From physics to mind: the journey of cognition seen through the lens of embryonic development // Prof. Michael Levin (Tufts University)

Life Perceives is a symposium bringing together scientists and artists for an open exploration of how “perception” can be understood as a phenomenon that does not only belong to humans, or even the so-called “higher organisms”, but exists across the entire spectrum of life in a myriad of forms.

The programme can be found here: https://lifeperceives.org/programme.

The symposium invites leading practitioners from the arts and sciences to present unique insights through short talks, open discussions, and artistic interventions that bring us slightly closer to the life worlds of plants and fungi, microbial communities and immune systems, cuttlefish and crows.

What do we mean when we talk about perception in other species? Do other organisms have an experience of the world? Or does our human-centred perspective make understanding other forms of life on their own terms an impossible dream? Whatever your answers to these questions may be, we hope to unsettle them, and leave you more curious than when you arrived.

The symposium will be accompanied by a photography exhibition by award-winning photographer Irina Petrova Adamatzky, and an installation, The Sentinel Self, by Danish artist Sissel Marie Tonn in the Jane Attenborough Studio.

Men who regularly lift heavy objects at work have almost 50 percent higher sperm concentration and count.

As infertility is becoming a common problem of late, and medical professionals are scrambling to find solutions to nullify this rising trend. Researchers have found a link between male fertility and occupational factors, such as physical demands and work schedules.

The Harvard Medical School (HMS) and Brigham and Women’s Hospital collaborative effort found that men who “regularly lift heavy objects at work have higher sperm counts than men whose work is less physically demanding,” a press release said.

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Simonkr/iStock.

A large team of cancer researchers affiliated with multiple institutions in Germany, working with a colleague from the U.S., has discovered some of the ways gut bacteria can positively impact treatments for cancer. In their study, published in the journal Nature, the group studied the impact of gut microbiota on chemotherapy given to patients with pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma. Le Li and Florencia McAllister with the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, have published a News and Views piece in the same journal issue, outlining the work done by the team in Germany.

Prior research has shown that chemotherapy for pancreatic cancer that has metastasized sometimes works well but is sometimes ineffective, and this difference may be tied to dietary resistance, though its source is not known. In this new study, the team in Germany looked at the possibility that certain microorganisms in the gut microbiome play a role in the process.

The team began their work by looking at samples of the gut microbiome of pancreatic cancer patients and found differences between those responding to treatment and those who were not. They also found that mice with sterilized guts who received biome samples from mice responding to chemotherapy also responded well.

Patients with a large cerebral infarction have better functional recovery when they receive endovascular therapy early on in addition to usual medical management, a new study shows.

The trial was stopped early because a planned interim analysis showed efficacy of endovascular therapy in this patient population. #Stroke

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A new study provides evidence for better functional recovery after endovascular therapy from a population of large-infarction strokes that could contribute to changing clinical practice.