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Cell biology

The Intelligent Design Audiopaper Project

I was thinking recently, about how many audiobooks are consumed by people these days. I would guess that the main reason behind this consumption is convenience. Many people just don’t have the time, or don’t create the time, to really sit down and get their head in a book. But I understand that for many, it can also be due to personal preference, financial considerations, lack of space, being visually impaired, or learning difficulties. If non of these issues are barriers, I would always encourage reading (and ideally taking notes), rather than simply listening. On balance, the evidence does suggest that good reading is a much more efficient way of retaining information than listening, on its own. In general, listening Read More ›

Scientists determine structure of key factor in RNA quality control

Researchers: In biology, getting rid of stuff can be just as important as making it. A buildup of cells, proteins, or other molecules that are no longer needed can cause problems, so living things have evolved several ways to clean house. Read More ›

Eukaryogenesis: The Rise of an Emergent Superorganism

In his lengthy article, Bell draws attention to evolutionary hurdles to the origin of eukaryotic cells. The "chasm" between eukaryotic and prokaryotic cells is causing a re-think of the universal common ancestor notion. Read More ›

Are all those codes used by cells really “codes”?

One biologist thinks that only DNA is really a code. David Coppedge disagrees. Coppedge: But it seems fair to categorize codes separately if they contain unique information and produce unique results. Even if histones are built from DNA, once they are assembled, they no longer rely on the genetic code. Read More ›

Researchers: Eukaryotes got started from a merger between bacteria and archaea, without oxygen

On the whole, it might be easier to conclude that the timing is somewhat off than that complex life started without oxygen. But symbiosis is an intriguing theory nonetheless. Read More ›

Researchers: Cells organize themselves in our organs by increasing in volume when tissues bend

“The fact that this increase in volume is staggered in time and transient also shows that it is an active and living system,” adds a researcher. Once again, we are expected to believe that such a system can just develop in a gradual Darwinian fashion. Read More ›

Researchers: A key cell division protein is still a puzzle

In other words, contrary to expectation, the system is even more complex than supposed. At this point, unguided evolution becomes overwhelmingly implausible because it would take only one misstep to end the process. But people believe what they believe. Read More ›

Before dividing, cells toss out waste products

Researcher: "Our hypothesis is that cells might be throwing out things that are building up, toxic components or just things that don't function properly that you don't want to have there. It could allow the newborn cells to be born with more functional contents," says Teemu Miettinen, an MIT research scientist and the lead author of the new study. Read More ›

David Coppedge on cell division as another “hurdle for evolution”

Coppedge: The two daughter cells face a massive organization problem. Even though they contain the same DNA code, they will take on separate roles in the cell. This means that the accessibility of genes between the two cells must radically differ. Read More ›