The Gaia theory establishes a link between living species and the chemistry of Planet Earth. What about life beyond Earth? Will cybernetics ever lead to new life forms?
Defining Life:
Biomass
What is life?
Defining life
The laws of life
The recipe for life
Living cells on the move
A new view of the tree of life
7 theories on the origins of life
Defining life in a cybernetic context
Does new physics lurk inside living matter?
Vocabulary of definitionsof life suggest a definition
Defing life: Q & A with scientist Scripps' Gerald Joyce
The definition of life: a brief history of an elusive scientific endeavor
There's no one way a microbe looks, only different clever methods to see it
He may have found the key to the origins of life. So why have few heardof him?
A current view of the tree of life, encompassing the total diversity represented by sequenced genomes
Evolution:
How life turned left
Evolution unleashed
Evolution, you're drunk!
Cosmos evolution of life
The spark that created life
The temperature tastes just right
Scientists seek to update evolution
Evolution favors cooperation's collapse
Computer modeling technique goes viral
Unlocking Darwin's 'Mystery of Mysteries'
Delegating the dirty work is a key to evolution
An evolution in the understanding of evolution
Egg laying or live birth: how evolution chooses
An Aristotelian account of minimal chemical life
Theory of the origin, evolution, and nature of life
Ecosystems change long before a species is lost
Fluid dynamics explains ancient organism behavior
Evolution is not a one-way road towards complexity
How evolutionary principles could help save our world
Fragile DNA enables new adaptations to evolve quickly
When physics gives evolution a leg up by breaking one
Study proposes alternative way to explain life's complexity
Spiraling light, nanoparticles and insights into life's structure
Supercomputing transforms study of evolutionary relationships
Computer scientists suggest new spin on origins of evolvability
Evolutionary puzzle: study calls into doubt common expectations
Extinction models that account for body size prove more accurate
Scientists solve mystery piece in the origin of biological complexity
Two mutations triggered an evolutionary leap 500 million years ago
Research gives new insight into the evolution of the nervous system
Mutant champions save imperiled species from almost-certain extinction
The 'genetics of sand' may shed new light on evolutionary process over millions of years
Predicting to new environments: visualizing model behaviour and impacts on mapped distributions
Life's Stress on Planet Earth:
Earth's Resources
Earth's Vital Statistics
Straining Our Resources
The biomass distribution on Earth
Planet Earth Online - news from the natural world
Mathematics and biology:
Mathematics of life
Mathematics of biology
A new physics theory of life
The Mathematics of Biology
NASA teaching algorithms that recognize life
Math links ecological flash mobs and magnet physics
Mathematicians begin to tame wild 'sunflower' problem
Persistence or extinction: through a mathematical lens
A software, a community and a different way to do science
A physicist's approach to bio;ogy brings ecological insights
Most complete simulation of a cell probes life's hidden rules
The algorithms of life - scientific computing for systems biology
Form and function unite to create the dynamic architecture of life
Before nature selects, gene networks steer a course for evolution
Computational tool offers new insight into key biological processes
Not just a theory - the utility of mathematical models in evolutionary biology
Development of new imaging technique reveals complex protein movements in the cell membrane
Proteins:
The Evolution of Proteins
How to determine a protein's shape
Watching biomolecles fold and unfold
Evolutionary insights into shape-shifting proteins
Copy of genetic makeup travels in a protein suitcase
From eons to seconds, proteins exploit the same forces
Scientists make structure analysis of protein molecules several times faster
Back from the dead: scientists 'resurrect' ancient proteins to learn about primordial life on Earth
Terahertz radiation induces non-thermal structural changes with Frohlich condensation in a protein crystal
Cell structures:
The stormy fluid dynamics of the living cell
Cells and their genes continue to function after death
Organizing a cell's genetic material from the sidelines
Researchers read the sugary 'language' on cell surfaces
In the nucleus, genes' activities might depend on their location
Oxygen and stem cells may have reshaped early complex animals
The in vivo structure of biological membranes and evidence for lipid domains
