Archive: Mars, Pulsars, DNA, Mammals, More
June 1, 2024
These articles from late May 2002 still hold interest for CEH readers.
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Archive 2002: RNA, Vaporware, Mendel, and more
May 17, 2024
What has changed since May 2002? What remains the same?
Cells Model Sustainable Lifestyles
September 9, 2020
They renew. They recycle. They clean up their messes. We could learn things from cells. Cell division: cleaning the nucleus without detergents (Austrian Institute of Molecular Biotechnology). Mitosis, or cell division, is a messy process. All of a sudden, when the nuclear membrane disassembles, genes that had been isolated from the cytoplasm mix with it. […]
Origin of the Ribosome Baffles Evolutionists
June 25, 2020
The ribosome is a very complicated molecular machine with numerous accessory parts. Life cannot live without it. How could it evolve?
Ribosome Self-Assembly Is Not Evolution
May 23, 2020
So many pieces have to be placed in the right order, chance is ridiculously out of luck.
Life’s Amino Acid Kit Appears Pre-ordained
October 23, 2019
Of the thousands of possible amino acids, only a handful work for life. This poses a huge problem for secular origin-of-life theories.
Finding More Gifts in the Cellular Stocking
December 12, 2016
Improving techniques are allowing biochemists to find surprising new things in cells. Here are some recent examples.
Magic Ribosome Appears as Missing Link
January 7, 2015
A father-daughter team takes on the "selfish gene" concept and considers the ribosome as the "missing link" for lucky LUCA.
Cell Biologists Use Machine Language
October 23, 2014
This is a golden age of discovery about molecular machines, but the metaphor may be moving from machinery to information processing.
Cell's Molecular Machines Arouse Fascination
August 9, 2014
With increasing image quality at their disposal, biologists are finding amazing molecular machines at work in living cells.
Cells Optimize Their Tasks
December 28, 2011
The key to design in manufacturing is optimization – hitting the “sweet spot” between competing interests. It’s not always possible to have all the elements of a product be ideal. A laptop computer, for instance, can’t have an extra-large monitor and simultaneously have long battery life and compact design. A muscle car cannot be expected to have the best gas mileage. In the heyday of “faster, better, cheaper” spacecraft, engineers often joked, “pick any two.” In the same way, living cells have to optimize their operations. A couple of recent papers explore how they find that sweet spot.
Cell Operations Amaze, Inspire
July 16, 2011
A student's view of a cell under a light microscope is misleading. It reveals only a tiny fraction of what is really going on. Within that package of life, invisible to the student's gaze, complex machines work together in cellular factories. Signals pass back and forth in complex networks. Libraries of code are transcribed and […]