Cell Biology – Page 62

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NASA Finds Life on Earth; or,Arsenic and Old Lake

December 2, 2010

A NASA teaser about an announcement coming Dec 2 that will “will impact the search for evidence of extraterrestrial life” had watchers on edge. PhysOrg said, “Speculation that life has been discovered beyond Earth exploded on the Internet after NASA announced plans for a briefing involving scientists who study unusual life forms.” It wasn’t to […]

Cell Biology

Is Life More than Sewage?

November 27, 2010

Look at the sewer pipe accompanying an article on Science Daily. The article claims that a bacterium in the sewer water is a “missing link” in our evolution. How can this be? For a long time, evolutionists have tried to bridge the gap between bacteria, which lack a nucleus, and eukaryotes which have […]

Amazing Facts

Even Your Trash Can Is High-Tech

November 24, 2010

Cells have the same problem as cities: disposing of trash. Each of your cells has elaborate trash collector machines that not only dispose of damaged or unneeded proteins – they recycle them, too. The structure of the proteasome, a fragile machine difficult to crystallize for imaging, has just become clearer thanks to researchers in Germany […]

Bible and Theology

Stem Cells of the Adult Kind Steal the Headlines

November 18, 2010

Stories about stem cell research need to be divided into two sections: those about adult stem cells (AS), which have no ethical ramifications, and stories about embryonic stem cells (ES), which raise many issues about the sanctity of human life. As usual, most of the actual clinical progress is being made with adult stem cells […]

Cell Biology

Evolutionists Try to Out-Complex Behe

November 14, 2010

The phrase irreducible complexity has reluctantly entered the working vocabulary of evolutionary biologists, though they usually disparage its source (Dr. Michael Behe, leading proponent of intelligent design). The latest evidence is a paper in Science that was titled with an obvious play on words and an attempt to refute Behe’s principle. They called it “irremediable […]

Amazing Facts

Cells Can Be Transformed

November 8, 2010

An astonishing feat has been performed in a Canadian lab: scientists turned human skin cells into blood cells. Bypassing the need for stem cells, the technique provides hope for a supply of blood from a person’s own skin. Live Science calls it a “modern miracle.” The technique avoids “the ethical concerns concerning embryonic stem cells […]

Amazing Facts

All Kingdoms of Life Have Ideas We Need

November 4, 2010

Inventors aren’t partial. They are willing to find inspiration in plants, animals, and microbes. Here are three examples showing that all kingdoms of life have great engineering ideas that researchers involved in biomimetics are seeking to understand. Plants: We don’t fight walled cities with catapults any more, but storing elastic energy can still be useful. […]

Biomimetics

Purpose-Driven Science Ignores Darwin

October 30, 2010

While some Darwinists feel that the Intelligent Design (ID) movement is a major threat to science, many scientists unconnected to ID are acting as if it provides for them a more fruitful approach to research. Several recent examples illustrated what might be called a silent “de facto” intelligent design movement. Purposeful proteins: PhysOrg reported work […]

Amazing Facts

Cells Know Their Physics

October 27, 2010

At the microscopic level of cells, forces come into play that are unfamiliar to us at the macro level: quantum mechanics, Brownian motion, and subtle elastic forces that we might overlook. Two recent papers in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences explored physical mechanisms cells use to good advantage. Good thing cells know […]

Amazing Facts

Automatic Turnstiles Found in the Cell

October 25, 2010

One of the things students learn about in high school biology classes is active transport: the ability to control flow through a semi-permeable membrane. Contrary to osmosis, in which the flow goes naturally from high concentration to low concentration, cell membranes employ active mechanisms to push or pull the molecules through their membranes according to […]

Amazing Facts

Hairy Bacteria Walk and Talk

October 12, 2010

Little hair-like projections on some bacteria, nearly invisible with light microscopes, are not just for decoration. They do amazing things – as a pair of recent discoveries brought to light. They help bacteria walk and talk. But can they dance? Bacteria swim, but they also land on surfaces – and when they do, they put […]

Amazing Facts

DNA Performs the Linking Rings Trick

October 11, 2010

Those who love a good magic show should be aware of a world-famous trick going on inside their own bodies. The “Chinese linking rings” trick is done by a team of protein magicians in the cell – but it’s not for entertainment, it’s to repair damage that could lead to cancer. PhysOrg echoed […]

Amazing Facts

More DNA Repair Wonders Found

October 7, 2010

One of the most phenomenal discoveries since the structure of DNA was revealed must surely be the discovery of multitudes of protein machines that repair DNA (01/04/2002). The repair machines are themselves coded by DNA, but DNA would quickly decay into nonsense without them. Another “fundamentally new” repair mechanism was discovered by researchers at Vanderbilt […]

Cell Biology

Big Gains for Adult Stem Cells Announced

October 4, 2010

Ever since Shinya Yamanaka figured out how to coax skin cells to become pluripotent stem cells in 2007 (something for which he is being considered for a Nobel Prize, see PhysOrg), other researchers have been improving on his idea. Three big gains were announced recently. PhysOrg and New Scientist reported work by Derrick […]

Cell Biology

Cosmic Accidents Are Not Scientific Explanations

October 3, 2010

Sunday Meditation Oct 3, 2010 — The classic understanding of science is that it explains things with reference to natural laws, makes predictions, is testable, quantifiable, and falsifiable. Depending on the branch of science, many researchers still attempt to hold to those ideals. Eugenie Scott put it this way: “modern science operates under a rule […]

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