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Archive for the ‘biological’ category: Page 126

Feb 1, 2021

Synthetic biology reinvents development

Posted by in categories: bioengineering, biological, mathematics, physics

Richard Feynman, one of the most respected physicists of the twentieth century, said “What I cannot create, I do not understand.” Not surprisingly, many physicists and mathematicians have observed fundamental biological processes with the aim of precisely identifying the minimum ingredients that could generate them. One such example are the patterns of nature observed by Alan Turing. The brilliant English mathematician demonstrated in 1952 that it was possible to explain how a completely homogeneous tissue could be used to create a complex embryo, and he did so using one of the simplest, most elegant mathematical models ever written. One of the results of such models is that the symmetry shown by a cell or a tissue can break under a set of conditions.

Jan 29, 2021

Arsenic and (Very) Old Life

Posted by in category: biological

Arsenic — may be good for you, if you are a microbe!


This normally toxic substance might have been useful in the oxygen-deprived environment of early Earth.

Jan 28, 2021

How chromosomes evolve to create new forms of life

Posted by in categories: biological, materials

3D printing is a universal process in the sense that pretty much any part that can be drawn up in a CAD program can be printed, at least within a certain resolution. Machining a part on a mill or lathe, while having the advantage of greater accuracy and material options, is a slightly less universal process in that many possible designs that exist in theory could never be machined. A hollow sphere can easily be printed, but a ball could never be milled as a single part into a hollow sphere—unless you happen to have a milling machine tiny enough to fit inside the ball. But what about biological parts, and whole animals? How universal, from a design perspective, is growth?

Jan 28, 2021

Has Google’s DeepMind revolutionized biology?

Posted by in categories: biological, robotics/AI

DeepMind figures out protein folding using artificial intelligence.

Jan 23, 2021

Scientists produce the first in-vitro embryos from vitrified African lion oocytes

Posted by in categories: biological, cryonics, existential risks, life extension

A team of scientists from the Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research (Leibniz-IZW) inGermany, Givskud Zoo–Zootopia in Denmark and the University of Milan in Italy succeeded in producing the very first African lionin-vitroembryos after the vitrification of immature oocytes. For this specific method of cryopreservation, oocytes are collected directly after an animal is castrated or deceased and immediately frozen at-196°C in liquid nitrogen. This technique allows the storage of oocytes of valuable animals for an unlimited time, so that they can be used to produce offspring with the help of assisted reproduction techniques. The aim is to further improve and apply these methods to save highly endangered species such as the Asiatic lion from extinction. The current research on African lions as a model species is an important step in this direction. The results are reported in the scientific journal Cryobiology.

Lion oocytes are presumed to be very sensitive to chilling due to their high lipid content, resulting in poor revival following slow cooling. Vitrification can circumvent this problem, as the cells are frozen at ultra-fast speeds in solutions with a very high concentration of cryoprotective agents. This method prevents the formation of ice crystals in the cells, which could destroy them, and enables them to remain intact for an unlimited time to allow their use later on.

For the present research, the scientists collected oocytes from four African lionesses from Givskud Zoo—Zootopia after the animals had been euthanised for the purpose of population management. Half of the oocytes (60) were vitrified instantly. After six days of storage in liquid nitrogen, the vitrified oocytes were thawed and subjected toin-vitromaturation in an incubator at 39°C for a total of 32–34 hours. The other half (59) were used as control group and directly subjected toin-vitromaturation without a step of vitrification. Mature oocytes of both groups were then fertilized with frozen-thawed sperm from African lion males. “We could demonstrate a high proportion of surviving and matured oocytes in the group of vitrified oocytes. Almost 50% of them had matured, a proportion similar to that in the control group,” says Jennifer Zahmel, scientist at the Department of Reproduction Biology at the Leibniz-IZW.

Jan 23, 2021

How Explainable Artificial Intelligence Can Help Humans Innovate

Posted by in categories: biological, chemistry, information science, particle physics, robotics/AI, transportation

I like this idea. I don’t want AI to be a black box, I want to know what’s happening and how its doing it.


The field of artificial intelligence has created computers that can drive cars, synthesize chemical compounds, fold proteins, and detect high-energy particles at a superhuman level.

However, these AI algorithms cannot explain the thought processes behind their decisions. A computer that masters protein folding and also tells researchers more about the rules of biology is much more useful than a computer that folds proteins without explanation.

Continue reading “How Explainable Artificial Intelligence Can Help Humans Innovate” »

Jan 21, 2021

Discovery of new praying mantis species from the time of the dinosaurs

Posted by in categories: biological, evolution

A McGill-led research team has identified a new species of praying mantis thanks to imprints of its fossilized wings. It lived in Labrador, in the Canadian Subarctic around 100 million years ago, during the time of the dinosaurs, in the Late Cretaceous period. The researchers believe that the fossils of the new genus and species, Labradormantis guilbaulti, helps to establish evolutionary relationships between previously known species and advances the scientific understanding of the evolution of the most ‘primitive’ modern praying mantises. The unusual find, described in a recently published study in Systematic Entomology, also sheds light on wing evolution among mantises and their relatives more generally.

Digging through mountains of rubble

The research team, which included members from the Muséum national d’Histoire naturelle in Paris, and the Musée de paléontologie et de l’évolution in Montreal, found the specimens during fieldwork at an abandoned iron mine located in Labrador, near Schefferville (Quebec).

Jan 20, 2021

Ten computer codes that transformed science

Posted by in categories: biological, climatology, computing, physics, science

Although no list like this can be definitive, we polled dozens of researchers over the past year to develop a diverse line-up of ten software tools that have had a big impact on the world of science. You can weigh in on our choices at the end of the story.


From Fortran to arXiv.org, these advances in programming and platforms sent biology, climate science and physics into warp speed.

Jan 18, 2021

20 Best Aging Biomarkers to Track for Longevity

Posted by in categories: biological, life extension

I’m curious what biomarkers people here currently track? I did some research and came up with these 20 but any you would add/take away? (9 of them were mostly included to be able to use Morgan Levine’s biological age calculator).


This is the first article in a two-part series on the best aging biomarkers to track for longevity. The second article will compare different tests and testing companies on the market and supply a sample testing schedule you can use.

Continue reading “20 Best Aging Biomarkers to Track for Longevity” »

Jan 16, 2021

Human Mind Control of Rat Cyborg’s Continuous Locomotion with Wireless Brain-to-Brain Interface

Posted by in categories: biological, computing, cyborgs, neuroscience

“The results showed that rat cyborgs could be smoothly and successfully navigated by the human mind to complete a navigation task in a complex maze. Our experiments indicated that the cooperation through transmitting multidimensional information between two brains by computer-assisted BBI is promising.”

(2019)


Brain-machine interfaces (BMIs) provide a promising information channel between the biological brain and external devices and are applied in building brain-to-device control. Prior studies have explored the feasibility of establishing a brain-brain interface (BBI) across various brains via the combination of BMIs. However, using BBI to realize the efficient multidegree control of a living creature, such as a rat, to complete a navigation task in a complex environment has yet to be shown. In this study, we developed a BBI from the human brain to a rat implanted with microelectrodes (i.e., rat cyborg), which integrated electroencephalogram-based motor imagery and brain stimulation to realize human mind control of the rat’s continuous locomotion. Control instructions were transferred from continuous motor imagery decoding results with the proposed control models and were wirelessly sent to the rat cyborg through brain micro-electrical stimulation. The results showed that rat cyborgs could be smoothly and successfully navigated by the human mind to complete a navigation task in a complex maze. Our experiments indicated that the cooperation through transmitting multidimensional information between two brains by computer-assisted BBI is promising.