Lifeboat Foundation

The research, led by Professor Zhang Huaqiao of the Nanjing Institute of Geology and Paleontology at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, highlights the impact of these ancient organisms on our understanding of biological development.

Significance of the research: Fossilized invertebrate embryos are extraordinarily rare, and their preservation offers invaluable insights into the evolutionary developmental biology of ancient organisms.

Historically, fossil embryos from the early Cambrian to Early Ordovician periods have predominantly included cnidarians and the scalidophoran taxon Markuelia.

The University of Liverpool has reported a significant advancement in engineering biology and clean energy. A team of researchers has developed an innovative light-driven hybrid nanoreactor that merges natural efficiency with cutting-edge synthetic precision to produce hydrogen—a clean and sustainable energy source.

Published in ACS Catalysis, the study demonstrates a pioneering approach to artificial photocatalysis, addressing a critical challenge in using solar energy for fuel production. While nature’s photosynthetic systems have evolved for optimal sunlight utilisation, artificial systems have struggled to achieve comparable performance.

The hybrid nanoreactor is the product of a novel integration of biological and synthetic materials. It combines recombinant α-carboxysome shells—natural microcompartments from bacteria—with a microporous organic semiconductor. These carboxysome shells protect sensitive hydrogenase enzymes, which are highly effective at producing hydrogen but prone to deactivation by oxygen. Encapsulating these enzymes ensures sustained activity and efficiency.

Discovery draws surprising parallels between low-level organisms and sophisticated neurons; lays the groundwork for memory-capable biological systems.

Biologists studying collectives of bacteria, or “biofilms,” have discovered that these so-called simple organisms feature a robust capacity for memory.

Continue reading “Microbes Have Memory: Surprising Parallels Between Simple Microrganisms and Sophisticated Neurons” »

Recent studies indicate that the cosmos is rich in complex organic molecules, essential components for understanding the origins of life. The European Space Agency’s Rosetta probe, which examined the comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko over a two-year mission, provided significant insights into the presence of these molecules in space.

Organic molecules, defined as compounds containing carbon, are abundant not only on Earth but also throughout the universe. Their structure allows carbon atoms to create stable chains, forming the backbone of various biological compounds. The findings from Rosetta have transformed our understanding of where these building blocks of life might originate.

During its mission, Rosetta detected over 44 distinct organic molecules, including glycine, a fundamental amino acid. Moreover, recent analyses of the data identified dimethyl sulfide, a gas associated exclusively with biological processes on Earth, suggesting that the conditions for life may be more widespread than previously assumed.

The University of Liverpool has created a hybrid nanoreactor that uses sunlight to produce hydrogen efficiently, offering a sustainable and cost-effective alternative to traditional photocatalysts.

The University of Liverpool has announced a major breakthrough in engineering biology and clean energy. Researchers have developed a groundbreaking light-powered hybrid nanoreactor that combines the natural efficiency of biological processes with the precision of synthetic design to produce hydrogen, a clean and renewable energy source.

Detailed in ACS Catalysis, the study introduces an innovative solution to a longstanding challenge in solar energy utilization for fuel production. While nature’s photosynthesis systems excel at harnessing sunlight, artificial systems have historically fallen short. This new approach to artificial photocatalysis represents a significant step forward in bridging that performance gap.

But when, where and how that could come to pass is hard to predict — in part, some researchers say, because of guardrails the federal government has placed around gain-of-function research.

The term describes experiments that seek to understand a virus’ potential to adapt to new hosts, spread more easily, survive longer in the environment and cause those infected to become sicker. Though many scientists view the approach as a critical tool for conducting biological research, other experts have long complained that it’s unacceptably risky — a reputation exacerbated by persistent speculation that the virus responsible for the COVID-19 pandemic was created in gain-of-function experiments in a laboratory in Wuhan, China.

Quantum sensing is a rapidly developing field that utilizes the quantum states of particles, such as superposition, entanglement, and spin states, to detect changes in physical, chemical, or biological systems. A promising type of quantum nanosensor is nanodiamonds (NDs) equipped with nitrogen-vacancy (NV) centers. These centers are created by replacing a carbon atom with nitrogen near a lattice vacancy in a diamond structure.

When excited by light, the NV centers emit photons that maintain stable spin information and are sensitive to external influences like magnetic fields, electric fields, and temperature. Changes in these spin states can be detected using optically detected magnetic resonance (ODMR), which measures fluorescence changes under microwave radiation.

In a recent breakthrough, scientists from Okayama University in Japan developed nanodiamond sensors bright enough for bioimaging, with spin properties comparable to those of bulk diamonds. The study, published in ACS Nano, on 16 December 2024, was led by Research Professor Masazumi Fujiwara from Okayama University, in collaboration with Sumitomo Electric Company and the National Institutes for Quantum Science and Technology.

A new theory related to the second law of thermodynamics describes the motion of active biological systems ranging from migrating cells to traveling birds.

In 1944, Erwin Schrödinger published the book What is life? [1]. Therein, he reasoned about the origin of living systems by using methods of statistical physics. He argued that organisms form ordered states far from thermal equilibrium by minimizing their own disorder. In physical terms, disorder corresponds to positive entropy. Schrödinger thus concluded: “What an organism feeds upon is negative entropy […] freeing itself from all the entropy it cannot help producing while alive.” This statement poses the question of whether the second law of thermodynamics is valid for living systems. Now Benjamin Sorkin at Tel Aviv University, Israel, and colleagues have considered the problem of entropy production in living systems by putting forward a generalization of the second law [2].

Scientists know biological neurons are more complex than the artificial neurons employed in deep learning algorithms, but it’s an open question just how much more complex.

In a fascinating paper published recently in the journal Neuron, a team of researchers from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem tried to get us a little closer to an answer. While they expected the results would show biological neurons are more complex—they were surprised at just how much more complex they actually are.

Continue reading “New Study Finds a Single Neuron Is a Surprisingly Complex Little Computer” »