Biology – Quanta Magazine https://www.quantamagazine.org Illuminating science Fri, 21 Feb 2025 21:18:44 -0500 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.6.2 How ‘Event Scripts’ Structure Our Personal Memories https://www.quantamagazine.org/how-event-scripts-structure-our-personal-memories-20250221/ https://www.quantamagazine.org/how-event-scripts-structure-our-personal-memories-20250221/#respond Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:18:14 +0000 https://www.quantamagazine.org/?p=146781 The post How ‘Event Scripts’ Structure Our Personal Memories first appeared on Quanta Magazine

]]> After shuffling the cards in a standard 52-card deck, Alex Mullen, a three-time world memory champion, can memorize their order in under 20 seconds. As he flips though the cards, he takes a mental walk through a house. At each point in his journey — the mailbox, front door, staircase and so on — he attaches a card. To recall the cards, he relives the trip. This technique, called “method of loci”…

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]]> https://www.quantamagazine.org/how-event-scripts-structure-our-personal-memories-20250221/feed/ 0 The Poetry Fan Who Taught an LLM to Read and Write DNA https://www.quantamagazine.org/the-poetry-fan-who-taught-an-llm-to-read-and-write-dna-20250205/ https://www.quantamagazine.org/the-poetry-fan-who-taught-an-llm-to-read-and-write-dna-20250205/#respond Wed, 05 Feb 2025 15:58:11 +0000 https://www.quantamagazine.org/?p=146267 The post The Poetry Fan Who Taught an LLM to Read and Write DNA first appeared on Quanta Magazine

]]> DNA is often compared to a written language. The metaphor leaps out: Like letters of the alphabet, molecules (the nucleotide bases A, T, C and G, for adenine, thymine, cytosine and guanine) are arranged into sequences — words, paragraphs, chapters, perhaps — in every organism, from bacteria to humans. Like a language, they encode information. But humans can’t easily read or interpret these…

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]]> https://www.quantamagazine.org/the-poetry-fan-who-taught-an-llm-to-read-and-write-dna-20250205/feed/ 0 How Does Life Happen When There’s Barely Any Light? https://www.quantamagazine.org/how-does-life-happen-when-theres-barely-any-light-20250129/ https://www.quantamagazine.org/how-does-life-happen-when-theres-barely-any-light-20250129/#respond Wed, 29 Jan 2025 15:03:45 +0000 https://www.quantamagazine.org/?p=146074 The post How Does Life Happen When There’s Barely Any Light? first appeared on Quanta Magazine

]]> Most of life’s engines run on sunlight. Photons filter down through the atmosphere and are eagerly absorbed by light-powered organisms such as plants and algae. Through photosynthesis, the particles of light power a cellular reaction that manufactures chemical energy (in the form of sugars), which is then passed around the food web in a complex dance of herbivores, predators, scavengers…

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]]> https://www.quantamagazine.org/how-does-life-happen-when-theres-barely-any-light-20250129/feed/ 0 Concept Cells Help Your Brain Abstract Information and Build Memories https://www.quantamagazine.org/concept-cells-help-your-brain-abstract-information-and-build-memories-20250121/ https://www.quantamagazine.org/concept-cells-help-your-brain-abstract-information-and-build-memories-20250121/#respond Tue, 21 Jan 2025 15:30:34 +0000 https://www.quantamagazine.org/?p=145603 The post Concept Cells Help Your Brain Abstract Information and Build Memories first appeared on Quanta Magazine

]]> Imagine you’re on a first date, sipping a martini at a bar. You eat an olive and patiently listen to your date tell you about his job at a bank. Your brain is processing this scene, in part, by breaking it down into concepts. Bar. Date. Martini. Olive. Bank. Deep in your brain, neurons known as concept cells are firing. You might have concept cells that fire for martinis but not for olives.

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]]> https://www.quantamagazine.org/concept-cells-help-your-brain-abstract-information-and-build-memories-20250121/feed/ 0 The Ocean Teems With Networks of Interconnected Bacteria https://www.quantamagazine.org/the-ocean-teems-with-networks-of-interconnected-bacteria-20250106/ https://www.quantamagazine.org/the-ocean-teems-with-networks-of-interconnected-bacteria-20250106/#respond Mon, 06 Jan 2025 15:09:26 +0000 https://www.quantamagazine.org/?p=145404 The post The Ocean Teems With Networks of Interconnected Bacteria first appeared on Quanta Magazine

]]> Prochlorococcus bacteria are so small that you’d have to line up around a thousand of them to match the thickness of a human thumbnail. The ocean seethes with them: The microbes are likely the most abundant photosynthetic organism on the planet, and they create a significant portion — 10% to 20% — of the atmosphere’s oxygen. That means that life on Earth depends on the roughly 3 octillion (or 3 ×…

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