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Category: Biology

What does a cell know of itself? Much more than you think

What does a cell know of itself? Much more than you think

Claire L. Evans writes: In 1983, the octogenarian geneticist Barbara McClintock stood at the lectern of the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm. She was famously publicity averse — nearly a hermit — but it’s customary for people to speak when they’re awarded a Nobel Prize, so she delivered a halting account of the experiments that had led to her discovery, in the early 1950s, of how DNA sequences can relocate across the genome. Near the end of the speech, blinking through…

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Building blocks of life may be far more common in space than we thought, study suggests

Building blocks of life may be far more common in space than we thought, study suggests

Live Science reports: Astronomers have discovered key components to life’s building blocks swirling around a remote baby star, hinting that the stuff of life is far more prevalent throughout the universe than once thought. The material, discovered circling the protostar V883 Orionis 1,300 light-years from Earth in the constellation Orion, consists of 17 complex organic molecules that include ethylene glycol and glycolonitrile — precursors to components found in DNA and RNA. The finding, published July 23 in the The Astrophysical…

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Study shows that apes are more optimistic after hearing laughter

Study shows that apes are more optimistic after hearing laughter

Indiana University: While laughter is often considered uniquely human, tied to language and sense of humor, all great apes produce remarkably similar vocalizations during play that share evolutionary origins with human laughter. In a new study, an international team led by two Indiana University researchers has discovered that bonobos, our closest living relatives along with chimpanzees, tend to be more optimistic after hearing the laughter of their fellow apes—and these findings have implications for understanding the evolution of positive emotions…

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Mitochondria can sense bacteria and trigger your immune system to trap them – revealing new ways to treat infections and autoimmunity

Mitochondria can sense bacteria and trigger your immune system to trap them – revealing new ways to treat infections and autoimmunity

Neutrophils (yellow) eject a NET (green) to ensnare bacteria (purple). Other cells, such as red blood cells (orange), may also get trapped. CHDENK/Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA By Andrew Monteith, University of Tennessee Mitochondria have primarily been known as the energy-producing components of cells. But scientists are increasingly discovering that these small organelles do much more than just power cells. They are also involved in immune functions such as controlling inflammation, regulating cell death and responding to infections. Research from my…

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People’s racial and ethnic identities don’t reflect their genetic ancestry

People’s racial and ethnic identities don’t reflect their genetic ancestry

Live Science reports: The racial and ethnic groups people identify with may not accurately represent their genetic backgrounds or ancestries, a new study of people in the United States suggests. This discrepancy between people’s self-reported identities and their genetics is important for scientists to acknowledge as they strive to develop medical treatments tailored to different patients, the researchers behind the study say. “This paper is very important because it clarifies at the highest resolution the relationship between genomic diversity and…

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Mountain chickadee chatter: Scientists are decoding the songbird’s complex calls

Mountain chickadee chatter: Scientists are decoding the songbird’s complex calls

Mountain chickadees are unusual in having more complex calls than songs. Vladimir Pravosudov By Sofia Marie Haley, University of Nevada, Reno I approach a flock of mountain chickadees feasting on pine nuts. A cacophony of sounds, coming from the many different bird species that rely on the Sierra Nevada’s diverse pine cone crop, fill the crisp mountain air. The strong “chick-a-dee” call sticks out among the bird vocalizations. The chickadees are communicating to each other about food sources – and…

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Chimpanzees are capable of complex communication, new research reveals

Chimpanzees are capable of complex communication, new research reveals

Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology: Humans are the only species known to use full language, which involves combining sounds into words and words into structured sentences that convey infinite meanings. This process follows linguistic rules that determine how meaning changes with context. For example, the word “ape” can be used in compositional ways to add meaning—such as “the ape eats” or “big ape”—or in non-compositional idioms like “go ape,” which takes on a new meaning entirely. Syntax, the rule…

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How the universe differs from its mirror image

How the universe differs from its mirror image

Zack Savitsky writes: After her adventures in Wonderland, the fictional Alice stepped through the mirror above her fireplace in Lewis Carroll’s 1871 novel Through the Looking-Glass to discover how the reflected realm differed from her own. She found that the books were all written in reverse, and the people were “living backwards,” navigating a world where effects preceded their causes. When objects appear different in the mirror, scientists call them chiral. Hands, for instance, are chiral. Imagine Alice trying to…

