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Category: biological – Page 28

The Secret to Healthy Aging? Scientists Uncover the Power of Selenoproteins

Many foods are marketed for their antioxidant benefits, which help neutralize reactive oxygen species.

A species is a group of living organisms that share a set of common characteristics and are able to breed and produce fertile offspring. The concept of a species is important in biology as it is used to classify and organize the diversity of life. There are different ways to define a species, but the most widely accepted one is the biological species concept, which defines a species as a group of organisms that can interbreed and produce viable offspring in nature. This definition is widely used in evolutionary biology and ecology to identify and classify living organisms.

Looking between cells: Light microscopy probe provides unprecedented view of extracellular matrix

Before arriving at Janelia three years ago, Postdoctoral Scientist Antonio Fiore was designing and building optical instruments like microscopes and spectrometers. Fiore, a physicist by training, came to the Pedram Lab to try something new.

“I focused on the physics rather than investing in the biological applications of the optics I was developing,” Fiore says. “I came to the Pedram Lab in search of a different kind of impact, joining a team that explores areas of biology that need new tools, while keeping a connection to light microscopy.”

So far, Fiore’s new direction is paying off.

Can AI Defeat Aging and Death? | Ray Kurzweil

We’ve talked a lot about reversing aging and immortality through AI but does it REALLY POSSIBLE? Ray Kurzweil believes we can achieve immortality by 2029, and Bryan Johnson is already using AI to slow his biological age. Is this the future of human longevity?

Chapters:

Intro 0:00 — 1:09
Can We Stop Aging? 1:10 — 2:21
AI Could Reverse Aging Process 2:22 — 2:52
Blueprint Project 2:53 — 5:30
Longevity Escape Velocity 5:31 — 6:57
Scary Consequences 6:58 — 7:43

Reexamining the neurobiological correlates of subjective experience for whole-brain emulation (slides)

I presented these slides (PDF and images below) during the Workshop on Philosophy and Ethics of Brain Emulation (January 28th-29th, 2025) at the Mimir Center for Long Term Futures Research in Stockholm, Sweden. In my talk, I explored how various biological phenomena beyond standard neuronal electrophysiology may exert noticeable effects on the computations underlying subjective experiences. I emphasized the importance of the large range of timescales that such phenomena operate over (milliseconds to years). If we are to create emulations which think and feel like human beings, we must carefully consider the numerous tunable regulatory mechanisms the brain uses to enhance the complexity of its computational repertoire.

Robot acrobatics: Mammal tails offer surprising design insights

Evolution is traditionally associated with a process of increasing complexity and gaining new genes. However, the explosion of the genomic era shows that gene loss and simplification is a much more frequent process in the evolution of species than previously thought, and may favor new biological adaptations that facilitate the survival of living organisms.

This evolutionary driver, which seems counter-intuitive—” less is more” in genetic terms—now reveals a surprising dimension that responds to the new evolutionary concept of “less, but more,” i.e., the phenomenon of massive gene losses followed by large expansions through gene duplications.

This is one of the main conclusions of an article published in the journal Molecular Biology and Evolution, led by a team from the Genetics Section of the Faculty of Biology and the Institute for Research on Biodiversity (IRBio) of the University of Barcelona, in which teams from the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology (OIST) have also participated.

Alan Love — Philosophy of Reductionism & Emergence

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Can biology be explained entirely in terms of chemistry and then physics? If so, that’s “reductionism.” Or are there “emergent” properties at higher levels of the hierarchy of life that cannot be explained by properties at lower or more basic levels?

Alan C. Love, Ph.D., is a professor in the College of Liberal Arts at the University of Minnesota. He also serves as director of the Minnesota Center for Philosophy of Science.

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Viewpoint: The ‘post genomic era’ reveals nothing less than a new biology. We just don’t know how to talk about it

Y ou could be forgiven for thinking that the turn of the millennium was a golden age for the life sciences. After the halcyon days of the 1950s and ’60s when the structure of DNA, the true nature of genes and the genetic code itself were discovered, the Human Genome Project, launched in 1990 and culminating with a preliminary announcement of the entire genome sequence in 2000, looked like – and was presented as – a comparably dramatic leap forward in our understanding of the basis of life itself. As Bill Clinton put it when the draft sequence was unveiled: ‘Today we are learning the language in which God created life.’ Portentous stuff.

