Science News

Here, we propose that the emergence of life may correspond to a physical transition associated with a shift in the causal structure, where information gains direct and context-dependent causal efficacy over the matter in which it is instantiated. Such a transition may be akin to more traditional physical transitions (e.g. thermodynamic phase transitions), with the crucial distinction that determining which phase (non-life or life) a given system is in requires dynamical information and therefore can only be inferred by identifying causal architecture.

Art Olson, Professor of Molecular Biology, and Director of Molecular Graphics Laboratory at the Scripps Research Institute speaks at the 2011 Technology Horizons…...

Our biofuel cell generates power from glucose sugar in a snail’s body.

This is a reposting of my Flame Challenge entry submitted on April 2. Thanks to Alan Alda and The Center for Communicating Science for creating such an educational and creative venue!

Une Canadienne de 16 ans a découvert une substance antioxydante pouvant freiner le vieillissement, ont annoncé les organisateurs du concours de biotechnologie qu elle a gagné.

Complex organic compounds, including many important to life on Earth, were readily produced under conditions that likely prevailed in the primordial solar system.

Researchers at Penn State University have developed a chemical model that mimics a possible step in the formation of cellular life on Earth four-billion years ago.

In 1949 LIFE magazine dedicated a huge part of their May issue to The Atom, including the gorgeous illustration shown above.

Scientists have created and imaged the smallest possible five-ringed structure – about 100,000 times thinner than a human hair – and you'll probably recognise its shape.

94 Elements is a new web-based global filmmaking project, exploring our lives through the lens of the elements. Become part of the project now at www.indiegogo.com/94elements There are 94 naturally occurring elements, from Hydrogen to Plutonium.

If anyone were going to discover the connections between molecular structures, mathematical concepts and musical scores, it’s not surprising that Markus Buehler would be the one.

NANOPUTIANS
When Jonathan Swift put pen to paper, he came up with Lilliputians. When chemists at Rice University got wacky with organic chemistry back in 2003, they came up with NanoPutians. These people-shaped molecules--a whole cast of them--are each synthesized using a string of chemical reactions. Click through to follow the life cycle of a NanoPutian as she grows from NanoToddler to NanoProfessional.

Over 13 billion years ago at least one of the domains of life may have begun in nebular clouds. If restricted to the Milky Way, which is 13.6 billion years old, the first chemical combinations would have had billions of years to become a self-replicating organism with a DNA genome long before the existence of Earth.

Art Olson, Professor of Molecular Biology, Director, Molecular Graphics Laborator, Scripps Research Institute speaks at the 2011 Technology Horizons Fall Research Exchange.