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Items tagged with: Biology
Biology, Computing, and the History of Molecular Sequencing: From Proteins to DNA, 1945-2000 by M. García-Sancho, 2012
Sequencing is often associated with the Human Genome Project and celebrated achievements concerning the DNA molecule. However, the history of this practice comprises not only academic biology, but also the world of computer-assisted information management. The book uncovers this history, qualifying the hype and expectations around #genomics.
science.org/content/article/un…
#Science #Biology #CombJelly
🦠 A tapeworm that infects worker ants (Temnothorax nylanderi) reprograms them at the molecular level — turning their metabolism queen-like and extending their lifespan from 2 years to 20. Infected workers receive MORE social care than the actual queen. The parasite hijacks the ant's own longevity genes, not by mimicking them, but by tapping into existing biological programs. #science #biology #parasitology #ants #nature
phys.org/news/2026-07-tapeworm…
Tapeworm hijacks worker ants, giving them queen-like metabolism and longer lives
A tapeworm fundamentally changes the lives of ants: Workers of the species Temnothorax nylanderi infected with the tapeworm Anomotaenia brevis live several times longer than their uninfected nestmates.Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (Phys.org)
🧪 A single molecule lets one naked mole rat queen control reproduction in her entire colony (up to 300 members).
The queen produces isopropyl myristate - the same compound in your moisturizer - and patrols her 3 km tunnel network daily to spread it. The scent raises prolactin in all other females, keeping them infertile.
When researchers removed a queen and just sprayed the chemical, no fights broke out and no one bred for 12 weeks. Remove the scent, and war broke out within days.
Source: nature.com/articles/s41586-026…
#biology #science #nakedmolerat #eusociality
A queen odour mediates reproductive suppression in a eusocial mammal - Nature
Naked mole-rat (Heterocephalus glaber) queens produce isopropyl myristate, a low-volatility ester that high-ranking animals detect and avoid, which alters prolactin and progesterone in other females to suppress reproduction and preserve eusocial hier…Nature
💁🏻♀️ ICYMI: 🌳🪨 A large-scale field #experiment in #Wales shows that adding crushed volcanic #basalt rock dust to #soil accelerates native woodland growth.
The #nature-based method boosted #carbon capture by up to 27% in the first four years, providing an urgent tool for global #climate restoration efforts.
👉 Learn more: seethis.tv/post/how-does-magic…
#biology #calcium #chemistry #climatechange #conservation #ecology #forest #iron #magnesium #minerals #plants #research #rocks #science #silica #solutions #trees #uk #womeninstem #tksst #video
How does ‘magic’ basalt dust help plants grow faster and lock up more carbon? | The Kid Should See This
In Llandovery, Wales, a large-scale nature research project is proving that there's a way to help trees grow faster and stronger, and store more carbon.Rion Nakaya (The Kid Should See This)
I am happy to announce our latest paper! "Surprising cryptic cavefish diversity in a long-studied karst cave ecosystem of northern Alabama"
I absolutely love our name for it too, an entire new genus, not just species: Demogorgonichthys arcanus
Why did it take so long to find, in a highly monitored cave? Well just take a look at the mud with water channels and low ceilings, and we cannot typically even get into the water because of other protected and highly endangered species. So visual surveying is difficult, and limited. The paper is an excellent read even for not-biologists, and the images are *amazing*. So proud of our lab!
#cave #caves #biology #fish #nature #speleology #science #animals
🧬 A marine alga just rewrote biology's textbook rule
For decades, students learned only bacteria can fix nitrogen from the air. In 2024, scientists found a tiny ocean alga has a real organelle - the "nitroplast" - that does it too. Only the 4th organelle born from endosymbiosis in 4 billion years of life.
news.ucsc.edu/2024/04/nitrogen…
Scientists discover first nitrogen-fixing organelle - News
In two recent papers, an international team led by UC Santa Cruz scientists describe the first known nitrogen-fixing organelle within a eukaryotic cell.Erin Malsbury (News)
🧬 The embryo doesn't start female. It starts undecided.
The bipotential gonad sits on a razor's edge for two weeks before a single gene on the Y chromosome tips the balance. And female development? It's not a passive default — it's an active genetic program that must continuously repress the male pathway throughout life.
👶 Why do men have nipples? Because milk evolved over 100 million years before nipples did. A 300-million-year story in four parts: sweaty-bellied synapsids hydrating eggs, a lysozyme gene accidentally inventing lactose, monotremes dripping milk through belly fur, and a PTHrP mutation that finally pulled ducts into a bud.
New crab from #china just pinched us:
Eucrate liui
Treatment: treatment.plazi.org/id/6EB85DC…
Publication: doi.org/10.3897/zookeys.1284.1…
#ZooKeys #EucrateLiui
#FAIRdata
#science #OA #openaccess #biology #taxonomy #ecology #biodiversity #nature #wildlife #conservation #animals #fauna #invertebrates #arthropods #crustacea #crab
🧬 For 150 years, lichens were biology's textbook example of symbiosis: a fungus plus an alga, working together. Simple, elegant, settled science.
Except it wasn't. In 2016, genetic sequencing revealed a third partner hiding in plain sight - a basidiomycete yeast embedded in the lichen's outer cortex. Scientists had been looking at it through microscopes for over a century and assumed it was part of the host fungus.
This explains a mystery that frustrated mycologists for decades: why they could never grow a lichen in the lab from just the "known" two partners. The cultures always failed to develop the right shape or chemistry. The recipe was missing an ingredient.
The yeast's abundance correlates with variations in lichen body plans, suggesting it helps sculpt the very forms taxonomists had been cataloguing all along.
Source: Spribille et al. (2016), Science - science.org/doi/10.1126/scienc…
31 alien-like marine species discovered off the coast of Brazil
A ghostly squid, speedy gossamer worm, and more dwell 600 to 3,300 feet beneath the waves.
The post 31 alien-like marine species discovered off the coast of Brazil appeared first on Popular Science.
Scientists built a cell from scratch for the first time. It feeds, grows, replicates its DNA, and divides. Called SpudCell.
36 genes, 90K base pairs, 150-200 molecules. Not alive (can't make ribosomes, can't evolve, needs constant feeding) but it's the first complete cell cycle from entirely non-living components.
quantamagazine.org/for-the-fir…
#syntheticbiology #science #biology
For the First Time, a Cell Built From Scratch Grows and Divides | Quanta Magazine
Scientists built a synthetic cell that combines more lifelike properties than ever before — proof of concept that it’s possible to bring nonliving materials to life, or something close to it, in the lab.Yasemin Saplakoglu (Quanta Magazine)
#NewSpecies!
Oreocharis fulvovillosa
A newly discovered gesneriaceae from #china!
Treatment: treatment.plazi.org/id/607662F…
Publication: doi.org/10.3897/phytokeys.276.…
#PhytoKeys #OreocharisFulvovillosa
#FAIRdata
#science #OA #openaccess #biology #ecology #taxonomy #nature #biodiversity #conservation #botany #flora #wildflowers #flowers #wildplants #plants #wildlife #gesneriaceae
