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SIZE DOES NOT MATTER. "It is not clear that the ∼12,500 genes of Dictyostelium discoideum or any of its eukaryote-specific cell structures give it an advantage over Myxococcus xanthus, with ∼7,500 genes (and no eukaryotic cell structures)." http://www.pnas.org/content/112/33/10278.full View in LinkedIn

PERFORMANCE DRIVERS. "Under distributed loads the stiff behaviour of silk under small deformation, before the yield point, is essential in maintaining the web’s structural integrity. The superior performance of silk in webs is therefore not due merely to its exceptional ultimate strength and strain, but arises from the nonlinear response of silk threads to strain and their geometrical arrangement in a web." https://lnkd.in/dYdY4x3 View in LinkedIn

BIASED METRICS. "However, cyanobacteria will also surely evolve differently from mycoplasmas or methanogens. What are our principled metrics for degrees of difference, and how are we sure that these are free of the sorts of eukaryocentric bias that we discuss in the next section? What is our metric for “richer evolutionary potential”." http://www.pnas.org/content/112/33/10278.full View in LinkedIn

FRAGMENT FROM NATURE continues the meditation on the flat twisted tessellations known as spider webs; between the geometric curiosities, the cunning molecular design, and the biological diversity of these structures and their inhabitants, resides a case study of the ingenious options explored by blind experimentation and natural selection for fitness. A case study that has been the illusive goal of engineers and biochemists alike. View in LinkedIn

TEMPO AND MODE. "Unquestionably, eukaryotes evolve differently in tempo and mode than do prokaryotes, if we assess this by uniform measures of structural and functional innovation at the levels of genes and their products or cellular phenotypes." http://www.pnas.org/content/112/33/10278.full View in LinkedIn

RADICALLY ALTERNATIVE METRIC. "Conceivably, its pangenome (especially if including rarer interspecific transfers) gives this single bacterial “species” a far greater range of metabolic innovation than that shown by all eukaryotes, a defensible alternative metric of evolutionary potential." http://www.pnas.org/content/112/33/10278.full View in LinkedIn

COMPLEXITY AND THE PARAGENOME. "However, we would surely be hard pressed to show that co-optation is a more effective route to evolutionary innovation than LGT. Indeed, if LGT is fully integrated into our understanding of genomic complexity, then it is perhaps the full E. coli pangenome, soon to be if not already exceeding in number of coding sequences the human genome, that should be compared with the latter." (LGT = lateral gene transfer). http://www.pnas.org/content/112/33/10278.full View in LinkedIn

SHORTCUTS OF THE TIERED WEAVER. "Webs built in unnaturally rapid succession by the same spider (4 in 24 h when 1 is the norm) became sequentially smaller, had fewer radii, shorter capture spirals, and were wider meshed." http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0031938497001868 View in LinkedIn

SONG OF DARWIN. "The more I study nature, the more I become impressed […] that the contrivances and beautiful adaptations [acquired through natural selection] transcend in an incomparable degree [those] which the most fertile imagination of the most imaginative man could suggest with unlimited time at his disposal." http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0960982214003881 View in LinkedIn

WEB DESIGN PLASTICITY. "Decreasing temperature from 24° to 12°C caused the capture spiral to have fewer and wider spaced meshes, which did not change overall capture area but reduced the length of capture-spiral threads laid down. Subsequent increase of temperature to 24°C restored the number of meshes laid down, but the wider mesh was retained, causing the capture area to be increased over initial control values." https://lnkd.in/dWUF7eR View in LinkedIn