Science

Researchers have used artificial intelligence techniques to massively accelerate the search for Parkinson's disease treatments. The researchers designed and used an AI-based strategy to identify compounds that block the clumping, or aggregation, of alpha-synuclein, the protein that characterises Parkinson's.

While the electronic tongue bears little physical resemblance to its namesake, the strand-like sensory probes of the 'e-tongue' still outperformed human senses when detecting contaminated wine in a recent study. In a recent experiment, the e-tongue identified signs of microorganisms in white wine within a week after contamination -- four weeks before a human panel noticed the change in aroma. This was also before those microbes could be grown from the wine in a petri-dish. Winemakers traditionally rely on these two methods, sniffing the wine and petri-dish testing, to identify potential wine 'faults' or spoilage.

More than five million central lines are placed in patients who need prolonged drug delivery, such as those undergoing cancer treatments, in the United States every year, yet the common procedure can lead to a bevy of complications in almost a million of those cases. Researchers developed a robotic simulation training program to provide trainee physicians with more practice on the procedure. A year after deploying the program the team found that all complication types -- mechanical issues, infections and blood clots -- were significantly lower.

More than five million central lines are placed in patients who need prolonged drug delivery, such as those undergoing cancer treatments, in the United States every year, yet the common procedure can lead to a bevy of complications in almost a million of those cases. Researchers developed a robotic simulation training program to provide trainee physicians with more practice on the procedure. A year after deploying the program the team found that all complication types -- mechanical issues, infections and blood clots -- were significantly lower.

Engineers have developed a record-setting nanomaterial which when stretched in one direction, expands perpendicular to the applied force.

We know there is some connection between skin and gut health, but many assumed the gut was the one calling the shots. A new study suggests that the influence can go the other way

A quick reminder, to those in the northwest’s big cities, that I will be giving two talks about my book in the next 48 hours:

• At Seattle’s Town Hall, tonight (April 17th) at 7:30 pm.
• Near Portland, at the Cedar Hills branch of Powell’s Books, tomorrow (April 18th) at 7:00 pm.

Hope to see some of you there! (You can keep track of my speaking events at my events page.)

A computer intended to mimic the way the brain processes and stores data could potentially improve the efficiency and capabilities of artificial intelligence models

Weeding robots can sometimes struggle to tell weeds from crops, but genetically modifying the plants we want to keep to make them brightly coloured would make the job easier, suggest a group of researchers

Investigations of the paradoxical link between tinnitus and hearing loss have revealed a hidden form of deafness, paving the way to possible new treatments

I forgot that Columbia University officials are being grilled in Congress about anti-semitism on its campus. You can watch it live below, and things are getting heated, as they did in the House hearings involving the presidents of MIT, Harvard, and Penn. The Republicans are loaded for bear, but I think I’ll have to watch most of this later. CNN has an article, with a live feed, about what’s going on. Here is some of their news:

All four Columbia officials testifying before Congress unequivocally stated that calls for the genocide of Jews violate the university’s code of conduct.

Rep. Suzanne Bonamici asked Columbia President Minouche Shafik, board co-chairs David Greenwald and Claire Shipman and David Schizer, co-chair of a task force on antisemitism, for a simple yes or no response. All four said “yes,” calls for the genocide of Jews would violate Columbia’s code of conduct.

The response offered a stark contrast to the lawyerly answers that university presidents provided during the December hearing before the same committee. That moment went viral, sparking an uproar that eventually contributed to the ousters of the presidents of Harvard and the University of Pennsylvania.

Of course, the Columbia officials had the advantage of having months to prepare for that question.

Days after the December hearing, Columbia issued a statement saying: “Calls for genocide against the Jewish community or any other group are abhorrent, inconsistent with our values and against our rules.”

Columbia certainly has learned from what happened in the last hearings! But apparently Columbia doesn’t adhere to the First Amendment, under which calls for genocide are, under many circumstances, legal. This means that their code of conduct does not completely comport with the First Amendment.

