Hacker News with Generative AI: Biology

AI-designed DNA controls genes in healthy mammalian cells for first time (crg.eu)
A study published today in the journal Cell marks the first reported instance of generative AI designing synthetic molecules that can successfully control gene expression in healthy mammalian cells.

Generative AI, Biology, Science, Genetics

3 points by geox 19 hours ago | 0 comments

Improving Flying Drones by Mimicking Flying Squirrels (hackaday.com)
With the ability to independently adjust the thrust of each of their four motors, quadcopters are exceptionally agile compared to more traditional aircraft. But in an effort to create an even more maneuverable drone platform, a group of South Korean researchers have studied adding flying squirrel tech to quadcopters.

Robotics, Engineering, Biology, Animals

4 points by devrandoom 3 days ago | 0 comments

Scientists have found a way to 'tattoo' tardigrades (phys.org)
If you haven't heard of a tardigrade before, prepare to be wowed. These clumsy, eight-legged creatures, nicknamed water bears, are about half a millimeter long and can survive practically anything: freezing temperatures, near starvation, high pressure, radiation exposure, outer space and more.

Science, Biology, Tardigrades, Research

55 points by PaulHoule 3 days ago | 43 comments

Deadly Screwworm Parasite's Comeback Threatens Texas Cattle, US Beef Supply (bloomberg.com)
After being eradicated in the US in the 1980s, the screwworm could be back as soon as this summer.

Agriculture, Texas, Pests, Biology, Livestock

128 points by nkurz 6 days ago | 179 comments

What makes a Kentucky Derby champion? Big hearts, immense lungs, & powerful legs (apnews.com)
Israeli Cabinet ministers to vote on whether to expand Gaza fighting

Kentucky Derby, Horse Racing, Sports, Biology, Animal Physiology

7 points by c420 6 days ago | 0 comments

Computational Limit of Life May Be Billion Times Higher Than Assumed (popularmechanics.com)
A new paper written by a theoretical physicist at Howard University claims that aneural eukaryotic cells could process information up to a billion times faster than typical biochemical processes.

Biology, Science, Computation, Theoretical Physics

22 points by virtualritz 6 days ago | 16 comments

Screwworms have breached the U.S.-maintained barrier in Panama (arstechnica.com)
We're on the verge of being screwwormed.

Science, Biology, Panama, Invasive Species

25 points by snowwrestler 7 days ago | 6 comments

Minimum Viable Muscle: The Least You Must Do to Not Fall Apart (iterintellectus.substack.com)
Most fitness discourse drowns in maximalist BS, endless debates over optimal programming, supplement minutiae, and genetic limitations. This noise obscures a far more pressing biological reality: the minimum effective dose required to prevent accelerated decay. This baseline isn't about aesthetics or performance, it's about avoiding the active cellular abandonment that begins immediately when movement signals disappear.

Fitness, Health, Biology, Minimalism

6 points by skadamat 7 days ago | 0 comments

Universal Antivenom May Grow Out of Man Who Let Snakes Bite Him 100s of Times (nytimes.com)
Scientists identified antibodies that neutralized the poison in whole or in part from the bites of cobras, mambas and other deadly species.

Science, Medicine, Biology, Venom, Antivenom

44 points by ceejayoz 7 days ago | 20 comments

Sea snail teeth top Kevlar, titanium as strongest material (2015) (cbc.ca)
British researchers have discovered the world’s strongest biological material ever tested: sea snail teeth.

Science, Materials Science, Biology, Nature

138 points by thunderbong 7 days ago | 60 comments

Snake collector's immunity quest opens path towards universal antivenom (theguardian.com)
Blood from man bitten hundreds of times by deadly species is used to create most broadly protective antivenom yet

Medicine, Biology, Snakes, Antivenom, Research

6 points by abeppu 7 days ago | 1 comments

Why Is the Kiwi's Egg So Big? (audubon.org)
The flightless kiwi is so unbirdlike that many biologists call it an “honorary mammal.”

Biology, Birds, New Zealand, Evolution

77 points by repost_bot 8 days ago | 53 comments

The unusual mathematics that gives rose petals their shape (nature.com)
The growth of rose petals exploits a geometric trick previously unobserved in nature, physicists have found.

Mathematics, Nature, Biology, Physics

20 points by gnabgib 8 days ago | 9 comments

PScientists reveal how bats learn to identify which prey is safe to eat (phys.org)
Scientists at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (STRI) found that the fringe-lipped bat, known to eavesdrop on frog and toad mating calls to find its prey, learns to distinguish between palatable and unpalatable frogs and toads through experience.

Science, Biology, Animal Behavior, Bats

26 points by wglb 8 days ago | 7 comments

Restoring oil wells back to nature with moss (uwaterloo.ca)
Researchers use moss in new method capable of restoring peatlands damaged by oil and gas exploration

Environmental Science, Remediation, Biology, Peatlands

8 points by geox 8 days ago | 0 comments

Whole-body physics simulation of fruit fly locomotion (nature.com)

Science, Biology, Physics, Animals

6 points by jonbaer 14 days ago | 0 comments

Dolphins Communicate with 'Fountains of Pee' (scientificamerican.com)
Humans typically consider peeing a private act. But for many animals, it’s a crucial way to share information—one that goes way beyond simply marking territory.

