Female giraffes drove the evolution of long giraffe necks in order to feed on the most nutritious leaves, new research suggests

Giraffe necks are a hot topic among biologists. A new study contradicts an older theory that says male giraffes need long necks to fight over mates.

Douglas R. Cavener, Huck Distinguished Chair in Evolutionary Genetics and Professor of Biology, Penn State • conversation
June 5, 2024 ~7 min

Pregnancy is an engineering challenge − diagnosing and treating preterm birth requires understanding its mechanics

How and why preterm birth happens is still unclear, in part because research on pregnancy tends to focus on developmental biology.

Michelle L. Oyen, Associate Professor of Biomedical Engineering, Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis • conversation
June 4, 2024 ~10 min


Ten with MIT connections win 2024 Hertz Foundation Fellowships

The fellowships provide five years of funding to doctoral students in applied science, engineering, and mathematics who have “the extraordinary creativity and principled leadership necessary to tackle problems others can’t solve.”

Elizabeth Durant | Office of the Vice Chancellor • mit
June 3, 2024 ~10 min

“Rosetta Stone” of cell signaling could expedite precision cancer medicine

An atlas of human protein kinases enables scientists to map cell signaling pathways with unprecedented speed and detail.

Megan Scudellari | Koch Institute • mit
June 3, 2024 ~9 min

An AI tool for predicting protein shapes could be transformative for medicine, but it challenges science’s need for proof

Science has a need to verify results, but DeepMind’s protein prediction tool doesn’t work this way.

Sam McKee, Tutor and researcher in Philosophy of Science, Manchester Metropolitan University • conversation
May 31, 2024 ~7 min

Engineering cells to broadcast their behavior can help scientists study their inner workings

Researchers can create ‘single-cell radios’ using bacterial proteins to transmit the invisible activities within cells.

Scott Coyle, Assistant Professor of Biochemistry, University of Wisconsin-Madison • conversation
May 31, 2024 ~5 min

The surge in hydroelectric dams is driving massive biodiversity loss

Migratory fish populations are down 81% since 1970, says a new report.

Taylor Maavara, Senior independent research fellow, University of Leeds • conversation
May 24, 2024 ~6 min

Viruses are doing mysterious things everywhere – AI can help researchers understand what they’re up to in the oceans and in your gut

Scientists are discovering viral genetic sequences in the wild faster than they can analyze them. A kind of ChatGPT for proteins can help make sense of all that data.

Libusha Kelly, Associate Professor of Systems and Computational Biology, Microbiology and Immunology, Albert Einstein College of Medicine • conversation
May 15, 2024 ~7 min


Iron fuels immune cells – and it could make asthma worse

Asthma attacks can result from immune cells overreacting to a harmless allergen. Tamping down iron levels in certain immune cells can help control their activity.

Omid Akbari, Professor of Molecular Microbiology and Immunology, University of Southern California • conversation
May 14, 2024 ~5 min

AI system can predict the structures of life’s molecules with stunning accuracy – helping to solve one of biology’s biggest problems

The AI model can predict structures for a vast array of the proteins used by living organisms.

Richard Bayliss, Professor of Molecular Medicine, School of Molecular and Cellular Biology, University of Leeds • conversation
May 10, 2024 ~8 min

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