Цікаві факти

  Сара Уокер | Сара Уокер – провідний астробіолог і фізик-теоретик, яка спеціалізується на виникненні життя та дослідженні позаземного життя. Вона є автором книги «Життя, якого ніхто не знає». Основне розуміння життя як біологічного організму, який бере участь в еволюції. Але це помилка. Сара Уокер тут стверджує, що наше уявлення про те, що таке життя, не витримує, є кілька контрприкладів, і ми можемо бачити життя різними і радикальними способами. Одне з найпопулярніших визначень життя , що циркулює в наукових спільнотах, полягає в тому, що «життя є самопідтримуваною хімічною системою, здатною до дарвінівської еволюції». Це визначення вперше було розроблено в робочій групі з дисципліни екзобіології, організованій Джоном Руммелом, який на той час був керівником програми екзобіології NASA. Незважаючи на те, що визначення було розроблено під егідою робочої групи NASA, воно аж ніяк не є офіційним визначенням NASA, як це іноді стверджують у популярних новинних виданнях. Це навіть не о...

 Дивовижний зв'язок між використанням інструментів шимпанзе та еволюцією людини https://okiua.blogspot.com/p/blog-page_121.html

 Нова догма молекулярної біології: зміна парадигми https://okiua.blogspot.com/p/a-new-dogma-of-molecular-biology.html

  Вчені щойно використали гени мікроорганізму та створили мишу © Гао Я та Елвін Кін Шінг Лі/Центр порівняльних медичних досліджень Приблизно 700 мільйонів років тому царство тварин почало відгалужуватися від одноклітинних організмів. Тепер вчені знайшли молекулярні інструменти, які могли б сприяти цьому стрибку, і успішно випробували їх, створивши мишу з нашого одноклітинного предка. Вчені вперше створили мишачі стовбурові клітини з генів одноклітинної форми життя. Стовбурові клітини є особливими, оскільки вони можуть виробляти більше, а також перетворюватися в інші клітини з іншими функціями. Команда використала ці нещодавно згенеровані стовбурові клітини, щоб допомогти сформувати живу, дихаючу мишу з ембріона, що розвивається, згідно з опублікованими висновками в msn.com . Це відкриття було несподіваним, оскільки вчені вважали, що гени, які дозволяли стовбуровим клітинам ділитися та спеціалізуватися, зустрічаються лише у тварин, а не в одноклітинної групи протистів майже мільярд ...

 Все життя на Землі сьогодні походить з однієї клітини. Зустрічайте LUCA. https://okiua.blogspot.com/p/all-life-on-earth-today-descended-from.html

  Researchers this dormouse a part of the Pembrokeshire Coast National Park where the threatened mammal has not be recorded before © Pembrokeshire Coast National Park A rare hazel dormouse has been found in Pembrokeshire. The discovery of the mammal in the national park has given conservationists new hope for its recovery there,  msn.com . The tiny rodent, known for its big eyes, has declined across Britain by 70% since 2000 and is one of seven vulnerable mammals in Wales. Volunteers set out nesting boxes as part of a park conservation scheme and "got lucky" finding the famously sleepy dormouse thriving in a new area. Decades of decline left Pengelli forest, an ancient oak woodland, and another forest near the Pentre Ifan Neolithic site, as the dormouse's last habitat in the park. "We were looking at linking up those known important sites... and to see if those populations were isolated," said park conservationist Mary Chadwick. "We have a licensed dormo...

