Author: admin123TerRe

The massive presence of disorder and variability challenges the traditional metaphor of the developmental process as a perfectly executed program leading to precise mechanisms at every level [1,2]. Yet, the final outcome —the organism— remains both astonishingly complex and remarkably reproducible. This paradox piqued the interest of Dimitri Fabrèges and Takashi Hiiragi. Back then, around 2017, Takashi was research group leader at the EMBL Heidelberg, and Dimitri a postdoc in his group. They began to explore the idea of disorder and variability from a provoking viewpoint: instead of undermining the precision of the developmental process, randomness and variability might actually…

Image credit: geralt, via Pixabay. In a study of brain imaging (fMRI) changes in over 800 people, both while they were active and while they were resting, University of Würzburg researchers found that the whole brain is active more often than we may think. They distinguished three types of intelligence that we use: Fluid intelligence refers to the ability to solve logical problems, recognize patterns and process new information, independent of existing knowledge or learned skills. Crystallized intelligence encompasses the knowledge and skills that a person acquires over the course of their life. This includes general knowledge, experience and understanding of language…

isbscience.org/news/2024/09/04/how-microbes-evolve-to-spatially-divide-and-conquer-an-environment/  Posted on September 4, 2024 This customized fluidized bed reactor uses an up-flow current to “fluidize” a bed of solid particles into a suspension, similar to how soil particles are suspended in flowing groundwater in the subsurface. Methane is produced naturally – expelled by wetlands, wild animals, and other sources – and via manmade sources like agriculture and fossil fuel production and use. While not as abundant as carbon dioxide in our atmosphere, methane traps significantly more heat, making it a critical-to-understand component in climate change.  Researchers in the Institute for Systems Biology’s Baliga Lab examined representative organisms of two classes…

Introducing a new careers interview series Is there such thing as a standard career path for a scientist? Some people find fulfilment in pursuing a PhD, postdoc, then starting their own research group; others may have second thoughts or may be drawn by other interests and aspirations.   In this new series, we chatted to several developmental biologists who have had vastly different career trajectories. This interview series was inspired by this 2013 post from Kara Cerveny, who went back into academia as an assistant professor after a stint as a scientific editor. Below is a sneak peak of the…

Last year, I gave a talk at CSIcon in Las Vegas about “The Future of Human Improvement,” and specifically about medical and technological breakthroughs that are on the horizon. I had given a similar talk the year before at the Cheltenham Science Festival, which needed several updates in just that one year that had passed – that’s how fast the science is developing! From engineering our immune systems to advances in human-machine interfaces, we are on the brink of some major breakthroughs that have only existed in science fiction and in our dreams. The point that I open my talk…

isbscience.org/news/2024/10/12/resonance-celebrating-professor-ilya-shmulevichs-life-and-scientific-contributions/  Posted on October 12, 2024 Share on Facebook Tweet Share on LinkedIn Email ISB hosted a full-day symposium – titled Resonance – celebrating the life and scientific contributions of Professor Ilya Shmulevich, who passed away in April 2024 from complications of acute myeloid leukemia.  The symposium featured speakers whose research resonates with and has been profoundly influenced by Dr. Shmulevich’s work. Session topics included digital health, modeling and theory, and cancer genomics, reflecting the broad impact of his scientific legacy. The day-long event was recorded. You can…

This year, we proudly celebrate the 30th anniversary of the Spanish Society for Developmental Biology (SEBD)—a milestone that marks three decades of passion, dedication, and collaboration among Spanish scientists worldwide, committed to uncovering the mechanisms that dictate the development of living organisms. Since its founding the 5th of May of 1994 by the visionary Antonio García-Bellido, SEBD has evolved into a vibrant and inclusive community, uniting established researchers with a growing number of emerging scientists eager to contribute to this dynamic and ever-evolving field. The integrative nature of developmental biology remains essential for understanding processes ranging from regeneration to evolution,…

It has been a few weeks since the 15th Chinese Symposium on Biodiversity Science and Conservation, where the first “Seminar on Methods in Ecology and Evolution in China” was held. In these blog posts, we hear from some of the winners of the “Outstanding Young Scholar Award in Ecological and Evolutionary Methodology in China”. Here, winner Yi Zou discusses their research. Post provided by Yi Zou. I am an associate professor in the Department of Health and Environmental Sciences at Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University. My research primarily focuses on how changing landscapes affect insect diversity, pollination, and biological pest control services. I…

isbscience.org/news/2024/10/28/a-gut-feeling-microbes-and-their-impacts-on-our-minds/  Posted on October 28, 2024 The trillions of commensal (non-harmful) microbes that live in and on our bodies contain a hundredfold more unique genes than we harbor within our genomes. Recent work has shown that many of these microbial genes are essential to the proper functioning of our bodies, with almost half of all metabolites in human blood significantly associated with variation in the ecology of the gut.  This metabolic cross-talk between our microbes and our bodies extends to all organ systems, including the central nervous system. There has been an explosion of research into the two-way communication between…

In this SciArt profile, we meet Petra Korlević, a scientist at the Wellcome Sanger Institute, interested in retrieving DNA from historic mosquito collections. Can you tell us about your background and what you work on now? I work on human malaria transmitting mosquitoes; population genetics, insecticide resistance, and currently trying to marry all that up with landscape genomics. My background is on getting DNA from difficult samples, for my PhD I worked on method development for ancient DNA extraction from bones and teeth, for my postdoc I developed a method for minimally morphologically destructive DNA extraction from museum pinned insects.…