Launching September

A newspaper for the discoveries biology makes this week.

One issue, every week. A lead discovery, a mission worth tracking, a specimen up close, a handful of quick facts, and two games to test what stuck.

What's inside an issue

Six sections, every week
01 — Lead

Discovery of the Week

The biggest biology finding of the past seven days, given the front-page slot.

02 — Ongoing

The Mission

One goal biologists are actively chasing — a cure, a map, a conservation push.

03 — Bite-sized

Quick Hits

A handful of short, strange, and surprising biology facts.

04 — Featured

Specimen of the Week

One organism, examined closely — what it is, and why it earned the spot.

05 — Play

Two Games

Word search, quiz, or word game — a new pair each week, built from the issue's content.

06 — Corner

Next Edition

A teaser for what's coming, tucked in the bottom right of every issue.

Biology doesn't stop moving between textbook chapters. Field Notes is the weekly record of what's happening while the field keeps working.

Every Friday, one issue lands — short enough to read over breakfast, specific enough to teach you something you didn't know Thursday. No account needed to read it on the site; drop your email if you'd rather it arrive in your inbox.

Field Notes — a weekly biology newspaper First issue: September
Archive

Every issue, by date.

Nothing's been collected yet — the first specimen goes on the shelf in September. Here's what the shelf will look like.

--Days
--Hours
--Mins

The archive fills in one issue at a time, starting with Issue No. 01 in September. Want the first one the day it's ready?

Reference

A little biology, any day of the week.

General knowledge that isn't tied to a specific issue — background for anything the newspaper touches on.

Cell Biology

The cell is the base unit

Every living thing is built from cells — some organisms are a single one, others (like us) are trillions working in coordination. Cells were first observed and named in the 1660s, though it took another two centuries to establish that all living things are made of them.

Genetics

DNA is a shared language

Nearly every organism on Earth stores its genetic instructions in DNA, using the same four-letter code. That shared language is a big part of why comparing genomes across species — from yeast to whales — tells us so much.

Ecology

Ecosystems run on relationships

An ecosystem isn't a list of species — it's the web of relationships between them: who eats whom, who pollinates what, who depends on which soil. Remove one thread and the whole web can shift.

Evolution

Change happens over generations

Evolution isn't something an individual organism does — it's a shift in a population over many generations, driven by which traits happen to help something survive and reproduce.

Taxonomy

Every species gets two names

Scientific names follow a genus-species format — like Panthera leo for the lion — a system devised by Carl Linnaeus in the 1700s that's still how species are named today.

Conservation

Extinction is usually invisible

Most species that go extinct do so quietly, without headlines — which is part of why tracking population data over time matters more than reacting to single dramatic events.