Hacker News with Generative AI: Biology

Jumping Spiders Can Think Ahead, Plan Detours (2016) (nationalgeographic.com)
With brains the size of a sesame seed, jumping spiders may seem like mental lightweights.

Animals, Science, Biology, Behavior

6 points by droideqa 1 day ago | 0 comments

We can, must, and will simulate nematode brains (asteriskmag.com)
Scientists have spent over 25 years trying — and failing — to build computer simulations of the smallest brain we know. Today, we finally have the tools to pull it off.

Science, Neuroscience, Artificial Intelligence, Biology

122 points by l1n 1 day ago | 106 comments

CERN scientists find evidence of quantum entanglement in sheep (home.cern)
CERN scientists find evidence of quantum entanglement in sheep

Physics, Quantum Mechanics, Biology, Science

332 points by mackopes 2 days ago | 107 comments

Glutamate Unlocks Brain Cell Channels to Enable Thinking and Learning (neurosciencenews.com)
In an effort to understand how brain cells exchange chemical messages, scientists say they have successfully used a highly specialized microscope to capture more precise details of how one of the most common signaling molecules, glutamate, opens a channel and allows a flood of charged particles to enter.

Neuroscience, Brain, Learning, Research, Biology

6 points by westurner 2 days ago | 2 comments

10 Lizards were smuggled into Cincinnati in a sock. Now there are thousands (nationalgeographic.com)
For more than 70 years, thousands of common wall lizards, known as Lazarus lizards, from Europe have made Cincinnati their home. Even through record-low temperatures and snowfall, they’ve managed to survive—and multiply. But how did these Mediterranean reptiles gain such a foothold in a Midwestern city? It all started with a 10-year-old boy and a sock full of lizards.

Animals, Biology, Urban Wildlife, Cincinnati, Invasive Species

4 points by nfriedly 3 days ago | 1 comments

Pregnancy's true toll on the body: birth study paints detailed picture (nature.com)
Biologists have built up one of the most detailed pictures ever of the changes that occur in women’s bodies before and after pregnancy, by pooling and studying around 44 million physiological measurements from more than 300,000 births.

Pregnancy, Biology, Health, Science, Women's Health

8 points by ohjeez 3 days ago | 0 comments

SHH – Sonic Hedgehog Protein (wikipedia.org)
Sonic hedgehog protein (SHH) is a major signaling molecule of embryonic development in humans and other animals, encoded by the SHH gene.

Biology, Genetics, Developmental Biology, Proteins

6 points by cantrecallmypwd 3 days ago | 3 comments

Scientists uncover key mechanism in evolution: Whole-genome duplication drives (sciencedaily.com)
Sometimes, the most significant scientific discoveries happen by accident.

Evolution, Genetics, Biology, Scientific Discovery

72 points by docmechanic 4 days ago | 24 comments

Researchers bring prehistoric algae back to life (phys.org)
Fully active again even after around 7,000 years without light and oxygen in the Baltic Sea sediment: the diatom Skeletonema marinoi.

Science, Biology, Algae, Research, Ancient Life

9 points by geox 5 days ago | 0 comments

The Biology of B-Movie Monsters (2003) (lib.uchicago.edu)
Size has been one of the most popular themes in monster movies, especially those from my favorite era, the 1950s. The premise is invariably to take something out of its usual context--make people small or something else (gorillas, grasshoppers, amoebae, etc.) large--and then play with the consequences. However, Hollywood's approach to the concept has been, from a biologist's perspective, hopelessly naïve. Absolute size cannot be treated in isolation; size per se affects almost every aspect of an organism's biology.

Biology, Film, Science, Monsters

96 points by cainxinth 5 days ago | 45 comments

Giant, fungus-like organism may be a completely unknown branch of life (livescience.com)

Biology, Life Science, Fungi, Scientific Discovery

310 points by wglb 6 days ago | 128 comments

The Ocean Sunfish: Why the Rant Is Wrong (2017) (imgur.com)

Ocean Sunfish, Biology, Animal Behavior, Opinion Pieces, Image Sharing

13 points by Tomte 6 days ago | 0 comments

Plants can take up CWD-causing prions from soil in lab. What happens if eaten? (cidrap.umn.edu)
When Christopher Johnson, PhD, set out to study whether lab mice fed prion-contaminated plants developed neurodegenerative disease, he expected the plants to take up only small prion clusters, but they absorbed large clusters characteristic of prion diseases in deer and other animals.

Science, Biology, Prions, Disease, Research

6 points by bookofjoe 6 days ago | 0 comments

Fish odor syndrome – A rare metabolic condition that makes sweat smell like fish (livescience.com)

Medical Conditions, Health, Biology, Genetics

37 points by Brajeshwar 6 days ago | 14 comments

C. Elegans: The worm that no computer scientist can crack (wired.com)
One of the simplest, most over-studied organisms in the world is the C. elegans nematode. For 13 years, a project called OpenWorm has tried—and utterly failed—to simulate it.