 Приголомшливе відкриття: вчені виявили, що спогади знаходяться не лише в мозку https://okiua.blogspot.com/p/mind-blowing-discovery-scientists.html

 Глибоководне відкриття показує, як може початися життя без біології https://okiua.blogspot.com/p/deep-sea-discovery-reveals-how-life.html

 Стародавні одноклітинні організми вказують на те, що ембріональний розвиток міг існувати до еволюції тварин https://okiua.blogspot.com/p/ancient-unicellular-organism-indicates.html

  Чи можна створити життя? Біохіміки роблять ключові кроки до створення синтетичних форм життя https://okiua.blogspot.com/p/can-life-be-engineered-biochemists-take.html

 Як з’єднуються сперматозоїд і яйцеклітина, довгий час було загадкою. Тепер нове дослідження вчених з Австрії дає цікаву інформацію. Це показує, що запліднення працює як замок і ключ у тварин, які мають хребет — від риб до людей. Таких тварин називають хребетними.

  A simplified synthetic equivalent of a cell would be like a blueprint for life. Credit: EVOLF project It is one of the most fundamental questions in science: how can lifeless molecules come together to form a living cell? Bert Poolman, Professor of Biochemistry at the University of Groningen, has been working on this problem for over 20 years. He aims to understand life by trying to reconstruct it; he is building simplified artificial versions of biological systems that can be used as components for a synthetic cell. Poolman has published two papers in Nature Nanotechnology and phys.org . In the first paper, he describes a system for energy conversion and cross-feeding of products of this reaction between synthetic cells, while he describes a system for concentrating and converting nutrients in cells in the second paper. Six Dutch research institutes are collaborating in the consortium BaSyc (Building a Synthetic Cell) to build the elements needed for a synthetic cell. Poolma...

 Python is a widely used programming language for scientific computing, in large part due to the powerful array programming library NumPy1, which makes it easy to write clean, vectorized and computationally efficient code for handling large datasets.  A challenge with using array programming in biology is that the data are often non-numeric and variable length (for example, DNA sequences), hindering out-of-the-box use of standard array programming techniques. This may push bioinformaticians to instead rely on complex, custom pipelines of UNIX commands that are non-transparent and error prone,  nature.com . Furthermore, the challenge of developing efficient code directly in high-level languages like Python has led to tool developers almost exclusively relying on low-level languages like C and C++ (or hybrid implementations using for example, Cython2 or Numba3), making it more difficult for computational biologists to understand and contribute to core methods in the fie...

Animal behavioral model header image OIST. Credit: Kaori Serakaki, OIST  Scientists have developed a new method to simulate the complex movements of animals with exceptional accuracy. The research team set out to solve a long-standing challenge in biology—how to accurately model the intricate and seemingly unpredictable movements of living organisms. They focused on the nematode worm Caenorhabditis elegans, a model organism widely used in biological research. The findings, published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, help predict and understand animal behavior, with potential applications ranging from robotics to medical research. "Unlike simple physical systems like a pendulum or a bead on a spring, animal behavior exists in a space between regular and random actions. Capturing that delicate balance is very tricky and that's what makes our model unique—no one has ever presented a model of an animal this lifelike before," explained Prof. Greg Stephens,...

 Utilizing a slime mold algorithm, astronomers have mapped the cosmic web, enhancing our understanding of galaxy evolution. This breakthrough research provides deeper insights into how large cosmic structures influence galaxies over time. In 2010, an experiment in Japan using slime mold to replicate the Tokyo railway system led to the development of a concept called biologically inspired adaptive network design,  scitechdaily.com. This idea was later utilized by a graduate student at New Mexico State University in his Ph.D. thesis to enhance methods for detecting the universe’s vastest structures, known as the “cosmic web.” Algorithm Enhancement for Astronomical Studies Measuring the environmental density of galaxies isn’t new, but the paper “Filaments of the Slime Mold Cosmic Web and How they Affect Galaxy Evolution,” published in August’s Astrophysical Journal, outlines how Hasan changed one step in the existing research framework combining it with a new method using an alg...

