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Biology

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Colorful opalized shell of a fossil ammonite.
geology

Life Helps Make Almost Half of Earth’s Minerals

By Joanna Thompson
July 1, 2022
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A new origins-based system for classifying minerals reveals the huge geochemical imprint that life has left on Earth. It could help us identify other worlds with life too.

Micrograph of a neuron showing aggregations of tau protein.
aging

Protein Blobs Linked to Alzheimer’s Affect Aging in All Cells

By Viviane Callier
June 28, 2022
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Protein buildups like those seen around neurons in Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s and other brain diseases occur in all aging cells, a new study suggests. Learning their significance may reveal new strategies for treating age-related diseases.

Closeup of Akiko Iwasaki of the Yale School of Medicine against a dark background.
Q&A

An Immunologist Fights Covid with Tweets and a Nasal Spray

By Yasemin Saplakoglu
June 21, 2022
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Akiko Iwasaki, an immunologist who became a lifeline for the worried and the curious during the pandemic, thinks that nasal spray vaccines could be the next needed breakthrough in our fight against the coronavirus.

an illustration of various objects (a chair, a rocket, a cell phone, etc.) as well as biological objects such as a DNA double-helix and microbe, all against a lime green background
The Joy of Why

What Is Life?

By Steven Strogatz
June 15, 2022
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Without a good definition of life, how do we look for it on alien planets? Steven Strogatz speaks with Robert Hazen, a mineralogist and astrobiologist, and Sheref Mansy, a chemist, to learn more.

A human figure’s brain with a “low battery” icon on it.
neuroscience

The Brain Has a ‘Low-Power Mode’ That Blunts Our Senses

By Allison Whitten
June 14, 2022
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Neuroscientists uncovered an energy-saving mode in vision-system neurons that works at the cost of being able to see fine-grained details.

A satellite photo of the complex of rivers in the Amazon.
biodiversity

Reshuffled Rivers Bolster the Amazon’s Hyper-Biodiversity

By Yasemin Saplakoglu
June 7, 2022
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The lush biodiversity of the Amazon may be due in part to the dynamics of branching rivers, which serve as invisible fences that continuously barricade and merge bird populations.

evolution

Brain-Signal Proteins Evolved Before Animals Did

By Viviane Callier
June 3, 2022
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Some animal neuropeptides have been around longer than nervous systems.

Illustration of icons that relate to life’s origins: a volcano, molecules, a crab, fish, DNA and more.
The Joy of Why

How Could Life Evolve From Cyanide?

By Steven Strogatz
June 1, 2022
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How did life arise on Earth? Steven Strogatz speaks with the Nobel Prize-winning biologist Jack Szostak and Betül Kaçar, a paleogeneticist and astrobiologist, to explore our best understanding of how we all got here.

Colorized transmission electron micrograph of a polyribosome.
origins of life

Life’s First Peptides May Have Grown on RNA Strands

By Yasemin Saplakoglu
May 24, 2022
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RNA and peptides coevolving in the primordial world might have jointly served as a precursor to the modern ribosome.


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