Lifeboat Foundation

A fluorescent molecule whose luminosity depends upon how fast it can rotate is helping researchers measure how viscous the fluid is inside different parts of a cell.

“There’s a lot of interest in the biophysical field in developing chemical probes that can be used to characterize the environment inside a cell or any kind of biological compartment,” says Peter Bond, from A*STAR’s Bioinformatics Institute.

Researchers from the United Kingdom and Singapore—including A*STAR scientists such as Bond’s team who led the computational arm of the project—have modeled, developed and tested a molecule comprising two parts; a genetic probe designed to home in on particular proteins, so it can be directed to wherever in a cell that protein is found; and a molecular rotor—a fluorescent molecule whose fluorescence lasts longer, the slower it spins. A*STAR researchers simulated how this molecule would perform in different microenvironments at scales of millionths or even billionths of a meter.

Continue reading “Fluorescent molecule could shed light on the inner workings of the cellular environment” »

What’s up with these 2 factions trying to split reality in 2? 🤔.

Are you a multispecies mix of human and microbial bits – or is there a fuzzy boundary between you and your tiny companions?

👀

The GTPases constitute a very large protein family, whose members are involved in the control of cell growth, transport of molecules, synthesis of other proteins, etc. Despite the many functions of the GTPases, they follow a common cyclic pattern (Figure 1). The activity of the GTPases is regulated by factors that control their ability to bind and hydrolyse guanosine triphosphate (GTP) to guanosine diphosphate (GDP). So far, it has been the general assumption that a GTPase is active or “on” when it is bound to GTP and inactive or “off” in complex with GDP. The GTPases are therefore sometimes referred to as molecular “switches.”

The bacterial translational elongation factor EF-Tu is a GTPase, which plays a crucial role during the synthesis of proteins in bacteria, as the factor transports the amino acids that build up a cell’s proteins to the cellular protein synthesis factory, the ribosome. Previous structural studies using X-ray crystallography have shown that EF-Tu occurs in two markedly different three-dimensional shapes depending on whether the factor is “on” (i.e. bound to GTP) or “off” (i.e. bound to GDP) (Figure 2). The binding of GTP/GDP have therefore always been thought to be decisive for the factor’s structural conformation.

Continue reading “Molecular switches are not just ‘on’ or ‘off’” »

Illuminating mathematics, physics, biology and computer science research through public service journalism.

Some patterns of electrical activity generated by the brain during sleep are inherited, according to a study of teenage twins published in JNeurosci. Pinpointing the relative contributions of biology and experience to sleep neurophysiology could inform therapies for numerous psychiatric disorders in which alterations in brain activity during sleep can be detected.

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/unlimited-realities-with-lisa-z…lth-future

Some bacteria make energy in a process that is accompanied by transfer of electrons to a mineral. A previously unknown electron-transfer pathway now reveals an energy-generation system used by bacteria in the human gut.

From the perspective of critics, there are many reasons to be concerned about the rise of artificial intelligence.

Billionaire inventor Elon Musk — perhaps the world’s most vocal AI antagonist — has warned that the technology could become “an immortal dictator from which we would never escape.”

Several years before his death, Stephen Hawking, the renowned theoretical physicist, said artificial intelligence could bypass biological evolution, leaving humans unable to compete.

Continue reading “Prince Charles Says He ‘Utterly Objects’ to The Idea of People Becoming Part Human, Part Machine” »

A study published in Molecular Biology Evolution provides new insight into why humans are able to live as long as we do identifying a handful of genes that were so strongly conserved millions of years ago, that they continue to influence our lifespans today…