A spectacular time lapse of a single cell morphing into a fully formed organism
Stem Cells:
Stem cell memory
Stem cells of worms and humans more similar than expected
DNA, Genomes & Gene networks:
Studying biology's dark matter
The complex truth about 'junk DNA'
Boldly illuminating biology's 'dark matter"
Shedding light on the "dark matter' of the genome
How our genes reassemble themselves to get work done
Key part of human gene activation revealed by new study
Biologists discover unknown powers in mighty mitochondria
DNA may have had humbler beginnings as a nutrient carrier
In the nucleus, genes' activity might depend on their location
Quadruple-stranded DNA seen in healthy human cells for the first time
Single-molecule visualisation of DNA G-quadruplex formation in live cells
Discovery of second, 'hidden' code in DNA could improve disease diagnostics
25 years of DNA on a computer - a review of the computer simulations of nuclear DNA
RNA:
Discovering the structure of RNA
New study brings scientists closer to the origin of RNA
RNA was capable of catalyzing electron transfer on early Earth with iron's help
Evolution of the division of labor between genes and enzymes in the RNA world
Multicellular life:
Watching a roundworm develop with a sheet of light
What yeast reveals about the origins of multicellular life
The evolutionary-developmental origins of multicellularity
Scientists debate the origin of cell types in the first animals
Single cells evolve large multicellular forms in just two years
Mutation that triggered multicellular life altered protein flexibility
Solar powered sea slugs shed light on search for perpetual green energy
Study uncover how cells oorganize the growth of their structural filaments
Study shows common molecular tool kit shared by organisms across the tree of life
Inter-cellular signalling:
New discovery in single cell signalling
Properties of developmental gene regulatory networks
Biologists rethink the logic behind cells 'molecular signals'
Viruses:
Ancient origin of viruses studied
Role of viruses in human evolution
Study adds to evidence that viruses are alive
Our Universe could be littered with alien viruses
DNA has four bases. Some viruses swap in a fifth
Glassy coating keeps virses happy in harsh environment
Study finds vast diversity among viruses that infect bacteria
Bacteria:
Building codes for bacterial cities
Cracking the code for dormant bacteria
Reshaping our ideas of bacterial evolution
Bacterial clones show surprising individuality
Bacteria models track evolutionary dynamics
Understanding how plants & bacteria see light
Swarming bacteria create an 'impossible' superfluid
Cyanobacteria use micro-optics to sense light direction
Big data processing enables worldwide bacterial analysis
Baterial complexity revises ideas about 'which came first?'
Cell-bacteria mergers offer clues to how organelles evolved
Drivers of bacterial maintenance and minimal energy requirements
Illuminating the 'inner machines' that give bacteria an energy boost
Genes necessary for cell division in modern bacterial cells identified
Bacteria's secret weapon against pesticides and antibiotics revealed
Electricity-eating bacteria are real and more common than we thought
Mathematical modelling disproves long-held view of bacterial cell cycle
Commensual bacteria were critical shapers of early human populations
Bacterial ecosystems:
Evolution in real time
Evolution stuck in slime for a billion years
How evolution shapes the geometries of life
Weird life found trapped in giant underground crystals
Pilbara home to 3.5 billion-year-old bacterial ecosystems
Resolving social conflict is key to survival of bacterial communities
Circular polarization in star and planet forming regions: implications for the origin of homochirality of life
Microbes:
Dance of the microswimmers
The secret language of microbes
How microbes survive in freezing conditions
First complete computer model of an organism
Close family ties keep microbial cheaters in check
Report seeks to integrate microbes into climate models
Unlocking the biochemical treasure chest within microbes
Researchers discover how microbes survive in freezing conditions
Modelling the effect of size on the aerial dispersal of microorganisms
Scientiists discover organism that hasn't evolved in more than 2 billion years
Microbiologists reveal unexpected properties of methane-producing microbe
Microorganisms isolated in cave for 4M years helps understand the origins of antibiotic resistance
Microbiomes and Hologenomes:
How microbiomes affect fear
Why it's time to map the microbiome
Should evolution treat our microbes as part of us?
