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biophysics

Latest Articles

Nikta Fakhri looks at a test tube.
Q&A

Starfish Whisperer Develops a Physical Language of Life

By Charlie Wood
January 11, 2023
Comment
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Nikta Fakhri is adapting and extending concepts from physics to describe how tiny biological components give rise to living organisms.

A frog leaps out of the frame of the video.
biomechanics

Record-Breaking Robot Highlights How Animals Excel at Jumping

By Yasemin Saplakoglu
September 14, 2022
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Robots can surpass the limitations on how high and far animals can jump, but their success only underscores nature’s ingenuity in making the most of what’s available.

Closeup of the face of an electric eel.
evolution

Electric Fish Genomes Reveal How Evolution Repeats Itself

By Joanna Thompson
August 22, 2022
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By studying how electric organs arose in different lineages of fish, scientists gain new insights into a long-standing question of evolutionary biology.

A blueprint-like rendering of the biomechanics of a bird wing.
biomechanics

Geometric Analysis Reveals How Birds Mastered Flight

By Yasemin Saplakoglu
August 3, 2022
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Partnerships between engineers and biologists have begun to reveal how birds evolved their superb maneuverability.

Video showing a ring of cells forming regularly spaced pits along its circumference.
developmental biology

Embryo Cells Set Patterns for Growth by Pushing and Pulling

By Monique Brouillette
July 12, 2022
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Patterns that guide the development of feathers and other features can be set by mechanical forces in the embryo, not just by gradients of chemicals.

Illustration of a wheel made of motors connected by arms. The wheel is shown in different stretched and squashed configurations.
complex systems

Wheel Made of ‘Odd Matter’ Spontaneously Rolls Uphill

By Ben Brubaker
June 15, 2022
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Physicists have solved a key problem of robotic locomotion by revising the usual rules of interaction between simple component parts.

Illustration of pieces of paper with scientific images on them feeding into a machine. A human hand turns a crank, and equations come out of the machine.
algorithms

Powerful ‘Machine Scientists’ Distill the Laws of Physics From Raw Data

By Charlie Wood
May 10, 2022
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Researchers say we’re on the cusp of “GoPro physics,” where a camera can point at an event and an algorithm can identify the underlying physics equation.

Simulated microscopy image of light shining through mitochondrial bundles and emerging as tight beams.
biophysics

Mitochondria Double as Tiny Lenses in the Eye

By Yasemin Saplakoglu
April 5, 2022
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The optical properties of mitochondrial bundles in the retina may improve how efficiently the eye captures light.

Image of Trichoplax adhaerens moving against a black background.
biomechanics

This Animal’s Behavior Is Mechanically Programmed

By Jordana Cepelewicz
March 16, 2022
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Biomechanical interactions, rather than neurons, control the movements of one of the simplest animals. The discovery offers a glimpse into how animal behavior worked before neurons evolved.


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