Tag: biology
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Tractionless movement.
Understanding how cells move autonomously is a fundamental question for both biologists and physicists. Experiments on cell motility are commonly done by looking at the motion of a cell on a glass slide under a microscope. In those conditions, cells are observed to “crawl” on the surface. Crawling is well understood: cells attach themselves to […]
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Recycling… Identity issues…
The secret to a long life? For worms, a cellular recycling protein is key. Scientists at Sanford Burnham Prebys Medical Discovery Institute have shown that worms live longer lives if they produce excess levels of a protein, p62, which recognizes toxic cell proteins that are tagged for destruction. The discovery, published in Nature Communications, could […]
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Reverse evolution 2.
Turtle ant soldiers scuttle to and from sporting shiny, adorably oversized heads, which they use to block the entrances of their nests — essentially acting as living doors. Not all heads are shaped alike: some soldiers have ones that resemble manhole covers and perfectly seal tunnel entrances. Others have square heads, which they assemble into […]
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Inevitable life. Inevitable death…
To help answer one of the great existential questions — how did life begin? — a study combines biological and cosmological models. Professor Tomonori Totani from the Department of Astronomy looked at how life’s building blocks could spontaneously form in the universe — a process known as abiogenesis. As the only life we know of […]
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Evolution. Dark DNA.
Scientists long assumed that new genes appear when evolution tinkers with old ones. There are studies suggesting that genes do not always evolve from existing ones, as biologists long supposed. Instead, some are fashioned from desolate stretches of the genome that do not code for any functional molecules. For example in the fish genomes, there […]
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