Biophysics

What is Evolution

Introduction to Evolution: Key Concepts & FAQs Guide

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Introduction to Evolution Overview The study of evolution has dominated biology for over a century. Explaining why life is the way it is fascinates both…
how to identify wood

Tell One Wood from Another: Basic Wood Anatomy

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Introduction About the author As a long-time woodworker, I enjoy being able to tell one wood from another. In the process of learning how to do that,…
dna_stretch

Knotted DNA in Extensional Flow: Coil–Stretch and Untying

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Macromolecules Paper overview A joint computational-experimental paper that I worked on was just published in MacroLetters, a journal that covers all…
dna_twist

How to Use the Spaghetti-Twist Method to Align DNA

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Twirling DNA Around a Rotating Wire A new paper from a group of Canadian physicists has demonstrated how simply twirling a wire through a solution of…
polymer

DNA Mapping & Nanopore Sequencing: Nanochannel Insights

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Introduction A single DNA molecule snaking its way through an array of cavities. This movie is from one of my later Ph.D. experiments. …
Mitochondria

When did Mitochondria Evolve?

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Eukaryote evolution and cellular complexity Historically, life is categorized into three broad domains: bacteria, archaea, and eukaryota.  Whereas bacteria…
cancer

What Causes Cancer: Bad Luck or Bad Lifestyles?

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What causes cancer? For the most part, cancer is a disease that arises from mutations in the body that accumulate over time.  These mutations knock…
DNA

Atomic Positioning with DNA Hinges

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I was perusing the Nature Nanotechnology website today when I came across an interesting article by Funke and Dietz, called "Placing molecules with Bohr…
what_is_evolution

How Evolution Works: Variation, Inheritance, Selection

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Evolution is the process by which populations of organisms change over generations through three interacting mechanisms: random genetic variation, inheritance…
animal speeds

Animal Speed Scaling: Body-Lengths per Second Across Sizes

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19 Comments
Introduction In a recent American Journal of Physics issue, I read an interesting paper by Nicole Meyer-Vernet and Jean-Pierre Rospars examining the top…
Alzheimers

Can Gene Editing Eliminate Alzheimer’s Disease?

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The development of the CRISPR/Cas9 system has made gene editing a relatively simple task.  While CRISPR and other gene-editing technologies stand to revolutionize…
CrispR DNA

Why CRISPR Technologies Won’t Lead to Designer Babies

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The prospect of designer babies has been a staple of the dystopian futures imagined by science-fiction writers, evoking fears of eugenics (e.g. Brave…
evolution_faq

Evolution FAQ: Theory, Evidence & Common Misconceptions

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Evolution is the scientific theory explaining how species change over generations through mutation, heredity, and natural selection. It is supported by…
evolution_evidence

Evidence for Evolution: Fossils, Genetics, and More

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Evolution is supported by multiple independent lines of evidence: the fossil record, comparative anatomy and genetics, vestigial structures, directly observed…