Science News

Here, we propose that the emergence of life may correspond to a physical transition associated with a shift in the causal structure, where information gains direct and context-dependent causal efficacy over the matter in which it is instantiated. Such a transition may be akin to more traditional physical transitions (e.g. thermodynamic phase transitions), with the crucial distinction that determining which phase (non-life or life) a given system is in requires dynamical information and therefore can only be inferred by identifying causal architecture.

This is a 3:12 minute HD dramatic video choreographed to powerful music, which introduces the viewer to the microscopic kingdom of the Protists.

Evolutionary biologists have long wondered why cooperation remains a viable survival strategy, since there will always be others who cheat. Now, MIT physicists have found a possible answer to this question: Among yeast, cooperative members of the population actually have a better chance of survival than cheaters when a competing species is introduced into an environment.

Researchers from Harvard have now encoded an entire book in molecules of DNA- the building blocks of life.

Plants have the uncanny ability to send their roots down and their shoots up, even if the seedlings are rotated. The plants are sensing gravity. But how?

DNA may be ‘selfish’, but the emergent behaviour of cells can get pretty altruistic at times!

Researchers from the University of Bristol have created artificial muscles that can be transformed at the flick of a switch to mimic the remarkable camouflaging abilities of organisms such as squid and zebrafish.

Articles about BIOMIMICRY: http://www.scoop.it/t/science-news?tag=biomimicry

This is a newly revised 3 minute HD dramatic video choreographed to powerful music, which introduces the viewer to the wonder and miracle of cells.

The researchers, Monica Ortiz, a doctoral candidate in bioengineering, and Drew Endy, PhD, an assistant professor of bioengineering, have parasitized the parasite and harnessed M13’s key attributes — its non-lethality and its ability to package and broadcast arbitrary DNA strands — to create what might be termed the biological Internet, or “Bi-Fi.” Their findings were published online Sept. 7 in the Journal of Biological Engineering.

APC scientists have shown that brain levels of serotonin, the ‘happy hormone’ are regulated by the amount of bacteria in the gut during early life.

The vascular system of a leaf provides its structure and delivers its nutrients. When you light up that vascular structure with some fluorescent dye and view it using time lapse photography, details begin to emerge that reveal nature's mathematical formula for survival.

MATHEMATICS: http://www.scoop.it/t/science-news?tag=mathematics

New research on plant communication raises questions on the final frontier of dietary ethics.