Carphology

Abstract

In the lexicon of ‘things that rarely occur’ we have been over-using the ‘hen’s teeth’ simile, when there was an evolutionary biology exemplar available to us. In the 3.5 billion years since life first evolved on Earth, bacteria had merged with other organisms on just three occasions: this is the origin of organelles. Now, a fourth example has been found, a once-independent bacterium has evolved into an organelle providing nitrogen to algal cells (figure). They call this the nitroplast. Optimists out there can let their imaginations run wild with the potential for new and exotic life forms, whereas the PN-reading pessimists can predict a pantheon of pathogens. Science . 2024; 3846692: 217-222. Topiramate was first licenced by the FDA in 1996, without sufficient scrutiny to know …