Category: Slimey stuff
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How bacterial colonies could drive rotors
E coli bacteria use motors called flagella to generate a force that pushes them along at a rate of up to 10 body lengths per second. That’s a fair rate of knots and in recent years several groups have used this force to turn microrotors. Their approach is to bond the bacteria to a rotor…
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Modelling the spread of HIV
Modelling the spread of HIV is a difficult business for many reasons: many people are unaware that they are infected, HIV can take a very long time to manifest itself within the body, and researchers are still unsure to what extent different population groups are involved in its transmission. So it’s remarkable that Shan Mei…
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How ribosomal traffic cops keep bacteria alive
Ribosomes are the genetic Turing machines that translate nucleic acid into protein. And fast growing bacteria need plenty of them. E coli bacteria, for example, contain some 73000 ribosomes per cell. Given that E coli populations double every 20 minutes, new ribosomes have to be created at a fantastic rate. The process requires ribosomal RNA…
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A clue in the puzzle of perfect synchronization in the brain
“Two identical chaotic systems starting from almost identical initial states, end in completely uncorrelated trajectories. On the other hand, chaotic systems which are mutually coupled by some of their internal variables often synchronize to a collective dynamical behavior,” write Meital Zigzag at Bar-Ilan University in Israel and colleagues o the arXiv today. And perhaps the…
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Why ant colonies don’t have traffic jams
Traffic jams are the bane of modern life. But could it be possible that one of this planet’s more ancient life forms could show us how to better regulate road traffic? That’s the claim of congestion expert Dirk Helbing at the Dresden University of Technology in Germany and pals using a remarkable insight gained from…
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Martian methane and the smoking gun of life
The presence of methane in the Martian atmosphere is a puzzle. Methane is broken down rapidly by sunlight and cannot last long in any atmosphere. A few simple calculations show that the lifetime of a CH4 molecule in martian climes is around 500 years. So methane ought not to exist in the Martian atmosphere at…
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Slime Mould intelligence points to a new model of AI
Earlier this year, a group of Japanese scientists reported that with appropriate training, the true slime mold Physarum polycephalum can anticipate the timing of periodic events. That’s more than some politicians can manage and P polycephalum is only a single-celled amoeba, albeit a talented one. A few years ago a Hungarian team showed that slime…
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How leaves curl up in strong winds
Various types of plants, fungi and even animals are known to change their shape in strong winds to reduce drag. Leaves, in particular are known to curl up in strong winds. How they do this is not well understood, because of the dynamic nature of the problem and the difficulty taking good data. So Laura…
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How chemotherapy can make tumors bigger
While our understanding and treatment of cancer has advanced significantly in recent years, most specialists would readily admit that the dynamics of tumor growth are poorly understood. It’s easy to see why. Tumor growth is a multifaceted process that involves complex interactions between many types of cells and their surrounding tissue. So it’s interesting to…
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The waves beneath the sea
Dead water is the curious phenomenon when ships become sluggish and difficult to control in stratified waters in which a fresh layer sits on top of salty water. Such conditions often occur in arctic regions where water run off from melting glaciers or ice flows can float on top of denser salty water. The effect…