All posts tagged: Biology

What the new findings could change

What the new findings could change

Published by Miika Tikkanen

A new study of early brain development could help researchers make more specific types of nerve cells in the laboratory. Its immediate importance lies in how scientists study development and disease, rather than in a treatment ready for patients. Published in Nature Neuroscience on 18 September 2026, the research examines where different parts of the developing brain originate. The useful question is what that finding allows scientists to investigate next — and what still needs to be demonstrated. What did the brain development study find? The study’s abstract describes lineage tracing in mouse embryos: a method for following the descendants of cells as development proceeds. The results supported two parallel populations of early neural progenitor cells emerging during gastrulation, an early stage of embryonic development. One population contributed to the forebrain and midbrain; the other contributed to the hindbrain. Experiments differentiating human pluripotent stem cells into corresponding early neural cell types also found distinct commitments towards those developmental outcomes. The distinction concerns developmental origins. It should not be read as evidence that a person has …

Anthropic is operating a lab that conducts biology experiments

Anthropic is operating a lab that conducts biology experiments

Published by Miika Tikkanen

Anthropic has a wet biology lab in the Bay Area where it can use its AI models to run physical experiments, it has confirmed to TechCrunch. AI leaders have been promising that AI is the key to curing human disease. Dario Amodei opined just last week: “I believe that AI could cure most major diseases in the next 5–10 years.” To do that, an LLM would have to have methods to test its theories in real life. “We believe that to do biology, the final test is still, and will be for a while, in real lab work,” Anthropic’s head of life sciences, Eric Kauderer-Abrams, told Reuters. “We absolutely are doing that today.” He added that the lab operates like most biotech labs: Anthropic conducts some research there while also working with external partners. This news probably shouldn’t be shocking. Anthropic bought Coefficient Bio, a stealth AI biotech, in April. While Anthropic declined to give specifics on what the wet lab is working on, it did say the main focus was fundamental biology, not drug …

To Talk, to Think, to Ask: Biology in Philosophy

To Talk, to Think, to Ask: Biology in Philosophy

Published by Jenni Sidey

What is the point of philosophy of biology? This is the question that continued to come up as I thought, scribbled, and erased while writing this piece. This question has also been ever present for me since I first started seriously practicing the discipline. To be honest, I’m not really sure what the best way to address this question is. In fact, what I am sure about is that no one has a straightforward answer to this question. If I am lucky, maybe one or two people will squint and hesitantly nod their heads, then think that my answer resembles a grainy facsimile of their own. Maybe. Hopefully.  What is the point of philosophy of biology? I am curious if your answer and my ideas have a family resemblance. (Maybe they have the same smile, or they have similar circadian rhythms.) I am also curious if your answer and mine meet only in terms of the question they try to answer. (As passing strangers who nod to each other on a busy street.) It strikes …

Why Garlic Repels Mosquitoes and Keeps Them From Breeding

Why Garlic Repels Mosquitoes and Keeps Them From Breeding

Published by Miika Tikkanen

Garlic has been considered a natural mosquito repellent for centuries. In popular culture, it is believed that its pungent smell repels these insects, which, in addition to causing sleepless nights, transmit diseases such as dengue fever or malaria. Now, this belief has a scientific explanation. A group of scientists from Yale University conducted a phytochemical analysis of 43 fruits and vegetables to identify natural compounds capable of interfering with the reproductive behavior of flying pest insects. To do so, the team used fruit flies, a species that often mates on food, as a model organism. Based on this behavior, the researchers hypothesized that some fruits and vegetables might contain substances capable of altering the reproductive processes of these insects. After exposing different specimens to the mashed food included in the experiment, they observed that none of the products had a significant aphrodisiac effect. However, they found that garlic completely blocked mating and egg laying. After this initial finding, the researchers sought to determine the source of the effect and focused their attention on the influence …

Intoxicating and astonishing: Why ‘The Selfish Gene’ almost never was

Intoxicating and astonishing: Why ‘The Selfish Gene’ almost never was

Published by Miika Tikkanen

The Selfish Gene, Richard Dawkins’s first book, was published in October 1976 and 50 years on, it is still selling, in more than 30 languages. For a science book – not least one with “gene” in its title – this is truly astonishing. For me, the story began in February 1976. I was a commissioning editor at the Oxford University Press (OUP) and in the post was a handwritten note from Roger Elliott, a physicist and one of the university academics involved with OUP. He wrote: “One of the dons here, Dr C R Dawkins, is writing a popular science book tentatively called ‘The Selfish Gene’… I have no idea whether he or it is any good but it might be worth looking into.” Just under two weeks later, I started to read draft versions of Dawkins’s opening chapters and, with a jolt, my life changed. I knew before reaching the bottom of the first page that here was something extraordinary. It was as if the writing had reached out and grabbed me by the …