The genome sequence reveals the order in which the chemical building blocks (of which there are four distinct types) that make up our DNA are arranged along the molecule’s double-helical strands. Our genomes each have around 3 billion of these ‘letters’; reading them all is a tremendous challenge, but the Human Genome Project (HGP) transformed genome sequencing within the space of a couple of decades from a very slow and expensive procedure into something you can get done by mail order for the price of a meal for two.

Since that first sequence was unveiled in 2000, hundreds of thousands of human genomes have now been decoded, giving an indication of the person-to-person variation in sequence. This information has provided a vital resource for biomedicine, enabling us, for example, to identify which parts of the genome correlate with which diseases and traits. And all that investment in gene-sequencing technology was more than justified merely by its use for studying and tracking the SARS-CoV-2 virus during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Total synthesis of ibogaine creates new opportunities for studying a psychoactive plant derivative

Ibogaine—a psychoactive plant derivative—has attracted attention for its anti-addictive and anti-depressant properties. But ibogaine is a finite resource, extracted from plants native to Africa like the iboga shrub (Tabernanthe iboga) and the small-fruited voacanga tree (Voacanga africana). Further, its use can lead to irregular heartbeats, introducing safety risks and an overall need to better understand how its molecular structure leads to its biological effects.

In a study appearing in Nature Chemistry, researchers at the University of California, Davis Institute for Psychedelics and Neurotherapeutics (IPN) report the successful of ibogaine, ibogaine analogs and related compounds from pyridine—a relatively inexpensive and widely available chemical.

The team’s strategy enabled the synthesis of four naturally occurring ibogaine-related alkaloids as well as several non-natural analogs. Overall yields ranged from 6% to 29% after only six or seven steps, a marked increase in efficiency from previous synthetic efforts to produce similar compounds.

Squeezing light to unlock new frontiers in signal detection

DARPA’s Intensity-Squeezed Photonic Integration for Revolutionary Detectors (INSPIRED) seeks to break the quantum noise limit

Optical detectors are essential for converting light into measurable signals, enabling a wide range of critical technologies, such as fiber-optic communication, biological imaging, and motion sensors for navigation. However, their sensitivity is fundamentally limited by quantum noise, which prevents the detection of extremely faint signals in the most precision-demanding fields.

As the world marks the 100-year anniversary of the initial development of quantum mechanics with the International Year of Quantum Science and Technology, DARPA’s Intensity-Squeezed Photonic Integration for Revolutionary Detectors (INSPIRED) program is working to break through the quantum noise limit. By harnessing “squeezed light,” INSPIRED seeks to develop compact, cost-effective optical detectors that can operate at unprecedented sensitivities – allowing signals previously buried in quantum noise to be clearly detected.

Scientists discover 500-year-old shark, Earth’s longest living vertebrate

This is superlongevity! ♾️

“One shark, measuring five meters, was found to be at least 272 years old, with an upper age estimate of more than 500 years (392 +/- 120 years). Another specimen was at least 260 years old, potentially exceeding 400 years. “We definitely expected the sharks to be old, but we didn’t expect that it would be the longest-living vertebrate animal,” Nielsen said.”

The Greenland shark holds the title as the longest-lived vertebrate on Earth, with some individuals potentially reaching 500 years of age. This elusive deep-sea predator, found in the frigid waters of the North Atlantic and Arctic Oceans, has fascinated scientists due to its remarkable lifespan. Its slow growth rate and mysterious biology have made it a subject of ongoing research, shedding light on how some species defy the limits of aging.

A major breakthrough in understanding the longevity of Greenland sharks came from a research team led by Julius Nielsen, a marine biologist at the University of Copenhagen. Nielsen and his colleagues conducted a study that revealed a Greenland shark estimated to be at least 272 years old, with some models suggesting an upper age limit of nearly 500 years.

This finding shattered previous records, surpassing the known lifespan of the 211-year-old bowhead whale, which had long been considered the longest-lived vertebrate.