Science, Biology, Artificial Intelligence, Computer Science

160 points by noleary 7 days ago | 132 comments

The mysterious flow of fluid in the brain (quantamagazine.org)
Encased in the skull, perched atop the spine, the brain has a carefully managed existence. It receives only certain nutrients, filtered through the blood-brain barrier; an elaborate system of protective membranes surrounds it. That privileged space contains a mystery. For more than a century, scientists have wondered: If it’s so hard for anything to get into the brain, how does waste get out?

Neuroscience, Biology, Brain, Science, Health

149 points by pseudolus 7 days ago | 36 comments

The Mysterious Flow of Fluid in the Brain (quantamagazine.org)
Encased in the skull, perched atop the spine, the brain has a carefully managed existence. It receives only certain nutrients, filtered through the blood-brain barrier; an elaborate system of protective membranes surrounds it. That privileged space contains a mystery. For more than a century, scientists have wondered: If it’s so hard for anything to get into the brain, how does waste get out?

Neuroscience, Biology, Science, Medicine

36 points by isaacfrond 7 days ago | 4 comments

Prolonged torpor in mice slows epigenetic changes that accompany aging (medicalxpress.com)

Aging, Epigenetics, Mice, Biology, Science

3 points by PaulHoule 8 days ago | 0 comments

RNA function follows form – why is it so hard to predict? (nature.com)
AlphaFold’s highly accurate structural models transformed protein biology,but RNA lags behind.

RNA, Biology, Science, Protein Folding, Machine Learning

7 points by sohkamyung 9 days ago | 0 comments

Does it matter whether SARS-CoV-2 leaked from a lab? (marginalrevolution.com)
Does it matter whether SARS-CoV-2 leaked from a lab in Wuhan or had natural zoonotic origins? I think on the margin it does matter.

Science, Biology, COVID-19, Virology, Origins

15 points by mhb 10 days ago | 7 comments

A Brief History of the Miracle Bacterium (asimov.press)
At 1:15 p.m. on Monday, August 8th, 1904, a British physician named M. H. Gordon took some soil he had “richly impregnated with a living emulsion” of the virulent bacterium,1 Serratia marcescens, and sprinkled it near a lamp post in front of the U.K. House of Commons.

History, Biology, Science

70 points by mailyk 10 days ago | 5 comments

North American spider species alters its webs to deal with urban noise pollution (nytimes.com)
Researchers have found evidence that a common North American spider species alters its webs to deal with urban noise pollution.

Science, Biology, Urbanization, Animal Behavior, Noise Pollution

21 points by perihelions 11 days ago | 5 comments

Carl Linnaeus's note-taking innovations (jillianhess.substack.com)
Even if you know nothing about the Swedish doctor, professor, and naturalist Carl Linnaeus (1707-1778), you probably know about his greatest innovation: binomial nomenclature.

Science, History, Botany, Biology

18 points by sandebert 11 days ago | 4 comments

We've entered a forever war with bird flu (theverge.com)
Avian influenza is “evolving in ways we haven’t seen before,” says Martha Nelson, a computational biologist and staff scientist researching pathogen evolution at the National Institutes of Health — one of many scientists who have been monitoring the global H5N1 outbreak.

Science, Biology, Public Health

4 points by Brajeshwar 12 days ago | 0 comments

Metabolism Can Shape Cells' Destinies (quantamagazine.org)
A growing body of work suggests that cell metabolism — the chemical reactions that provide energy and building materials — plays a vital, overlooked role in the first steps of life.

Biology, Cellular Biology, Metabolism

51 points by isaacfrond 12 days ago | 1 comments

600M years of shared environmental stress response found in algae and plants (phys.org)
Without plants on land, humans could not live on Earth.

Science, Biology, Plants, Algae, Environment

97 points by PaulHoule 12 days ago | 6 comments

The Barnacle Goose Myth (wikipedia.org)
The barnacle goose myth is a widely-reported historical misconception about the breeding habits of the barnacle goose (Branta leucopsis) and brant goose (Branta bernicla).

Mythology, Animals, Biology, History

36 points by jamesgpearce 13 days ago | 12 comments

Scientists program stem cells to mimic first days of embryonic development (news.ucsc.edu)

Stem Cells, Biology, Science, Developmental Biology

39 points by StemCells 13 days ago | 10 comments

First Known Photographs of Living Specimens (inaturalist.org)
To my great surprise, I just realised it's been more than two and a half years since I last wrote a journal post for this project!

Photography, Biology, Science, History

123 points by Morizero 13 days ago | 43 comments

Sex differences in brain structure are present at birth (psypost.org)
New research published in Biology of Sex Differences has found that sex differences in brain structure are already present at birth and remain relatively stable during early postnatal development.

Neuroscience, Biology, Sex Differences, Development

9 points by amichail 13 days ago | 0 comments