When Biology Alters Behavior

When Biology Alters Behavior

Published by Jenni Sidey

A recent Psychology Today post titled “The Forensic Evolution of Compulsive Sexual Behavior Disorder” explored the definition of compulsive sexual behaviors and the debate that surrounds them. The authors, Dr. Beata Bőthe and Dr. Mónika Koós, note that at the core of the debate is a difficult question: If one cannot control sexual impulses, a basic human instinct, is this a personal failure requiring responsibility and accountability, or is it a medical condition requiring treatment? After all, the struggle to push aside sexual fantasies or opportunities in favor of higher objectives is a near-universal human experience. As a neurologist, I have long been interested in this question. I knew that the experts who collaborated on the DSM-5 had considered a new diagnostic category, “Hypersexual Disorder,” but ultimately did not include it in the final version. What I did not know was that the major reason for this was fear of forensic misuse. One line especially stood out to me: “While science requires rigorous empirical evidence before naming a disorder, the law works differently: It is …

Why coffee tastes bitter, according to molecular biology

Why coffee tastes bitter, according to molecular biology

Published by Jenni Sidey

Get the Popular Science daily newsletter💡 Breakthroughs, discoveries, and DIY tips sent six days a week. Regular coffee drinkers know there is a big difference between a brew’s aroma and its taste. A cup may smell warm and full-bodied only to leave you with a lingering bitterness behind the first sip. Researchers have long known a coffee’s potentially acrid flavor profile is dictated at a molecular level thanks to your tongue’s taste receptors, but how that occurs has remained a mystery. Now, a team at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill has the answer thanks to precise imaging technology—and their findings may have much wider ramifications beyond the coffee pot. The details were published in the journal Nature Structure & Molecular Biology, and focuses on TAS2R43, one of our 26 different bitter taste receptors. These mechanisms are expressed throughout the human body, and likely evolved to guard the species against toxic substances as well as helping regulate our metabolisms. “Bitter taste receptors are thought to be important for detecting toxins, pathogens, and harmful …

Microgripper developed for precise assembly of fragile cell spheroids for tissue engineering

Microgripper developed for precise assembly of fragile cell spheroids for tissue engineering

Published by Miika Tikkanen

A team at Purdue University have designed a mobile microgripper (MMG) that can handle fragile cell spheroids with controlled force and high spatial precision. Spheroids have become integral to tissue engineering, as they can replicate biological interactions between cells and the surrounding matrix- but they are exceedingly fragile, meaning handling can be problematic. “Other techniques for cell spheroid bioassembly can affect the tissue construct and/or apply limited manipulation forces,” said Dr David Cappelleri, professor of mechanical engineering and biomedical engineering at Purdue. “The force-sensing MMG … addresses these current issues by allowing the safe bioassembly of different spheroids into a single construct,” he said. But in a new study, a team at Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana, have created a tiny robotic gripper, that can manipulate spheroids without causing tissue damage. The robot uses a magnetic microscopic claw mechanism The wireless mobile microrobot gripper consists of two articulated arms connected by a hinge, allowing controlled closure to grasp the spheroid cells with minimal force, operating under magnetic actuation. External magnetic fields enabled both movement of …

The rich but complicated legacy of genome pioneer Craig Venter

The rich but complicated legacy of genome pioneer Craig Venter

Published by Miika Tikkanen

Craig Venter, who played a leading role in the sequencing of the human genome and, later, in synthetic biology, has died. According to the J. Craig Venter Institute, the not-for-profit research institute he founded, Venter died “following a brief hospitalization for unexpected side effects that arose from treatment of recently diagnosed cancer”. He was 79. Venter leaves behind a vast and complicated legacy. He made major advances in genomics, fundamental biology and biodiversity. At the same time, he drove the commercialisation of biological research and promoted the idea of science as a competitive race. His path into research was circuitous. He graduated from high school, having been an indifferent student who preferred to sail and surf. But he was then conscripted into the US Navy and sent to Vietnam as a war orderly. Venter later said that this experience inspired him to get his life together. Returning to the US, he attended community college and then university, and by the 1980s, he was working as a biomedical researcher for the National Institutes of Health (NIH). …

Genetic analysis reveals shared biology between testosterone and depression

Genetic analysis reveals shared biology between testosterone and depression

Published by José Betancourt

Recent research has identified a substantial genetic overlap between the risk of developing major depressive disorder and the biological regulation of testosterone levels. The analysis suggests that the hereditary factors influencing total testosterone and a specific protein that transports sex hormones share a negative correlation with the genetic risk for depression. These findings were published in the journal BMC Psychiatry. Depression is a pervasive mental health condition marked by persistent sadness and a loss of interest in daily activities. While environmental and psychological stressors play a role in its development, biological factors are also primary drivers. Researchers have observed that depression occurs roughly twice as often in women as in men. This disparity has led scientists to suspect that sex hormones may influence the disorder. Testosterone is one of the primary sex hormones in humans. It affects various aspects of physical and mental health. Previous observational studies have attempted to link testosterone levels to depression, but the results have been inconsistent. Some data suggest that low testosterone in men correlates with depressive symptoms. Other studies …