Fluorescent proteins with a quantum upgrade could offer unprecedented views inside cells.
Category: biological – Page 9
Water-window X-rays without a synchrotron: How graphite flakes could shrink bioimaging tools
Researchers from Nanyang Technological University, Singapore (NTU Singapore) have found a new way to produce X-rays with wavelengths in what is called the “water window.” This new method holds promise in making bioimaging X-ray machines smaller and more flexible to use.
Water-window X-rays are useful for bioimaging because they visualize biological cells at high contrast without staining them or requiring potentially damaging preparation.
However, some tabletop machines only produce radiation in a fixed range of energies, so more machines are needed if X-rays of varying energies are required to improve image contrast. Even then, they cannot cover the full spectrum of energies in the water window. There are single machines that can flexibly produce X-rays of different energies, but these are expensive synchrotrons larger than a house and difficult for most researchers to access.
Will self-driving ‘robot labs’ replace biologists? Paper sparks debate
I’d certainly like to see more experiments automated, yet I wonder if widespread automation would result in less resources directed to novel experimental designs (or new tools) that fall outside of automated workflows. Hopefully a balance can be attained!
AI-driven autonomous robots are coming to biology laboratories, but researchers insist that human skills remain essential.
Introduction: The Parkinson’s pandemic: prioritizing environmental policy and biological resilience
Via the gut.
Bianca Palushaj & Robin M Voigt puts forward a strategy for altering the trajectory of this modern epidemic.
1Department of Neurology and Neurological Sciences, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, California, USA.
2Rush Center for Integrated Microbiome and Chronobiology Research.
3Department of Internal Medicine, and.
4Department of Anatomy and Cell Biology, Rush University Medical Center, Chicago, Illinois, USA.
Scientists put forward a new theory of brain development
Your brain begins as a single cell. When all is said and done, it will house an incredibly complex and powerful network of some 170 billion cells. How does it organize itself along the way? Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory neuroscientists have come up with a surprisingly simple answer that could have far-reaching implications for biology and artificial intelligence.
Stan Kerstjens, a postdoc in Professor Anthony Zador’s lab, frames the question in terms of positional information. “The only thing a cell ‘sees’ is itself and its neighbors,” he explains. “But its fate depends on where it sits. A cell in the wrong place becomes the wrong thing, and the brain doesn’t develop right. So, every cell must solve two questions: Where am I? And who do I need to become?”
In a study published in Neuron, Kerstjens, Zador, and colleagues at Harvard University and ETH Zürich put forward a new theory for how the brain organizes itself during development.
The dynamic and heterogeneous composition of biomolecular condensates and its functional relevance
Biomolecular condensates are non-membrane-encapsulated compartments that control various biological processes. Recent studies have revealed that condensates change in response to stimuli and over time. This Review discusses the heterogeneity and composition changes of nuclear and cytoplasmic condensates, their regulation and how the changes affect cellular biochemical reactions.
Consciousness Creates the Universe Says Roger Penrose
Read “” by James P. Kowall on Medium.
Watch this very interesting video in which Roger Penrose argues that Consciousness is fundamental and came first before it created the universe through a process of observation that turns potentiality into actuality:
For 400 years, we’ve believed that mindless matter eventually evolved into conscious minds. But what if we have the causation completely backwards? What if consciousness is the precondition for the universe?
In this video, we dive deep into the quantum paradox, wave function collapse, and the radical scientific theory that consciousness isn’t an accident of evolution — it’s the fundamental building block of reality itself. From the Copenhagen interpretation to the mysteries of the biological brain, we explore how quantum mechanics suggests the physical world is simply what appears when consciousness observes itself.