Scientists have caught a once-in-a-billion-years evolutionary event in progress, as two lifeforms have merged into one organism that boasts abilities its peers would envy. Last time this happened, Earth got plants.

The phenomenon is called primary endosymbiosis, and it occurs when one microbial organism engulfs another, and starts using it like an internal organ. In exchange, the host cell provides nutrients, energy, protection and other benefits to the symbiote, until eventually it can no longer survive on its own and essentially ends up becoming an organ for the host – or what’s known as an organelle in microbial cells.

Imagine if kidneys were actually little animals running around, and humans had to manually filter their blood through a dialysis machine. Then one day some guy somehow gets one of these kidney critters stuck… Internally (who are we to judge how?) – and realizes he no longer needs his dialysis machine. Neither do his kids, until eventually we’re all born with these helpful little fellas inside us. That’s kind of what’s happening here.

Noreen and Antonia were born back in February, but the organisation announced the news on Thursday, local time.

Both are healthy and continue to reach expected development and behavioural milestones.

Noreen was born at the National Black-footed Ferret Conservation Center in Colorado, while Antonia resides at the Smithsonian’s National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute in Virginia.

Developing the clinical potential of NK cells as cancer therapeutics requires researchers to expand beyond conventional cell culture approaches.

Scientists seem to be close to creating a “one-and-done” vaccine that can protect against any strain of a virus with just one shot.

In a press release from the University of California — Riverside, one of the researchers behind the new RNA vaccine, Rong Hai, explained why he and his colleagues are so excited about their experimental — and allegedly universal — shot.

“What I want to emphasize about this vaccine strategy is that it is broad,” said Hai, a virologist and coauthor of a new paper on the vaccine candidate in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. “It is broadly applicable to any number of viruses, broadly effective against any variant of a virus, and safe for a broad spectrum of people.”

We lost a really great human today – philosopher Daniel C. Dennett.

Dan was a kind, honest, generous guy. He had a brilliant mind – insightful, critical, with an encyclopedic knowledge of pithy analogies and clinical examples (“intuition pumps” he called them), as well as who came up with them. And despite all of his experience and accomplishments, he always had a kind of childish excitement about new ideas, and new experiments. What he liked best was new insights, wild ideas, honest argument. I first heard the concept of “steel-manning” from him (opposite of “straw man” – putting forth the strongest, best version of an argument you want to critique). He was not interested in cheap wins or rhetorical bullying – he wanted to get to the best version of every story about nature and about ourselves.

I first came into contact with Dan through his books. As a teenager, Brainstorms, Elbow Room, and The Intentional Stance were a fantastic introduction to the most interesting questions, and ways of thinking about them. My dad and I would hit the bookstores every Saturday and there was no way a Dennett book would escape us if a new one came out. We had lots of great times discussing the topics in his books. I eventually was able to ask Dan to sign a few of them for dad, as birthday presents.

Is the Founder and CEO of Torigen Pharmaceuticals (https://www.torigen.com/), a company dedicated to researching and developing novel immuno-oncology products and services specifically for the veterinary market, with a focus on autologous cancer vaccines.

Torigen Pharmaceuticals is a start‑up that resulted from Ashley’s graduate thesis project at the University of Notre Dame, as she was working on her Masters in Engineering, Science and Technology Entrepreneurship in collaboration with Dr. Mark Suckow (https://www.research.uky.edu/staff/ma…). Ashley also received an undergraduate degree in Veterinary Pathology and Pathobiology from University of Connecticut.