 Scientists have mapped the genome of the Greenland shark, which could offer clues to the animal’s extreme longevity. In a new study, researchers identified a network of 81 genes that were found only in Greenland sharks and are known to play a role in DNA repair. Credit...WaterFrame/Alamy The Greenland shark is not exactly charismatic. Its hulking frame is covered by sandpaper skin. Its fins, stunted, sit awkwardly along its sides. And its eyes, perpetually cloudy, are often host to wormlike parasites that dangle as the shark slowly roams the depths of the North Atlantic and Arctic oceans,  nytimes.com . But looks aside, the species has a surprising capacity: It can live for as long as about 400 years. Now, an international team of scientists from Europe and the United States has mapped the genome of the Greenland shark, offering scientists an opportunity to glean the secret to the shark’s outstanding longevity. “Any research into the mechanisms of how this animal is able to l...

 Scientists are beginning to crack the fiendishly complex code that helps us to sense odours. Illustration by Adrià Voltà The smell in the laboratory was new. It was, in the language of the business, tenacious: for more than a week, the odour clung to the paper on which it had been blotted. To researcher Alex Wiltschko, it was the smell of summertime in Texas: watermelon, but more precisely, the boundary where the red flesh transitions into white rind,  nature.com . “It was a molecule that nobody had ever seen before,” says Wiltschko, who runs a company called Osmo, based in Cambridge, Massachusetts. His team created the compound, called 533, as part of its mission to understand and digitize smell. His goal — to develop a system that can detect, predict or create odours — is a tall order, as molecule 533 shows. “If you looked at the structure, you would never have guessed that it smelled this way.” That’s one of the problems with understanding smell: the chemical structure of ...

  Six of 23 common wildlife species showed signs of SARS-CoV-2 infections in an examination of animals in Virginia, as revealed by tracking the virus’s genetic code. A Virginia Tech study of wildlife common in Virginia found that SARS-CoV-2, the virus responsible for COVID-19, is widespread in animals, particularly around areas of high human activity. The researchers identified variants consistent with those circulating in humans at the time, and one opossum with previously unreported viral mutations, underscoring the potential for changes that can potentially impact humans and their immune response. Photo by Joseph Hoyt for Virginia Tech. SARS-CoV-2, the virus responsible for COVID-19, is widespread among wildlife species, according to Virginia Tech research published today in Nature Communications. The virus was detected in six common backyard species and antibodies indicating prior exposure to the virus were found in five species with rates of exposure ranging from 40 to 60 perc...

 A new research paper, led by a team at Cardiff University, found a "much earlier episode" of biological evolution, 2.1 billion years ago. Complex life on Earth began around 1.5 billion years earlier than thought, according to a new study, in  sky.com . Scientists were broadly of the view that animals first emerged on Earth 635 million years ago, but the latest study, led by a research team at Cardiff University, has found signs of a much earlier ecosystem. The ecosystem was found in the Franceville Basin near Gabon. The study uncovers environmental evidence of the very first experiments in the evolution of complex life. It describes an episode of unique underwater volcanic activity after two continents collided. Scientists have widely debated the validity of large fossils of macroorganisms dating back 2.1 billion years. Earlier discovery Dr Ernest Chi Fru is the paper's lead author and reader at Cardiff University's School of Earth and Environmental Sciences. ...

  Various factors are thought to make one person more attractive to mosquitoes than another © Provided by Daily Mail It's a situation many of us have been faced while on holiday with a partner or a friend. One will become absolutely covered in mosquito bites, whilst the other escapes almost completely unscathed. And while the red, sore, bumpy bites are bad enough the buzzing assailants can also spread a host of dangerous pathogens, and are an increasing health risk in Europe, in  msn.com . So, what makes one person more attractive to the vampiric bloodsuckers than another? Here MailOnline explains what experts say is, and isn't, the key behind the phenomenon. How big you are and how you breathe Mosquitoes track down their prey by scent and one the things they are on the hunt for is carbon dioxide. Carbon dioxide (CO2) is a gas that we exhale as we breathe, and acts as a homing beacon to the insects. However, quantity of CO2 does seem to matter. Larger people naturally exhale l...