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Scientists have taken another step in their quest to understand the bare genetic essentials of life. This minimal number is lower than in any known free-living bug in nature.
Scientists have found the beginnings of life-bearing chemistry at the centre of the galaxy. Iso-propyl cyanide has been detected in a star-forming cloud 27,000 light-years from Earth.
Traces of animal life have been found in rocks dating back 635 million years. The evidence takes the form of chemical markers that are highly distinctive of sponges when they die and their bodies break down in rock-forming sediments. The discovery in Oman pushes back the earliest accepted date for animal life on Earth by tens of millions of years.
The discovery of more than 330 planets outside our solar system in recent years has helped refine the number of life forms that are likely to exist. The current research estimates that there are at least 361 intelligent civilisations in our Galaxy and possibly as many as 38,000.
We are going from reading our genetic code to the ability to write it. That gives us the hypothetical ability to do things never contemplated before". ... Mr Venter believes designer genomes have enormous positive potential if properly regulated. In the long-term, he hopes they could lead to alternative energy sources previously unthinkable. Bacteria could be created, he speculates, that could help mop up excessive carbon dioxide,...
Of related interest, in the light of recent research, is recognition that the source of energy in biological motion -- the capacity of muscles to generate pulling force -- may be explicable in terms of quantum tunnelling. Living cells are indeed capable of "burning" biological fuel to generate energy for muscle contraction. It is enzymes which accelrate the rate of chemical reactions -- with billion-fold enhancements of chemical...
The Gaia hypothesis is an ecological hypothesis proposing that the biosphere and the physical components of the Earth (atmosphere, cryosphere, hydrosphere and lithosphere) are closely integrated to form a complex interacting system that maintains the climatic and biogeochemical conditions on Earth in a preferred homeostasis. Originally proposed by James Lovelock as the earth feedback hypothesis, it was named the Gaia Hypothesis, after the...
In the beginning, we just drop a robot into a space. But they don't know anything, so they don't do anything," Professor Der said. The neural network eventually picks up on electronic noise, which causes small motions. It eventually tries larger motions as it learns about its range of movement. "It's like a newborn baby—it doesn't know anything but tries motions that are natural for its body. Half an hour...
2008-08-06
robot artificial intelligence life intelligenceThe bankers plan to buy “life settlements,” life insurance policies that ill and elderly people sell for cash million policy, say, depending on the life expectancy of the insured person. Then they plan to “securitize” these policies, in Wall Street jargon, by packaging hundreds or thousands together into bonds. They will then resell those bonds to investors, like big pension funds, who will receive the payouts when people with the...
2009-09-05
insurance lifeWe like to distinguish synthetic life from artificial life. With synthetic life, we're re-designing the cell chromosomes; we're not creating a whole new artificial life system.
2008-01-24
artificial life biology evolution genetics