Here, quickly, are the YouTube notes:

The Committee on Education and the Workforce, chaired by Virginia Foxx (R-NC), will hold a hearing to call on the leadership at Columbia University to answer for the rampant antisemitism engulfing their campuses and threatening their Jewish students.

 

Here’s FIRE’s free-speech ranking for Columbia University. It’s below average: #214 out of #248 schools (Harvard was the lowest). Click to look it up:

As Luana Maroja and I wrote in our paper on the ideological subversion of biology, some of that subversion involves a fallacy that we called the “reverse appeal to nature”, an inversion of the naturalistic fallacy:

All the biological misconceptions we’ve discussed involve forcing preconceived beliefs onto nature. This inverts an old fallacy into a new one, which we call the reverse appeal to nature. Instead of assuming that what is natural must be good, this fallacy holds that “what is good must be natural.” It demands that you must see the natural world through lenses prescribed by your ideology. If you are a gender activist, you must see more than two biological sexes. . . . .

In other words, people tend to justify something they consider morally desirable by seeing the phenomenon (or something like it) in nature. As we noted, the claim that sex is a spectrum in nature is a conclusion meant to buttress the value of people who consider themselves neither female nor male—those who are “nonbinary”. The problem here is twofold. Most important, biological sex is indeed binary in nature: all animals and vascular plants have just two sexes: males, making small motile sperm, and females, making large immotile eggs. I won’t defend this binary-ness now, as I’ve done it many times before, as have others. For a quick refresher, see this piece by Colin Wright.

The second problem is that the existence of something in animals or plants doesn’t buttress human morality.  Trans-identifying people should have all the same rights as other people, except that in some sensitive settings like sports, prisons, etc., segregation should be based on biological sex rather than gender. And that is regardless of what we see in nature. After all, we don’t think that theft, murder, and cheating are justifiable because we can point to these phenomena in various animals. (See my quote at the bottom.)

And yet there are still those, like gender activist Peter Tatchell, who fall victim to this fallacy.  In his tweet below, Tatchell claims to point out 18 animals that are transsexual (i.e., can change biological sex) and also show that “gender is not a simplistic binary, male & female”. This is a doubly incorrect instance of the reverse appeal to nature.

First, most of the animals in Tatchell’s litany of example do not change sex, and none of them are “transsexual” in the human sense (i.e., transgender humans who change their gender identity, not their biological sex, because they suffer from gender dysphoria).  And none of the animals that do change sex are mammals, since we know of no example of a mammal that can change from producing eggs to producing sperm or vice versa. (There are no examples, either, of human hermaphrodites that are fertile as both sexes.)

Second, not a single of Tatchell’s 18 examples shows that sex is “not a simplistic binary.” Every one of the animals shown instantiates that there are two sexes: males and females (or both combined in one body as simultaneous hermaphrodites). There are no third, fourth, or fifth sexes shown by Tatchell, for none exist.

His tweet:

18 animals you didn’t know were biologically trans

Gender diversity in the (tr)animal kingdom blurs the lines of “biological sex”

These animals show that gender is not a simplistic binary, male & female

Trans & intersex are real. Get used to it!https://t.co/QqhacYgi4u

— Peter Tatchell (@PeterTatchell) April 7, 2024

In an earlier post I showed how Emma Hilton attacked Tatchell’s claims in jer twitter feed, with one tweet for each of Tatchell’s examples. Now she and Jonathan Kay have teamed up for a complete demolition job at Quilette, which you can read by clicking the headline below.

 

First the authors show the prevalence of using nature to justify nonbinary and transgender people:

Anyone who’s followed the debate about transgender rights will immediately understand why this type of fish now has a starring role in advocacy materials designed to convince the broad public that sex-switching is a common feature in the natural kingdom, including among humans [JAC: The preceding link goes to a Vice article by Diana Tourjée called “Yes, there are trans animals.”] In Canada, for instance, the publicly funded CBC is airing a documentary titled Fluid: Life Beyond the Binary, in which the self-described “non-binary” host, Mae Martin, invokes the existence of clownfish, and various other creatures, to argue that “each of us are on the gender spectrum.” Not surprisingly, Martin is explicitly promoting the documentary as a paean to social justice, and as a rebuke to anyone seeking to put limits on “gender-affirming health care” (such as the double mastectomy that Martin publicly announced in 2021).