'Microbial Noah's Ark' initiative should move to the nest stage
Three studies track people's microbiomes through health and disease
Meet the 'psychobiome': the gut bacteria that may alter how you think, feel and act
Impact on minerals, soils & water:
Biological soil crust secrets uncovered
An emerging movement ecology paradigm
Chemical ecology in retrospect and prospect
Unexpected finding shows climate change complexities in soil
Study finds missing piece of biogeochemical puzzle in aquifers
Eco-evolutionary dynamics in response to selection on life-history
Ancient lightning may have provided the phosphorous necessary for life
Extreme microbes found in crystals buried 200' beneath the Sea of Japan
Geoscientists gradually decipher nature's playbook, discover new mineral-making secrets
Impact on climate:
How life alters climate
In times of great famine, microalgae digest themselves
Climate change and co-evolution: we've done the math
Life can survive on much less water than you might think
'Global Worming': earthworms contribute to climate change
Extinction of large animals could make climate change worse
UMD finding may hold key to Gaia Theory of Earth as a living organism
Systems biology:
Aging out of bounds
Eating air, making fuel
Miraculous proliferation
The impact of X-rays on biological systems
Animal that survives in space has weird DNA
Operation of ancient biological clock uncovered
Complex systems: from chemistry to systems biology
Sponge genes hint at the origins of neurons and other cells
Geologists solve fossil mystery by creating 3-D 'virtual tour' through rock
Central metabolism in mammals and plants as a hub for controlling cell fate
Evolution of insects:
Life underground
How termites ventilate
The evolution of insects
Ants and Climate Change
Dung beetles guided by the Milky Way
Biologists unlock 'black box' to underground world
Ants more closely related to bees than to most wasps
Chemicals that insects use to communicate and survive
How two become one: origins of a mysterious symbiosis found
Genetic study of house dust mites demonstrates reversible evolution
Evolution of birds:
How birds get by without external ears
Genes tell story of birdsong and human speech
Scientiists make new discovery about bird evolution
Dinosaur egg study supports evolutionary link between birds and dinosaurs
To burn sugar or not to burn sugar: how eggs store fuel for embryo development
Evolution of animals & mammals:
Prehistoric earbone analyzed
The history of animal evolution
Lab reveals rules for making ribs
Can you evolve while being robust?
What makes a mammal a mammal?
Kangaroo tail proves powerful 'fifth leg'
Modeling the vertebrate invasion of land
Explaining differences in rates of evolution
Brain size might put mammals at extinction risk
Earliest tetrapods may have never left the water
Walking fish reveal how our ancestors evolved onto land
Research Scientists unlock evolutionary secret of blood vessels
Discovery of new fossils reveals key link in evolution of hind limbs
Modern genetics confirm ancient relationship between fins and hands
Early mammal varieties declined as evolution of flowering plants took off
Study details differences in gene expression among male, female mammals
Theory of origin of animals challenged: animals need only extremely little oxygen
New genetic 'facilitated operating system' facilitated evolution of 'bilateral' animals
Biologists follow 'fossilizable clues' when mammal, bird and dinosaur ancestors became atheletes
Breakthrough reveals evolution of ancient nervous systems through analysis of seashell color patterns
Tracking interspecies transmission & evolution of an ancient retrovirus using genomes of modern mammals
Magnetic sensitivity:
The oysters that knew what time it was
Evolution of primates:
Neanderthal Neuroscience
Origins of language found in fruit fly gene
What evolved first - a dexterous hand or an agile foot?
Cambrian fossil pushes back evolution of complex brains
Fossil ankles indicate Earth's earliest primates lived in trees
Researchers discover oldest primate fossil skeleton on record
Evolution of humans:
Science of life
To throw is human
Revised timeline of human origins
Genetic "Adam' and 'Eve' uncovered
Step forward in understanding human feet
The evolution of modern human brain shape
You may have more Neanderthal DNA than you think
Sea squirts provide insights into gut defense evolution
Sinking teeth into the evolutionary origin of our skeleton
Putting 'Adam' in his rightful place in evolutionary history
Lightweight skeletons of modern humans evolved recenty
Ancient DNA can both diminish and defend modern minds
A clear, molecular view of how human color vision evolved
Human genome was shaped by an evolutionary arms race with itself
New study finds evolution of brain and tooth size were not linked in humans
Researchers 'capture' the replication of the human genome for the first time
Dry conditions in East Africa 500,000 years ago possibly shaped human evolution
Researchers chart epigenomics of stem cells that mimic early human development
Secrets of human protein interactions unveiled by massive sequencing and coevolution
New imaging technique captures vibrations of proteins, tiny motions critical to human life
Complex nerve-cell signalling traced back to common ancestor of humans and sea anenomes
The Anthroposphere since 50,000 years: an ecological replacement of megaherbivores by humans
Human migrations:
10,000 years on the Bering land bridge
Highest altitude ice age human occupation
Ancient genomes show the European meta-population
The geography of recent genetic ancestry across Europe
8,000-year-old mutation key to human life at high altitudes
Using HSV-1 genome phylogenics to track past human migrations
In human evolution, changes in skin's barrier set Northern Europeans apart
Fossils offer new clue into Native American's 'journey' and how they survived the last Ice Age
Synthetic Biology:
Craig Ventner unveils 'synthetic life'
Northwestern scientists create chemical brain
Revolutionary new algorithm succeeds in prolonging life
'Minimal cell' raises stakes in race to harness synthetic life
Researchers create synthetic cells to isolate genetic circuits
Crispr makes it clear: the US needs a biology strategy, and fast
Researchers write languages to design synthetic living systems
New synthesis method imitates the way molecules were formed at the dawn of life