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Category: evolution – Page 76

An examination of 19,149 mammalian genes sheds new light on the future of hair loss.

Due to evolution, we got rid of most of the hair on our bodies. Although we are mammals, it is obvious that we are less hairy than the majority of them. So, could this mean we are on our way to becoming more hairless? Or is there a way to turn hair development back on?

This is where a new study comes in. As stated by the University of Utah, a groundbreaking comparison of genetic codes from 62 animals is beginning to tell the story of how humans—and other mammals—came to be, naked. The study was published in the journal eLife.

CIPhotos/iStock.

Can we ‘turn on’ genes for thick hair?

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An enzyme that defends human cells against viruses can help drive cancer evolution towards greater malignancy by causing myriad mutations in cancer cells, according to a study led by investigators at Weill Cornell Medicine. The finding suggests that the enzyme may be a potential target for future cancer treatments.

In the new study, published recently in the journal Cancer Research, scientists used a preclinical model of bladder cancer to investigate the role of the enzyme called APOBEC3G in promoting the disease and found that it significantly increased the number of mutations in tumor cells, boosting the genetic diversity of bladder tumors and hastening mortality.

“Our findings suggest that APOBEC3G is a big contributor to bladder cancer evolution and should be considered as a target for future treatment strategies,” said study senior author Dr. Bishoy M. Faltas, assistant professor of medicine in the Division of Hematology and Medical Oncology and of cell and developmental biology at Weill Cornell Medicine, and an oncologist who specializes in urothelial cancers at NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center.

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In a recent study that was sent to MNRAS, a group of researchers worked together to use the first batch of data from the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) to find a candidate galaxy, CEERS-93316, that formed about 250 million years after the Big Bang and set a new record for redshift with a value of z = 16.7. This discovery is very exciting because it shows how good JWST is, even though it has only just started sending back its first set of data. The Cosmic Evolution Early Release Science Survey, or CEERS, was made so that it could be used with JWST to take pictures.

“The past few weeks have been surreal, watching all the records that stood for a long time with Hubble be broken by JWST,” says Dr. Rebecca Bowler, who is an Ernest Rutherford Fellow at the University of Manchester, and a co-author on the study. “Finding a z = 16.7 galaxy candidate is an amazing feeling – it wasn’t something we were expecting from the early data.”

This new study talks about a dozen previous studies that measured objects up to redshifts z 10 using a mix of ground-based observations and the Hubble Space Telescope and Spitzer Space Telescope.

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Octopuses have fascinated scientists and the public with their remarkable intelligence, from using tools to engaging in creative play, problem-solving, and even escaping from aquariums. Now, their cognitive abilities may provide significant insight into understanding the evolution of complex life and cognition, including the human brain.

An international team of researchers from Dartmouth College and the Max Delbrück Center (MDC) in Germany has published a study in the journal Science Advances.

<em>Science Advances</em> is a peer-reviewed, open-access scientific journal that is published by the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). It was launched in 2015 and covers a wide range of topics in the natural sciences, including biology, chemistry, earth and environmental sciences, materials science, and physics.

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Year 2017 face_with_colon_three

Biological molecules, like organisms themselves, are subject to genetic drift and may even become “extinct”. Molecules that are no longer extant in living systems are of high interest for several reasons including insight into how existing life forms evolved and the possibility that they may have new and useful properties no longer available in currently functioning molecules. Predicting the sequence/structure of such molecules and synthesizing them so that their properties can be tested is the basis of “molecular resurrection” and may lead not only to a deeper understanding of evolution, but also to the production of artificial proteins with novel properties and even to insight into how life itself began.

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There’s still nothing quite like thumbing the pages of a real-life print magazine, but the latest evolution of E Ink’s color tech is creeping tantalizingly close — at least as far as my eyes are concerned.

You’ve heard it all before: A lifetime of staring at screens has worn out my eyes, leading me down a rabbit hole of lifehacky solutions to ease the fatigue. Some of the tricks I picked up over the years have helped — especially the one where I simply take breaks and go for walks — but one thing hasn’t changed: I still spend more time than I’d like gazing at glossy displays.

I don’t want anything less for videos or gaming, but for reading I typically ignore the latest tech and instead turn to a 2016 Kindle Oasis or old-fashioned books. My hands can obviously tell the difference between the two, but when I’m lost in a story, I don’t think my eyes can. With paper and e-paper alike, a sense of ease washes over me as I read. Is it how the light bounces off the page? Or, is it because I know ads and notifications won’t bombard me at every turn? I’m not sure, and I don’t really care why; I just prefer it, and E Ink reminded me of that when I stepped into its little conference room last week in Las Vegas.

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Scientists who watched nerve cells connect inside the eyes of growing squid have uncovered a remarkable secret — the cephalopods’ brains independently evolved to develop in the same way ours do.

.The discovery, made using high-resolution cameras focused on the retinas of longfin squid (Doryteuthis pealeii) embryos, reveals that, in spite of 500 million years of divergent evolution, the basic blueprint for how complex brains and nervous systems evolve may be the same across a wide range of species.

The intelligence of cephalopods — a class of marine animals that includes octopuses, squid and cuttlefish — has long been a subject of fascination among biologists. Unlike most invertebrates, these animals possess remarkable memories; use tools to solve problems; excel at camouflage; react with curiosity, boredom or even playful malevolence to their surroundings; and can dream, if the ripples of colors that flash across their skin as they sleep are any indication.

It seems that the blueprint for complex brain development remains the same, despite 500 million years of divergent evolution.

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In this video I showcase a program that I have been working on for simulating evolution by natural selection. I dive into various mechanisms of the simulation and go over some interesting real-life biology in the process. The key aim of this project is to evolve multicellular organisms, starting from single-celled protozoa-like creatures that must collect mass and energy from their surroundings in order to survive, grow and reproduce.

Chapters:
00:00 — Introduction.
00:56 — Life of a protozoan.
02:46 — The start of the simulation.
05:57 — How the cells work.
06:53 — Introducing multicellular colonies.
08:33 — Understanding evolution.
11:38 — Looking at data from the simulation.
13:27 — Evolving epigenetics introduction.
14:14 — Waddington’s Landscape and cell specialisation.
15:22 — The Central Dogma of Molecular Biology.
16:05 — Gene Regulatory Networks.
16:54 — Outro.
17:30 — Watching the simulation.

Find the project on GitHub:
https://github.com/DylanCope/Evolving-Protozoa.

Credits:

Tectonic plates animation: Scotese, C.R., 2016. Plate Tectonics, Paleogeography, and Ice Ages, (Modern World — 540Ma)

Gene expression and cell specialisation diagram: Prof. Dave Explains, 2017. The origin of multicellular life.

Continue reading “Simulating Cellular Evolution: The Path To Multicellularity” | >