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Humans are killing helpful insects in hundreds of ways − simple steps can reduce the harm

Humans are killing helpful insects in hundreds of ways − simple steps can reduce the harm

Dragonflies, just like bees and butterflies, face threats that humans can help prevent. Christopher Halsch By Christopher Halsch, Binghamton University, State University of New York and Eliza Grames, Binghamton University, State University of New York Insects are all around us – an ant on the sidewalk, a bee buzzing by, a butterfly floating on the breeze – and they shape the world we experience. They pollinate flowering plants, decompose waste, control pests, and are critical links in food chains. Despite…

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Orangutan healed his own wound using a known medicinal plant

Orangutan healed his own wound using a known medicinal plant

Smithsonian magazine reports: In June 2022, a team of researchers observed a behavior never before witnessed in the animal world: A Sumatran orangutan named Rakus self-treated an injury using a medicinal plant. At Gunung Leuser National Park, a rainforest reserve on the western Indonesian island of Sumatra, scientists heard from the treetops a series of “long calls,” a behavior that usually preempts assertions of male dominance or aggression. The next day, they saw Rakus with an open wound on his…

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Vertebrates evolved intelligence independently multiple times

Vertebrates evolved intelligence independently multiple times

Yasemin Saplakoglu writes: Humans tend to put our own intelligence on a pedestal. Our brains can do math, employ logic, explore abstractions and think critically. But we can’t claim a monopoly on thought. Among a variety of nonhuman species known to display intelligent behavior, birds have been shown time and again to have advanced cognitive abilities. Ravens plan for the future, crows count and use tools, cockatoos open and pillage booby-trapped garbage cans, and chickadees keep track of tens of…

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Silent X chromosome genes ‘reawaken’ in older females, potentially boosting brain power, study finds

Silent X chromosome genes ‘reawaken’ in older females, potentially boosting brain power, study finds

Live Science reports: Dormant genes on the X chromosome may reawaken in old age, potentially giving the aging female brain a boost that the male brain doesn’t receive. This phenomenon may help to explain why, on many measures, females show a higher level of cognitive resilience in old age than males do. The findings come from a new study in lab mice, and the researchers also backed up the results with genetic data from humans. More research is still needed…

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How migrating birds use quantum mechanics to navigate

How migrating birds use quantum mechanics to navigate

The Observer reports: To the seasoned ear, the trilling of chiffchaffs and wheatears is as sure a sign of spring as the first defiant crocuses. By March, these birds have started to return from their winter breaks, navigating their way home to breeding grounds thousands of kilometres away – some species returning to home territory with centimetre precision. Although the idea of migration often conjures up striking visions of vast flocks of geese and murmurations of starlings, “the majority,” says…

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How metabolism can shape cells’ destinies

How metabolism can shape cells’ destinies

Viviane Callier writes: Each of us starts life as a single cell. To develop into a complex, multicellular being, that cell must divide, and then those cells must divide again, and again — and then these stem cells start to specialize into different types, with different destinies in our bodies. In the first week, our cells reach their first turning point: They must become either placenta or embryo. Then, in the developing embryo, cells form three primary layers — ectoderm,…

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Bennu asteroid reveals its contents to scientists − and clues to how the building blocks of life on Earth may have been seeded

Bennu asteroid reveals its contents to scientists − and clues to how the building blocks of life on Earth may have been seeded

This photo of asteroid Bennu is composed of 12 Polycam images collected on Dec. 2, 2024, by the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft. NASA By Timothy J McCoy, Smithsonian Institution and Sara Russell, Natural History Museum A bright fireball streaked across the sky above mountains, glaciers and spruce forest near the town of Revelstoke in British Columbia, Canada, on the evening of March 31, 1965. Fragments of this meteorite, discovered by beaver trappers, fell over a lake. A layer of ice saved them…

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The key to a healthy gut microbiome is a healthy diet

The key to a healthy gut microbiome is a healthy diet

Università di Trento: A varied diet rich in vegetables is known to be healthy for one’s well-being. Excessive consumption of meat, especially red meat, can lead to chronic and cardiovascular diseases. That is also because what we eat shapes the gut microbiome. At the same time, excluding certain foods, such as dairy or animal products, is not necessarily a general solution to achieve microbial balance. But can we find out which food products determine differences in the gut microbiome? Starting…

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