Insights from Emerging Model Organisms:

From the Physics of Beauty to the Secret Lives of Lobsters

Scientists often depend on so-called model organisms, such as fruit flies, mice, and frogs, for their research. While investigation of these animals has led to incredible advances in both basic and translational biology, they represent only a tiny slice of the diversity of life on earth. Nipam Patel explores questions that can be addressed only by expanding the repertoire of animals that are studied, illustrating the sorts of fascinating insights that have already emerged from such research. He will focus on novel mechanisms for generating stunning colors in butterflies—and on how lobsters and their kin have developed a Swiss Army–knife approach to the evolution of legs.

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