The cells comprising the thin inner layer of blood vessels regulate blood’s many behaviors. This endothelium accomplishes its responsibility by sharing copious information in a self-organizing network.
Category: Cells
As any sperm can tell you, fertilizing a mate is an arduous task. Animal sperm need to be champion swimmers. Pollen must be aerial acrobats.
On coronaviruses and CoV2, the virus which causes covid-19.
In the community that comprises a multicellular organism, dying gracefully is a dignified last task. Knowing that their life is ending, cells request their replacement.
The language of cellular activity is written in glycans.
Viruses selectively edit host genetic instructions to produce the bioproducts they want as part of viral reproduction. Viruses can do this because they understand life at the molecular level.
White mold is a plant disease caused by the sclerot fungus. A virus knows how to tame sclerot, and even make it beneficial to plants.
Copper has been prized for keeping water clean since antiquity. But at least one bacterium is positively electric about copper.
Our microbiomes are indispensable partners in both sickness and health. Their performance in the face of attack by V2 goes a long way in explaining the diversity of covid-19 virulence.
Plants are green because photosynthesis is optimized – not to maximize energy, but to minimize stress.
Life runs on a universal workforce: the proteins which build and maintain cells. Despite vast diversity, regardless of life form, the jobs proteins do are […] Read More
Communications between a cell’s energizer – mitochondria – and its recycler – lysosomes – regulate cell senescence.
The onset of organelles by eukaryotes seemed such an innovation over the apparent pandemonium in prokaryotes lacking organizational membranes. Look closer and cells run tidy businesses whether inside or outside protein fortresses.
Cyanobacteria originated photosynthesis and were innovators in using cellular greenhouses to do so. They also evolved the ability to flexibly capture whatever light was available to them – an adaptive optimality that changed the world.
For many animals, sleep is essential for healthy functioning; so too for T cells, warriors of the adaptive immune system.
Sentient macromolecules – proteins – comprise the labor force of cells. The mercurial among them are enzymes, which catalyze chemical reactions to accelerate manufacture of bioproducts.
In deciding the timing of dividing, mother cells smartly sense their environment and direct their daughters on the right move.
The human respiratory tract hosts a diverse community of cocirculating viruses: some of which benignly reside, whereas others aim at acute infections. Interactions between these viruses alter the risk of sickness.
Virus may lack the machinery to replicate themselves, but they do direct their assembly. Their craftsmanship is exquisite.
Pathogenic bacteria live by the motto espoused by German philosopher Fredrich Nietzsche (1844-1900): “what does not kill me makes me stronger.”
Cellulose is the most abundant organic compound on Earth, having gained that distinction from being the substance by which plants propel themselves skyward.
Influenza outbreaks are often seasonal – but their seasons vary. Whether Covid-19 has a season is uncertain.
Cells spawn copies of themselves in the process called mitosis. A crucial process within mitosis is genetic (chromosomal) replication.
Immune system cells flock to the site of an infection once residents there cry out for relief. The herding causes inflammation: swelling, redness, and pain. Then the immunizers collectively decide what to do.
Viruses travel light. While hardy enough to survive the elements, they enjoy the comfort of being indoors.