Biologists are confronting a problem they thought they had mostly solved: what, exactly, counts as life. A wave of discoveries at the edges of biology has produced organisms and quasi-organisms that ...

The classification of organisms into groups, taxonomy, has taken a step forward thanks to work by researchers at the University of Queensland. Led by Professor Philip Hugenholtz, the team approached ...

The official body charged with virus classification has released four new principles that bring order to the viral world. This provides a unified framework that will enable all viruses to be ...

Forbes contributors publish independent expert analyses and insights. I write about biodiversity and the hidden quirks of the natural world. Here's why Dickinsonia challenges our previously held ...