This week, British human-rights campaigner Peter Tatchell tried to advance similar arguments in a widely read tweet referencing—as the linked Gay Times article put it—“18 animals you didn’t know were biologically trans.”

“These animals show that gender is not a simplistic binary, male and female,” Tatchell gushed. “Trans and intersex are real. Get used to it!”]

Indeed, the article that Tatchell cited goes further, denouncing the very idea of “biology” as a “pseudo-intellectual” fixation of “lesbian separatists” and “right-wing lobbyists.” The author, one Fran Tirado, warns that even mentioning terms such as “biological sex,” “biological male,” and “biological female” is a problematic affront to the supposedly non-binary, gender-bending nature of life—which, the author claims, has been in evidence since “the earliest recorded histories of the earth.”

Then comes the promised 18-point catalogue of “animals you didn’t know were biologically trans”—starting with the above-pictured clownfish (often described by scientists as anemonefish).

Hilton and Kay then run through the list, which I won’t repeat here. I’ll just say that none of the examples show that there are more than two sexes, though individuals of some species can embody both sexes in a single individual, like slugs (a ” simultaneous hermaphrodite”), or, like clownfish, can switch over time from one biological sex to another (“sequential hermaphrodites”). But that is a switch from one biological sex to another, something not seen in mammals, and of course not seen in humans (transgender people do not change biological sex, but switch from one gender identity to another).

That leaves us with the so-called “trans” animals, most of which don’t really change sex. Tatchell needs to bone up on his biology.  Here I list some of the biological phenomena cited by Tatchell

• Real changes of sex (sequential hermaphrodites like clownfish, jellyfish, oysters, sea bass, sea snails).  That constitutes five species in his list.
• Simultaneous hermaphrodites (banana slug): individuals can produce both sperm and eggs. There are a fair number of animals that do this, but no mammals and only a few fish (e.g., some gobies and serranid sea bass) There are no simultaneous or sequential hermaphrodites known in mammals or birds.
• Rare cases in which a single individual is known to have swapped testes for ovaries or vice versa (Boyd’s forest dragon, mandarin duck). These are rare exceptions to species in which there are two biological sexes that do not change.) They are developmental anomalies.
• Parthenogenesis: species in which females can produce offspring without her eggs being fertilized (e.g., some Komodo dragons). Some animal species in which females can do this also have males (sometimes copulation is required to produce eggs, but there’s no fertilization). But all of these species are either completely female or have both males and females. They do not violate the sex binary
• Species in which males look different from females (“sexual dimorphism”). The example Tatchell gives is a swallowtail butterfly. It doesn’t switch sex and there are only two sexes. Sexual dimorphism is widespread but doesn’t exemplify either changing sex or nonbinary sexes.
• Species in which males can behave like females to get copulations (the ruff, a bird) or avoid predation (e.g., marsh harriers, a bird).  Again, it’s just a sneaky behavior; there is no sex-switching and all individuals are either male or female
• Species in which males can get “pregnant”, like seahorses. Females stick their eggs into a the pouch of a male who fertilizes them and releases the newly-hatched seahorses. This is a reversal of sex roles, but not of sex: males still produce sperm and females eggs, and there is no changing of biological sex.
• Hyenas (yawn). Females have long penis-like clitorises through which they give birth. There is no change of sex and individuals are either male or female. It baffles me why these animals are considered either “trans” or “nonbinary”
• Gynandromorphs: individuals that, through a developmental accident, are part male and part female. Often the animal is split right down the middle with one half being one sex and the other being the other. I’ve seen them in fruit flies, and they are not all that rare in birds (see a gynandromorph cardinal here). These animals are developmental anomalies, not part of the regular constitution of a species, and most are sterile though some can be fertile.