Animals, Communication, Science, Biology

38 points by hilux 14 days ago | 17 comments

Century-old genetics mystery of Mendel's peas solved (nature.com)
Researchers pinpoint the genes responsible for the final three pea traits studied by the famed citizen scientist.

Genetics, Science, Biology, History

21 points by Brajeshwar 14 days ago | 14 comments

The Australians hardwired to be up through the night (abc.net.au)
Abhinav Shrivastava is a rare natural night owl.

Sleep, Biology, Australia, Genetics

8 points by meander_water 14 days ago | 0 comments

Why Some Animals Live for Only Days and Others Live for Thousands of Years (scientificamerican.com)
Florida’s Department of Education has approved classroom use of videos that spout climate disinformation and distort climate science

Biology, Animals, Lifespan, Science

7 points by stevenjgarner 15 days ago | 3 comments

AI Bests Virus Experts, Raising Biohazard Fears (time.com)
A new study claims that AI models like ChatGPT and Claude now outperform PhD-level virologists in problem-solving in wet labs, where scientists analyze chemicals and biological material.

Artificial Intelligence, Science, Biology, Bioethics, Public Health

31 points by rbanffy 16 days ago | 28 comments

I should have loved biology too (nehalslearnings.substack.com)
About a year ago, I came across James Somers’ blog post, I should have loved biology. I began reading it and every sentence struck a chord: “I should have loved biology but found it a lifeless recitation of names”; “In textbooks, astonishing facts were presented without astonishment”; “In biology class, biology wasn’t presented as a quest for the secrets of life.

Education, Biology, Science, Substack

271 points by nehal96 17 days ago | 194 comments

Is SaaS a good business model for drug‑discovery companies? (liorz.github.io)
In 2024 the Nobel Prize in Chemistry went to David Baker, Demis Hassabis, and John Jumper for their groundbreaking advances in computational protein design and protein‑structure prediction. Their achievements—most famously the AlphaFold2 model—have sparked a wave of enthusiasm for applying “foundation models” to biology.

SaaS, Drug Discovery, Artificial Intelligence, Biology, Protein Design

7 points by Protostome 17 days ago | 4 comments

How a Biofilm’s Strange Shape Emerges From Cellular Geometry (quantamagazine.org)
Biofilms lead lives of liminality. Just a few cells thick, these layered communities of microbes anchor themselves to solid surfaces at interfaces — where rocks meet salt water in tide pools, between plants and dirt in root systems, or on the saliva-covered surface of your teeth. Amalgamations of single cells, biofilms grow and develop into unified life forms that can split back into their component cells under duress. Biofilms, then, are somehow both unicellular and multicellular — and simultaneously neither.

Biology, Microbiology, Science, Cellular Biology

17 points by pseudolus 17 days ago | 1 comments

Bird Went Extinct and Then Evolved into Existence Again (vice.com)
The Aldabra white-throated rail, a flightless bird that lives on its namesake atoll in the Indian Ocean, doesn’t look like anything special at first glance. But the small bird has big bragging rights, because it has effectively evolved into existence twice after first going extinct some 136,000 years ago.

Evolution, Biology, Extinction, Birds

11 points by MrBuddyCasino 18 days ago | 3 comments

Certain sunflower strains can be induced to form seeds without pollination (phys.org)
Syngenta Biotechnology China-led research, with partners in the U.S., France, the UK, Chile, the Netherlands, Argentina, and across China, has discovered that sunflowers can form viable haploid seeds through parthenogenesis in the absence of pollination.

Agriculture, Genetics, Science, Biology

5 points by PaulHoule 20 days ago | 0 comments

Lichens can survive almost anything, and some might survive Mars (arstechnica.com)
Whether anything ever lived on Mars is unknown. And the present environment, with harsh temperatures, intense radiation, and a sparse atmosphere, isn’t exactly propitious for life. Despite the red planet’s brutality, lichens that inhabit some of the harshest environments on Earth could possibly survive there.

Space Exploration, Biology, Mars, Lichens

26 points by abacussh 20 days ago | 11 comments

Chicken-or-egg evolutionary problem solved by missing link molecule (cosmosmagazine.com)
An accidental discovery could provide clues to a chicken-or-egg question which has puzzled scientists for decades: what came first – oxygen production by photosynthesis or oxygen consumption by aerobic metabolism?

Science, Biology, Evolution, Photosynthesis, Aerobic Metabolism

5 points by geox 20 days ago | 0 comments

Mapping the half-billion connections that allow mice to see (engineering.princeton.edu)
After nine years of painstaking work, an international team of researchers on Wednesday published a precise map of the vision centers of a mouse brain, revealing the exquisite structures and functional systems of mammalian perception.

Neuroscience, Biology, Research, Mapping, Vision

16 points by gmays 20 days ago | 0 comments

Scientists discover new microbes in Earth's deep soil (phys.org)
Scientists have discovered a new phylum of microbes in Earth's Critical Zone, an area of deep soil that restores water quality.

Science, Biology, Earth Science, Microbiology

6 points by gmays 21 days ago | 0 comments