Director: Lisandro Perez-Rey; Director of Photography: Francis Bernal
Tag Archives: Biology
Research: Lena Pernas PhD On ‘How Mitochondria Protects Us From Disease’
Emerging research suggests that mitochondria are not simply the ‘powerhouses’ of the cell, but also function as cellular guardians against microbial intruders. Consequently, maintaining mitochondrial health is not only vital for our well-being, but may serve to protect us against infectious disease.
Dr. Lena Pernas started as a Max Planck Research Group Leader at the MPI Biology for Ageing (Cologne, Germany) in late 2018, where her lab investigates the organelle and metabolic dynamics of the host-pathogen interaction. Her lab will open its doors at UCLA in the Metabolism Research Theme in 2023.
Research: What Happens To Your Brain As You Age
Video timeline: 00:00 – What happens to your brain when you age? 00:32 – In the womb 01:03 – Childhood 03:19 – Teenage years 04:48 – Early adulthood 05:27 – Middle age 07:04 – Later life 07:36 – Death
Biology: Killer Whales – The Ocean’s Top Predator
The killer whale or orca is a toothed whale belonging to the oceanic dolphin family, of which it is the largest member. It is recognizable by its black-and-white patterned body.
Science: Fiber Optic Cables Detecting Seismic Activity, The Oil & Water Interface
Geoscientists are turning to fiber optic cables as a means of measuring seismic activity. But rather than connecting them to instruments, the cables are the instruments. Joel Goldberg talks with Staff Writer Paul Voosen about tapping fiber optic cables for science.
Also this week, host Sarah Crespi talks with Sylvie Roke, a physicist and chemist at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Lausanne, and director of its Laboratory for fundamental BioPhotonics, about the place where oil meets water. Despite the importance of the interaction between the hydrophobic and the hydrophilic to biology, and to life, we don’t know much about what happens at the interface of these substances.
Wildlife: Hammerhead Sharks – ‘Insane Biology’
The hammerhead sharks are a group of sharks that form the family Sphyrnidae, so named for the unusual and distinctive structure of their heads, which are flattened and laterally extended into a “hammer” shape called a cephalofoil.
Medical Technology: ‘Building Personalized Digital Twin Submodels’
Science: ‘Insane Biology Of Ant Colonies’ (4K Video)
Ants are social insects which form small to large colonies. A typical colony contains an egg-laying queen and many adult workers together with their brood (eggs, larvae and pupae). Workers are by far the most numerous individuals in the nest. They are responsible for nest construction and maintenance, foraging, tending the brood and queen, and nest defence.
While all workers are female, they are sterile and do not lay eggs. Winged queens and males are present in the nest for only a short period. Soon after emerging they leave the nest to mate and establish new nests. Queens are generally similar to the workers, differing primarily in having larger bodies. In some species, fully winged queens are lacking and egg-laying is undertaken either by typical workers or by individuals which are morphologically intermediate between typical queens and workers (these are called ergatoid queens). Males are generally about the same size as the workers or smaller, and have smaller heads with large ocelli, very short scapes and small mandibles. In many cases males look more like wasps than ants.
Infographic: Microbes, Microbiota & Microbiomes
Science: ‘The Biggest Breakthroughs In Biology In 2020’ (Video)
In 2020, the study of the SARS-CoV-2 virus was undoubtedly the most urgent priority. But there were also some major breakthroughs in other areas. We’d like to take a moment to recognize them.
- 1. This year, we learned that we had severely underestimated the human brain’s computing power. Researchers are coming to understand that even the dendritic arms of neurons seem capable of processing information, which means that every neuron might be more like a small computer by itself.
- 2. The new Information Theory of Individuality completely reimagines the way biologists have traditionally thought about individuality. Armed with information theory, the researchers found objective criteria for defining degrees of individuality in organisms.
- 3. Deprived of sleep, we and other animals die within weeks. More than a century of scrutiny failed to explain why lack of sleep is so deadly. This year, an answer was finally found — not inside the brain, as expected, but inside the gut.
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