So yes, some animals can switch sex, though none of those are birds are mammals. Those might be considered “trans” animals, but hardly (and shouldn’t) justify the existence of trans humans, which don’t change biological sex but gender identity.  And none of the species proffered by Tatchell show that there is a spectrum of sex.  As Hilton and Kay conclude:

Do some creatures change sex? Absolutely. But this isn’t new information. It’s a fact that biologists have known about for a long time.

What is also well-known is that none of these sex-changing creatures are mammals, much less human. Rather, they’re insects, fish, lizards, and marine invertebrates whose biology is different from our own in countless (fascinating) ways.

What’s more, in every single case described above, there are always (at most) just two distinct sexes at play—no matter how those two sexes may switch or combine. One of those sexes is male, a sex associated with gonads that produce sperm (testes); and the other is female, with gonads that produce eggs (ovaries). There’s nothing else on the menu. It’s just M and F.

Yes, there’s a “spectrum.” But it’s not the imaginary sex spectrum that activists such as Martin, Tatchell, and Tirado are trying to conjure. Rather, it’s the extraordinary spectrum of traits, behaviors, and evolutionary adaptations that all of these creatures exhibit as part of nature’s grand pageant.

I swear that people like Tatchell need to learn some biology. If I hear about sexual dimorphism, gynandromorphs, or hyena citorises again, I’m going to lose it.  And people really need to learn not to scan through species in nature to buttress what they see as moral or “right”. That way lies considerable danger, as I wrote in my Times Literary Supplement review of Joan Roughgarden’s Evolution’s Rainbow several decades ago:

But regardless of the truth of Darwin’s theory, should we consult nature to determine which of our behaviours are to be considered normal or moral? Homosexuality may indeed occur in species other than our own, but so do infanticide, robbery and extra-pair copulation.  If the gay cause is somehow boosted by parallels from nature, then so are the causes of child-killers, thieves and adulterers. And given the cultural milieu in which human sexuality and gender are expressed, how closely can we compare ourselves to other species? In what sense does a fish who changes sex resemble a transgendered person? The fish presumably experiences neither distressing feelings about inhabiting the wrong body, nor ostracism by other fish. In some baboons, the only males who show homosexual behaviour are those denied access to females by more dominant males. How can this possibly be equated to human homosexuality?

Up to 17 US states could be peppered with more than a trillion cicadas this spring, and though it has been a while since these two specific broods emerged at once, double broods are not that rare

The last total solar eclipse across the Mexico, the U.S. and Canada for a generation wows observers.

Did you see it? Last week’s total solar eclipse did not disappoint, as viewers from the Pacific coast of Mexico, across the U.S. from Texas to Maine and through the Canadian Maritime provinces were treated to an unforgettable show. The weather threw us all a curve-ball one week out, as favored sites in Texas and Mexico fought to see the event through broken clouds, while areas along the northeastern track from New Hampshire and Maine onward were actually treated to clear skies.

Many eclipse chasers scrambled to reposition themselves at the last minute as totality approached. In northern Maine, it was amusing to see tiny Houlton, Maine become the epicenter of all things eclipse-based.

Tales of a Total Solar Eclipse

We were also treated to some amazing images of the eclipse from Earth and space. NASA also had several efforts underway to chase the eclipse. Even now, we’re still processing the experience. It takes time (and patience!) for astro-photos to make their way through the workflow. Here are some of the best images we’ve seen from the path of totality:

Tony Dunn had an amazing experience, watching the eclipse from Mazatlan, Mexico. “When totality hit, it didn’t look real,” Dunn told Universe Today. “It looked staged, like a movie studio. the lighting is something that can’t be experienced outside a total solar eclipse.”

Totality on April 8th, with prominences. Credit: Tony Dunn.

