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Category: evolution – Page 96

In a way, it could mean climate change is linked to an “immature technosphere”.

It’s called an epiphenomenon.

The idea is that the ordinary function of one thing can generate a secondary effect that seems unrelated and beyond its scope of influence. And when it comes to the interconnected systems of the Earth, we see it all the time.

Plants, for example, found their way via evolution to photosynthesis, which greatly improved their survival. But it also led to them releasing oxygen into the atmosphere, and that changed everything: One form of life seeded a planet-wide transformation, just by pursuing its own nature.

But, if the totality of life (called a biosphere) can radically reshape the Earth, some scientists speculate that cognition — and cognition-related actions — might exhibit the same effect.

This is the “thought experiment” of a group of scientists who blended empirical knowledge of the Earth with more generic ideas about how life changes worlds. And, in the * International Journal of Astrobiology*, they explored the possibility of a “planetary intelligence\.

Continue reading “Can a planet “think”? The bold idea gets new backing” | >

There is a cyborg organoid platform developed by integrating “tissue-like” stretchable mesh nanoelectronics with 2D stem cell sheets. Leveraging the 2D-to-3D reconfiguration during organoid development, 2D stem cell sheets fold and embed stretchable mesh nanoelectronics with electrodes throughout the entire 3D organoid. The embedded electronics can then enable continuous electrical recording.

Scientists design stretchable mesh nanoelectronics, mimicking the mechanical and structural properties of brain organoids to build cyborg human brain organoids.

Using the 3D embedded stretchable electrodes, achieved reliable long-term electrical recording of the same hiPSC-derived neural tissue at single-cell, millisecond spatiotemporal resolution for 6 months, revealing the evolution of the tissue-wide single-cell electrophysiology over hiPSC-derived neuron development. Applying this technology to brain organoids at early developmental stages, they traced the gradually emerging single-cell action potentials and network activities.

#biomimicry #meshelectronics #hiPSC #neurallace #neuroscience

Building cyborg brain organoids through the integration of stretchable mesh nanoelectronics with human induced pluripotent stem cell derived progenitors and neurons through organogenesis is reported…

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A study by the University of Bonn: Observations fit poorly with the Standard Model of Cosmology.

The Standard Model of Cosmology describes how the universe came into being according to the view of most physicists. Researchers at the University of Bonn have now studied the evolution of galaxies within this model, finding considerable discrepancies with actual observations. The University of St. Andrews in Scotland and Charles University in the Czech Republic were also involved in the study. The results have now been published in the Astrophysical Journal.

Most galaxies visible from Earth resemble a flat disk with a thickened center. They are therefore similar to the sports equipment of a discus thrower. According to the Standard Model of Cosmology, however, such disks should form rather rarely. This is because in the model, every galaxy is surrounded by a halo of dark matter. This halo is invisible, but exerts a strong gravitational pull on nearby galaxies due to its mass. “That’s why we keep seeing galaxies merging with each other in the model universe,” explains Prof. Dr. Pavel Kroupa of the Helmholtz Institute for Radiation and Nuclear Physics at the University of Bonn.

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A new research methodology has allowed specialists to track active vendors in several dark web platformsbased solely on how they write their ads and posts. Using stylometry, the experts were able to analyze thousands of identities of various suppliers in black markets and identify if these profiles correspond to specific people.

This study involved the collection of nodes of information extracted from vendor profiles on four now-shutdown cybercriminal platforms, including Valhalla, Dream Market, Evolution, and Silk Road 2.

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The Standard Model of Cosmology describes how the universe came into being according to the view of most physicists. Researchers at the University of Bonn have now studied the evolution of galaxies within this model, finding considerable discrepancies with actual observations. The University of St. Andrews in Scotland and Charles University in the Czech Republic were also involved in the study. The results have now been published in the Astrophysical Journal.

Most galaxies visible from Earth resemble a flat disk with a thickened center. They are therefore similar to the sports equipment of a discus thrower. According to the Standard Model of Cosmology, however, such disks should form rather rarely. This is because in the , every galaxy is surrounded by a halo of dark matter. This halo is invisible, but exerts a strong gravitational pull on nearby galaxies due to its mass. “That’s why we keep seeing galaxies merging with each other in the model universe,” explains Prof. Dr. Pavel Kroupa of the Helmholtz Institute for Radiation and Nuclear Physics at the University of Bonn.

This crash has two effects, the physicist explains: “First, the galaxies penetrate in the process, destroying the disk shape. Second, it reduces the angular momentum of the new galaxy created by the merger.” Put simply, this greatly decreases its rotational speed. The rotating motion normally ensures that the centrifugal forces acting during this process cause a new disk to form. However, if the angular momentum is too small, a new disk will not form at all.

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Giant mountain ranges at least as high as the Himalayas and stretching up to 8,000 kilometers across entire supercontinents played a crucial role in the evolution of early life on Earth, according to a new study by researchers at The Australian National University (ANU).

The researchers tracked the formation of these supermountains throughout Earth’s history using traces of zircon with low lutetium content—a combination of mineral and rare earth element only found in the roots of high mountains where they form under intense pressure.

The study found the most giant of these supermountains only formed twice in Earth’s history—the first between 2,000 and 1,800 million years ago and the second between 650 and 500 million years ago. Both rose during periods of supercontinent formation.

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“Beneficial Viruses” For Human Health, Agriculture And Environmental Sustainability — Dr. Marilyn Roossinck, Ph.D., Professor Emeritus, Penn State

Dr. Marilyn Roossinck Ph.D. (https://plantpath.psu.edu/directory/mjr25) is Professor Emeritus of plant pathology, environmental microbiology and biology at Penn State University.

Dr. Roossinck is an expert on viruses, from their evolutionary pressures and mechanisms, to the ecology of viral diseases. She performed some of the first experimental evolution studies on plant viruses and pioneered the first virus discovery work in a terrestrial system, by deep sequencing wild plant samples. A specialty of hers is the symbiotic relationships between plants and so-called “beneficial viruses.”

Dr. Roossinck completed her undergraduate work at the University of Colorado, Boulder, receiving a biology degree in 1982. Four years later, she earned her doctorate in microbiology and immunology from the University of Colorado School of Medicine.

Dr. Roossinck joined Penn State as professor of plant pathology and environmental microbiology and of biology in 2011, holding appointments in the College of Agricultural Sciences and the Eberly College of Science. She taught courses in virus ecology for several years at Penn State, and also has published both a popular press book about viruses entitled “Virus: An Illustrated Guide to 101 Incredible Microbes” as well as the academic text “Plant Virus Evolution”.

Continue reading “Dr. Marilyn Roossinck, Ph.D. — Beneficial Viruses — Professor Emeritus, Penn State University” | >

About 1.5 million years ago, a child died near the Sea of Galilee. All that remains of the youngster is a single bone, a vertebra. But that skeletal fragment, first unearthed in 1966 and only now recognized for what it actually is – the earliest large-bodied hominin found in the Levant – changes the story of human evolution.

Among other things, that one bone proves for the first time that there were multiple exits by archaic humans from Africa. At 1.5 million years of age, the bone is the second-oldest hominin fossil to be found outside Africa. The oldest date to 1.8 million years ago and were found in Dmanisi, Georgia, and that difference of about 300,000 years proves in and of itself that there was more than one exit.

More? This archaic child in the Jordan Valley and the hominins at Dmanisi were not the same species.

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