Niko McCarty
Founding Editor at Asimov Press
Science. Biology. Progress. Founding Editor @AsimovPress / Subscribe! Head of Creative @AsimovBio
Articles
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2 months ago |
blog.asimov.com | Niko McCarty
One reason David Goodsell’s paintings attract biologists, I think, is because they are unapologetically realistic. His paintings depict seas of macromolecules splayed out in pastel shades. A Goodsell painting looks nothing like the spacious diagrams one finds in high school biology textbooks, and that’s exactly why they linger in the mind: they show, visually, how crowded cells really are. But crowded with what, exactly? Well, an E.
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2 months ago |
blog.asimov.com | Niko McCarty
A cell is a vibrating ball of energy — a chaotic sack of molecules. These molecules float around and collide with one another constantly. Every protein in a cell, for instance, collides with about 10 billion water molecules each second. Cells “work” despite this chaos. Most events within a cell only happen if the right things collide at the right time, and at sufficient frequencies. A DNA polymerase enzyme, for example, can only copy a genome if it first collides with the right part of DNA.
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Jan 22, 2025 |
blog.asimov.com | Niko McCarty
There are two new “venom AI” papers out, and both are interesting for different reasons. The first paper, published in Nature and already covered by Derek Lowe in his blog, uses RFdiffusion — a computational protein design tool — to make proteins capable of neutralizing a wide range of lethal snake toxins.
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Jan 15, 2025 |
blog.asimov.com | Niko McCarty
Microbes may be even more interconnected than once believed. New evidence suggests oceanic microorganisms, especially photosynthetic Prochlorococcus, build physical bridgesor “nanotubes” between members of their own species and others, according to recent reporting in Quanta magazine. And because Prochlorococcus cells make something like 10 to 20 percent of Earth’s oxygen, any discovery about its behavior has some serious implications.
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Jan 12, 2025 |
asimov.press | Niko McCarty
On a winter’s day in 1884, a group of Augustinian friars gathered around a fire and tossed papers into its hungry flames. Thousands of pages withered and burned, each containing hand-written text, charts, and data from a lifetime of work. By the time the smoke dissipated into an azure sky, it had all vanished. The papers eaten by those flames belonged to Gregor Mendel, a quiet scientist and religious man today revered as the “father” of genetics.
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I absolutely love this short sci-fi story by @AlexandraBalwit. Brilliant concept, and well-executed. It's basically about the life of an Obituary writer in a future world where people rarely die.
NEW SCI-FI: EULOGY TO THE OBITS In a future where longevity drugs have all but erased natural death, an obituary writer at The Times scrambles for stories. Until, that is, a woman's sudden death gives him a new outlook on life’s unpredictable ends. https://t.co/V3fO9byTku
RT @rootsofprogress: Announcing Progress Conference 2025 Hosted by @rootsofprogress together with @abundanceinst @foresightinst @JoinFAI…
RT @jasoncrawford: So excited to be doing Progress Conference again this year! Last year was a blast—several people said it was the best co…