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biophysics

Illustration: life as a computation efficiently storing & using predictive info
information theory

How Life (and Death) Spring From Disorder

By Philip Ball
January 26, 2017
Read Later

Life was long thought to obey its own set of rules. But as simple systems show signs of lifelike behavior, scientists are arguing about whether this apparent complexity is all a consequence of thermodynamics.

Photo of raindrops on a window by Philip Kraaijenbrink
Abstractions blog

Droplets That ‘Come to Life’

By Natalie Wolchover
January 20, 2017
Read Later

Life might have originated in droplets that behave surprisingly like living cells.

Illustration: Dividing Droplets
biophysics

Dividing Droplets Could Explain Life’s Origin

By Natalie Wolchover
January 19, 2017
Read Later

Researchers have discovered that simple “chemically active” droplets grow to the size of cells and spontaneously divide, suggesting they might have evolved into the first living cells.

genomics

Genetic Architects Untwist DNA’s Turns

By Carrie Arnold
October 27, 2016
Read Later

Researchers have used the gene-editing tool CRISPR to manipulate the way that DNA coils up inside the cell — another step in the quest to understand how the genome’s 3-D structure impacts its function.

biophysics

Jammed Cells Expose the Physics of Cancer

By Gabriel Popkin
August 16, 2016
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The subtle mechanics of densely packed cells may help explain why some cancerous tumors stay put while others break off and spread through the body.

microbiology

New Life Found That Lives Off Electricity

By Emily Singer
June 21, 2016
Read Later

Scientists have figured out how microbes can suck energy from rocks. Such lifeforms might be more widespread than anyone anticipated.

Biology

How Strange Twists in DNA Orchestrate Life

By Emily Singer
January 5, 2016
Read Later

Coils and twirls in DNA’s double-helix change how the molecule behaves, opening a new role for topology in the study of life.

neuroscience

A Fundamental Theory to Model the Mind

By Jennifer Ouellette
April 3, 2014
Read Later

Support is growing for a decades-old physics idea suggesting that localized episodes of disordered brain activity help keep the overall system in healthy balance.

Jeremy England
Physics

A New Physics Theory of Life

By Natalie Wolchover
January 22, 2014
Read Later

An MIT physicist has proposed the provocative idea that life exists because the law of increasing entropy drives matter to acquire lifelike physical properties.


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