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Cell Biology

Your Linemen at Work: DNA Search and Rescue Machine Imaged in Action
March 31, 2005
DNA is amazing enough, but its automatic error-correction utilities are enough to stagger the imagination.  There are dozens of repair mechanisms to shield our genetic code from damage; one of them was portrayed in Nature1 March 31 (see also analysis by Sheila David in the same issue2) in terms that should inspire awe.     […]
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Genetics

Descendants Can Overcome Parental Mutations
March 28, 2005
Bad genes from both parents may not spell doom in all cases.  Scientists at Purdue University found that if two parents have bad mutations, the child can sometimes reconstruct the correct gene from the grandparents.  “Our genetic training tells us that’s just not possible,” said Bob Pruitt, co-researcher on the team that ran the experiment […]
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Cell Biology

The Future of Biology: Reverse Engineering
March 14, 2005
Just as an engineer can model the feedback controls required in an autopilot system for an aircraft, the biologist can construct models of cellular networks to try to understand how they work.  “The hallmark of a good feedback control design is a resulting closed loop system that is stable and robust to modeling errors and […]
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Cell Biology

Bacterial Engineering On Par With Higher Life
March 11, 2005
Bacteria aren’t the simple life-forms microbiologists used to envision, writes Zemer Gitai in Cell.1 Recent advances have demonstrated that bacterial cells have an exquisitely organized and dynamic subcellular architecture.  Like their eukaryotic counterparts, bacteria employ a full complement of cytoskeletal proteins, localize proteins and DNA to specific subcellular addresses at specific times, and use intercellular […]
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Cell Biology

Clutch Enables Your Motors to Achieve 100% Efficiency
February 23, 2005
Those little ATP synthase motors (see 01/30/2005 entry) in your body and (in all living cells) made news again in Nature1 last week.  Scientists in Tokyo performed an ingenious set of experiments to measure the efficiency of the F1 synthesizing domain.  They attached a tiny magnet to the camshaft so that they could turn it […]
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Cell Biology

Survival of the Fittest – or the Luckiest?
February 6, 2005
Evolutionists assume that bacteria spread because they evolve resistance to antibiotics and become more fit to survive.  That’s apparently not true, says a story in EurekAlert about a study from Imperial College, London: the spread of bacteria appears to be due to chance alone.     Here are two quotes from the article by team […]
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Cell Biology

Molecular Machine Parts Stockpiled in Readiness for Assembly
February 6, 2005
A team from the European Molecular Biology Laboratory has done a “4D” time-and-materials study of molecular machines, analyzing the process of assembly, reports EurekAlert.  They found that the cell stockpiles some parts and holds them in storage, but adds the crucial elements just in time. The researchers discovered that in yeast, key components needed to […]
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Cell Biology

Your Motors Are Turbo-Charged
January 30, 2005
Think how fast 6000 rpm is.  It would redline on most cars.  Yet you have motors in your body that make that speed look like slow-mo.     The Japanese have taken great interest in the cellular machine ATP synthase since its rotary operation was discovered in 1996 (see 12/22/2003 entry).  Maybe it’s because they […]
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Origin of Life

Astrobiology: Follow the Money
January 7, 2005
To date, astrobiology remains, as George Gaylord Simpson once quipped, “an area of study without a known subject.” Yet it is one of the hottest research areas within NASA. A renowned origin-of-life researcher from Scripps Institution of Oceanography, Dr. Jeffrey Bada, found out why when he read the new book The Living Universe: NASA and […]
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Cell Biology

Flagellar Oars Beat Like Galley Slaves In Synchronization
December 26, 2004
The Dec. 14 issue of Current Biology1 investigated another mystery in the operation of eukaryotic flagella: Flagella are microtubule-based structures that propel cells through the surrounding fluid.  The internal structure of a flagellum consists of nine parallel doublet microtubules arranged around a central pair of singlet microtubules (Figure 1).  Force for propulsion is provided by […]
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Origin of Life

Origin-of-Life Expert Jokes about Becoming a Creationist
November 5, 2004
Chemist admits problems in chemical evolution are so hard, he is tempted to become a creationist.
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Cell Biology

Bacterial Flagellum Reveals New Structural Complexity
October 27, 2004
The bacterial flagellum, the unofficial mascot of the Intelligent Design movement, got more praise from the evolutionary journal Nature this week: Samatey et al.1 analyzed the hook region in detail and found that it is composed of 120 copies of a specialized protein that “reveals the intricate molecular interactions and a plausible switching mechanism for […]
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Cell Biology

News Nuggets
October 12, 2004
Here’s a collection of news items that deserve quick notice: Mars Rumbles:  Mars still has minor earthquakes, says Space.com, That’s without plate tectonics, “But scientists don’t know exactly how Mars is constructed.”  The Mars Exploration Rovers, meanwhile, awaking from a winter’s nap, are still gathering science data long past their expected lifetime.  Evidence for past […]
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Cell Biology

Genome of Diatom Reveals Unanticipated Complexity
October 1, 2004
“Let’s play 20 questions.”: “OK, I’m game.  Animal, vegetable or mineral?” “Yes.” “I give up.” The answer is: a diatom.  Some of the most abundant one-celled organisms in the sea, and essential for regulating the global carbon cycle, diatoms seem to be part animal, vegetable and mineral.  Scientists aren’t sure how to classify them.  They […]
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Amazing Facts

Burnt Bridges, Brownian Ratchets, and Self-Propelled Motors Keep Skin Young Looking
October 1, 2004
Rock climbers and cavers are familiar with mechanical devices called ascenders that enable them to climb ropes safely and easily.  Ascenders slide up the rope in one direction, but latch onto it tightly when pulled the other direction.  Now imagine the ascender by itself, hanging on the rope, in a flurry of winds blowing in […]
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