On TikTok, Ukrainians appear to viewers less as distant victims than as fellow Web denizens who know the same references, listen to the same music, and use the same social networks as they do. The content of the clips and the digital spaces in which they are consumed create a sense of intimacy that photojournalism, with its tinge of voyeurism, sometimes lacks.

cryo-EM became powerful enough to image molecular structures inside living cells. Proteins could be captured in candid photos, not just in meticulously staged portraits.

The poster was really a scientific war plan—it outlined a mission. Decipher the labelled genes and you'd approach a comprehensive understanding of cellular life.

A group of biologists hoping to engineer cells have done something similar. They've modified a species of bacterium to create a "minimal" cell. It contains only what's necessary for life—it's the cellular equivalent of a stock car onto which new components can be bolted. John Glass, one of the project's leaders, described the minimal cell to me as "a platform for figuring out the first principles in biology.