Philip Ball

5 days ago | spektrum.de | Philip Ball

Hintergrund Lesedauer ca. 13 Minuten DruckenTeilen Zellbiologie: Lebenswichtige MolekülklumpenWas lange als kuriose Randerscheinung galt, könnte der Schlüssel zu neuen Behandlungen sein: »biomolekulare Kondensate« in unseren Körperzellen. Immer deutlicher zeigt sich: Diese Molekülansammlungen haben eine zentrale Bedeutung im zellulären Geschehen. Erste Start-ups arbeiten bereits an medizinischen Wirkstoffen, die dort ansetzen.

2 weeks ago | chemistryworld.com | Philip Ball

But a microbial source of the signal from planet K2-18b would have interesting implications for evolution Source: © NASA/ESA/Hubble, M. Kornmesser/STScI/Science Photo Library Belief in alien life, having been forever devoid of any empirical basis pro or con, has been free to enjoy cycles of fashion.

2 weeks ago | theguardian.com | Philip Ball

“Creation of Life”, read the headline of the Boston Herald in 1899. “Lower Animals Produced by Chemical Means.” The report described the work of the German-American marine biologist Jacques Loeb, who later wrote: “The idea is now hovering before me that man himself can act as a creator, even in living nature.”In fact, Loeb had merely made an unfertilised sea urchin egg divide by exposing it to a mixture of salts – he was not even close to creating life in the lab. No scientist has ever done that.

1 month ago | quantamagazine.org | Philip Ball

“I had got disillusioned with the state of the art of looking for life on other worlds,” Wong said. “I thought it was too narrowly constrained to life as we know it here on Earth, but life elsewhere may take a completely different evolutionary trajectory.

1 month ago | chemistryworld.com | Philip Ball

Nanotubes are being found in an increasing number of biological contexts, including the developing heartMulticellular existence is collaborative. Our cells are in constant communication, checking out one another’s state and sending signals to modulate or moderate the behaviour of neighbours. The usual textbook story identifies three means of communication.