R171-R173

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Treponema pallidum, which causes several diseases including syphilis, has proven difficult to cultivate and to study. (Image by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.)

eagle issues

There are animal species, often apex predators, which many humans seem to worship for their fierce power, such as lions, cheetahs and eagles. Sadly, this connection, often engrained in cultural traditions over centuries, doesn't automatically protect the admired animal. Although eagles are generally faring better than the less admired vultures, there are a few conservation concerns which I have covered in my latest feature which is out today:

Keeping an eye on eagles

Current Biology Volume 36, Issue 4, 23 February 2026, Pages R105-R107

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Eagles like this golden eagle (Aquila chrysaetos) have symbolised power since Roman times.
(Photo: Susanne Nilsson/Flickr (CC BY-SA 2.0).)

aptamer sensors patched up

My astrobiology co-author Kevin Plaxco has been pioneering the development of biosensors based on aptamers (the artificially generated DNA equivalent of antibodies) for many years now and every once in a while I write about the progress in this fascinating field. Now the work has reached its first clinical trial, so I wrote a news story for Chemistry World to help spread the word.

The news story is out now:

World first for clinical trial of skin patch to monitor therapeutic drugs in real time

Chemistry World 5.2.2026

Source: © Marsilea A Booth et al/Springer Nature America 2026

Previous episodes in this serie are listed here.

plants recycling metals

It has been known for centuries that certain kinds of plants thrive on soils heavily contaminated with toxic metals, even on mining waste. It took a while for people to realise that these plants can be used to extract desirable metals from such soils. Especially in our times with ever-growing hunger for resources like nickel, gold, and rare earth metals, the rising prices of these metals have led to some plant-based mining methods becoming economically attractive.

Read all about it in my latest feature which is out today:

Mining metals with plants

Current Biology Volume 36, Issue 3, 2 February 2026, Pages R73-R75

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The yellow zinc violet (Viola lutea ssp. calaminaria) has historically served as an indicator plant for soils rich in zinc ores. It is still found on former mining sites in the area where the borders between the Netherlands, Belgium and Germany meet. (Photo: Gilles San Martin/Flickr (CC BY-SA 2.0).)

the urban ecology of feeding birds and squirrels

Back in December, I spotted a research paper about the ecological impact of human-provided food on squirrel populations, and I started to wonder whether similar work exists for the various species of "garden birds" that many of us like to feed in winter. Incidentally, I installed an inherited bird feeder outside my window around the same time, to get some first hand observations in. (It may be an age thing, too.)

It's always fun writing about squirrels, but the most spectacular results I discovered were those of the hummingbirds in California. Due to the widespread use of feeding stations with fake nectar, these birds have extended their range dramatically and also undergone measurable anatomical evolution.

Read all about it in my latest feature which is out today:

Feeding change in urban wildlife

Current Biology Volume 36, Issue 2, 19 January 2026, Pages R31-R33

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Squirrels like this Eastern grey squirrel (Sciurus carolinensis) thrive in urban parks and benefit from food supplied by humans. A study on the Eurasian red squirrel (Sciurus vulgaris) in Japan has shown that the urban populations also have improved reproduction chances compared with the rural ones. (Photo: Jules Verne Times Two/julesvernex2.com/CC-BY-SA-4.0.)

The same issue of CB also contains story of Veronika, the back-scratching bovine that probably wins the internet today (open access). I already saw a Guardian headline about it.

stopping the shark trade

A rare bit of good news for marine biodiversity arrived last December from the unlikely location of landlocked Samarkand, Uzbekistan. The 20th conference of the signatories to CITES (Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora) significantly enhanced the protection of sharks and rays. Time for another feature about cartilaginous fish, or as I now like to call them: chondrichthyans:

Chondrichthyans at the crossroads

Current Biology Volume 36, Issue 1, 5 January 2026, Pages R1-R3

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An oceanic whitetip shark (Carcharhinus longimanus, Critically Endangered) observed at Elphinstone Reef, Egypt. The species has now been added to the Appendix I of CITES, meaning that all trade is banned. (Photo: Polygonia c-album/Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0).)

nature in recovery

I needed cheering up after covering 30 years of climate failure in the penultimate feature of the year, so I followed a suggestion from the editorial team and chose species recovery as the topic for the last one. From the global moratorium on whaling to the European ban on neonics, if we just stop destroying nature, it actually helps the planet to heal, so we should really do more of that.

The feature is out now, completing my set of 24 features in this calendar year:

Roads to recovery

Current Biology Volume 35, Issue 24, 15 December 2025, Pages R1165-R1167

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Global populations of humpback whales have made a remarkable recovery since the whaling moratorium, offering opportunities for scientific studies as well as for recreational whale watching.
(Photo: NPS Photo/Kaitlin Thoresen.)

30 years of climate failure

I get a bit of an anger management problem around the time of year when another COP climate summit confirms that humanity has spent another year not doing anything to stop the climate catastrophe. Even worse when it's a round number, like this year's COP30 marking three decades of failure to even stop emissions from rising, never mind reducing them. I think my first COP-related article was this one on the preparations for COP15 in Copenhagen (2009). We still had hope back then.

By way of therapy, I channel that anger into a vaguely climate-related feature. This year's climate-rage writeup is about the Lancet climate report on the health impacts of the climate catastrophe. Obviously depressing, but then again it is also refreshing that the Lancet authors name the acute dangers we're facing loud and clear whereas the normal media coverage has all but given up on this emergency.

So, well, I've calmed down and my feature is out now:

An unhealthy climate

Current Biology Volume 35, Issue 23, 1 December 2025, Pages R1127-R1129

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The city of Belém, shown in this satellite view, is surrounded by Amazonian rainforest. (Photo: Coordenação-Geral de Observação da Terra/INPE (CC BY-SA 2.0).)