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Category: biological – Page 18

In a new study published in PLOS Computational Biology, an international research team from the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Biology, Cardiff University, and Google has reexamined Robert Axelrod’s groundbreaking work.

By simulating more than 195 strategies in thousands of tournaments, the study revealed that success in the Iterated Prisoner’s Dilemma depends heavily on adaptation to diverse environments. Strategies that excelled in Axelrod’s controlled scenarios often failed when faced with a wider variety of opponents. Winning strategies are not only nice and reciprocal but also clever, slightly envious, and adaptable to the surrounding conditions.

The Prisoner’s Dilemma, a classic game in , presents players with the choice to cooperate or defect. Mutual cooperation results in moderate rewards for both players, while unilateral defection yields a high reward for the defector and a significant loss for the cooperator. If both players defect, they receive less than they would through . This tension between individual and collective benefit has made the game a model for decision-making in economics, politics, and biology.

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When a spider is spinning its web, its silk starts out as liquid and quickly turns into a solid that is, pound for pound, sturdier than steel. They manage to create these impressive materials at room temperature with biodegradable and environmentally friendly polymers. Materials scientists at Carnegie Mellon are studying these processes to better understand the ways biological systems manipulate polymers, and how we can borrow their techniques to improve industrial plastic processing.

One unique quality of polymers is that their molecules can have different shapes or “architectures,” and these shapes can have a big impact on their and recyclability. Polymer chains can form molecular strings, mesh-like networks, or even closed rings.

A new discovery about how ring-shaped polymers behave offers the potential to enable new ways for polymer scientists to design more sustainable materials. A team of researchers from Carnegie Mellon, Sandia National Laboratories, and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) has conducted the largest simulation to date on this type of polymer and confirmed theoretical predictions, finding that the ring polymers spontaneously solidify into glass when their chains become sufficiently long.

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Depth degradation is a problem biologists know all too well: The deeper you look into a sample, the fuzzier the image becomes. A worm embryo or a piece of tissue may only be tens of microns thick, but the bending of light causes microscopy images to lose their sharpness as the instruments peer beyond the top layer.

To deal with this problem, microscopists add technology to existing microscopes to cancel out these distortions. But this technique, called , requires time, money, and expertise, making it available to relatively few biology labs.

Now, researchers at HHMI’s Janelia Research Campus and collaborators have developed a way to make a similar correction, but without using adaptive optics, adding additional hardware, or taking more images. A team from the Shroff Lab has developed a new AI method that produces sharp microscopy images throughout a thick biological sample.

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A recent study published in PLOS Computational Biology found that people with stronger autistic traits, particularly those with a preference for predictability, tend to exhibit unique curiosity-driven behaviors. These individuals showed persistence in tasks requiring sustained attention, often leading to superior learning outcomes.

Autism spectrum disorder is a developmental condition that affects how individuals perceive and interact with the world. It is characterized by differences in communication, social interaction, and behavior patterns. Rather than being a singular condition, autism exists on a spectrum, meaning that individuals experience varying levels of intensity and expression of traits. While some may require significant support in daily life, others might navigate independently with unique strengths and challenges.

Autistic traits are characteristics commonly associated with autism but may also be present in varying degrees within the general population. These traits can include a preference for routines, heightened sensitivity to sensory input, and intense focus on specific topics of interest. While these traits can sometimes pose challenges, they also contribute to unique ways of thinking and problem-solving.

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Hello and welcome! My name is Anton and in this video, we will talk about the potential dangers of mirror life.
Links:


https://theconversation.com/mirror-life-forms-may-sound-like…ent-246013
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41565-024-01627-z.
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41557-023-01411-x.
Previous videos:


https://youtu.be/0MRGJNKACYs.
https://youtu.be/L1wkR-92Rys.
#chirality #biology #mirrorlife.

0:00 Mirror life?
0:40 Chirality and handedness of molecules and why it’s important.
2:40 Recent advances in biochemistry.
3:45 New technical report warns science.
4:50 All life is handed.
6:00 What this could do in theory.
7:45 Conclusions and additional propositions.

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Continue reading “Scientists Warn Against Creation of Mirror Life That May Cause an Extinction” | >

A balance of infection and harmony called endosymbiosis helps shape evolution. For the first time, biologists have reproduced this arrangement between microbes in a lab.

So much of life relies on endosymbiotic relationships, but scientists have struggled to understand how they happen. How does an internalized cell evade digestion? How does it learn to reproduce inside its host? What makes a random merger of two independent organisms into a stable, lasting partnership?

Now, for the first time, researchers have watched the opening choreography of this microscopic dance by inducing endosymbiosis in the lab(opens a new tab). After injecting bacteria into a fungus — a process that required creative problem-solving (and a bicycle pump) — the researchers managed to spark cooperation without killing the bacteria or the host. Their observations offer a glimpse into the conditions that make it possible for the same thing to happen in the microbial wild.

Evolution was fueled by endosymbiosis, cellular alliances in which one microbe makes a permanent home inside another. For the first time, biologists made it happen in the lab.

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Scientists recreated molecular switches that regulate biological timing, aiding nanotechnology and explaining evolutionary advantages.

Living organisms monitor time – and react to it – in many different ways, from detecting light and sound in microseconds to responding physiologically in pre-programmed ways, via their daily sleep cycle, monthly menstrual cycle, or to changes in the seasons.

These time-sensitive reactions are enabled by molecular switches or nanomachines that function as precise molecular timers, programmed to activate or deactivate in response to environmental cues and time intervals.

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Background and objectives: Aging clocks are computational models designed to measure biological age and aging rate based on age-related markers including epigenetic, proteomic, and immunomic changes, gut and skin microbiota, among others. In this narrative review, we aim to discuss the currently available aging clocks, ranging from epigenetic aging clocks to visual skin aging clocks.

Methods: We performed a literature search on PubMed/MEDLINE databases with keywords including: “aging clock,” “aging,” “biological age,” “chronological age,” “epigenetic,” “proteomic,” “microbiome,” “telomere,” “metabolic,” “inflammation,” “glycomic,” “lifestyle,” “nutrition,” “diet,” “exercise,” “psychosocial,” and “technology.”

Results: Notably, several CpG regions, plasma proteins, inflammatory and immune biomarkers, microbiome shifts, neuroimaging changes, and visual skin aging parameters demonstrated roles in aging and aging clock predictions. Further analysis on the most predictive CpGs and biomarkers is warranted. Limitations of aging clocks include technical noise which may be corrected with additional statistical techniques, and the diversity and applicability of samples utilized.

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Living organisms monitor time—and react to it—in many different ways, from detecting light and sound in microseconds to responding physiologically in pre-programmed ways, via their daily sleep cycle, monthly menstrual cycle, or to changes in the seasons.

Such an ability to react at different timescales is made possible via molecular switches or nanomachines that act or communicate as precise molecular timers, programmed to turn on and off in response to the environment and time.

Now, scientists at Université de Montréal have successfully recreated and validated two distinct mechanisms that can program both the activation and deactivation rates of nanomachines in living organisms across multiple timescales.

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