Dunn also caught an amazing sight, as the shadow of the Moon moved across the low cloud cover:

#Eclipse2024 #Mazatlan The shadow of the Moon crosses the sky. pic.twitter.com/9FEf4TTK8r

— Tony Dunn (@tony873004) April 14, 2024

Black Hole Sun

Peter Forister caught the eclipse from central Indiana. “It was my second totality (after 2017 in South Carolina), so I knew what was coming,” Forister told Universe Today. “But it was still as incredible and beautiful as anything I’ve ever seen in nature. The Sun and Moon seemed huge in my view—a massive black hole (like someone took a hole punch to the sky) surrounded by white and blue flames streaking out. Plus, there was great visibility of the planets and a few stars. The memory has been playing over and over in my head since it happened—and it’s combined with feelings of awe and wonder at how beautiful our Universe and planet really are. The best kind of memory!”

Totality over Texas. Credit: Eliot Herman

Like many observers, Eliot Herman battled to see the eclipse through clouds. “As you know, we had really frustrating clouds,” Herman told Universe Today. “I shot a few photos (in) which you can see the eclipse embedded in the clouds and then uncovered to show the best part. For me it almost seemed like a cosmic mocking, showing me what a great eclipse it was, and lifting the veil only at the end of the eclipse to show me what I missed…”

Totality and solar prominences seen through clouds. Credit: Eliot Herman Totality Crosses Into Canada

Astrophotographer Andrew Symes also had a memorable view from Cornwall, Ontario. “While I’ve seen many beautiful photos and videos from many sources, they don’t match what those us there in person saw with our eyes,” Symes told Universe Today. “The sky around the Sun was not black but a deep, steely blue. The horizon was lighter–similar to what you’d see during a sunset or sunrise–but still very alien.”

“The eclipsed Sun looked, to me, like an incredibly advanced computer animation from the future! The Sun and corona were very crisp, and the Sun looked much larger in the sky than I’d expected. The eclipsed Sun had almost a three-dimensional quality… almost as if it were a dark, round button-like disk surrounded by a bright halo affixed to a deep blue/grey background. It was as if a ‘worm hole’ or black hole had somehow appeared in front of us. I’m sure my jaw dropped as it was truly a moment of utter amazement. I’m smiling as I type it now… and still awestruck as I recall it in my mind!”

An amazing eclipse. Credit: Andrew Symes. Success for the Total Solar Eclipse in Aroostook County Maine

We were met with success (and clear skies) watching the total solar eclipse with family from our hometown of Mapleton, Maine. We were mostly just visually watching this one, though we did manage to nab a brief video of the experience.

What I was unprepared for was the switch from partial phases to totality. It was abrupt as expected, but there almost seemed to be brief but perceptible pause from day to twilight, as the corona seemed to ‘switch on.’ We all agreed later on that the steely blue sky was not quite night… but not quite twilight, either.

The elusive diamond ring, seen from Wappappello Lake, Missouri on April 8th. Credit: Chris Becke

When’s the next one? I often wonder how many watchers during a given eclipse were ‘bitten by the bug,’ and looking to chase the next one. Spain is set to see an eclipse a year for the next three years, starting in 2026:

Spain is set to become ‘solar eclipse central’ in the coming years, with the next total solar eclipse crossing N. Spain on August 12, 2026, another total solar eclipse on August 2, 2027 crossing the Strait of Gibraltar, and a sunset annular solar eclipse on January 26, 2028. pic.twitter.com/acO4urNG45

— Dave Dickinson (@Astroguyz) April 12, 2024

Spain in August… be sure to stay cool and bring sunblock. Don’t miss the next total solar eclipse, and be thankful for our privileged vantage point in time and space.

The post Amazing Amateur Images of April 8th’s Total Solar Eclipse appeared first on Universe Today.

In the new Jesus and Mo strip, called “Whoa,” the barmaid compares modern-day versions of Christianity and Islam, and judges Islam as palpably worse for humanity. In that she agrees with Richard Dawkins, though not with those sophists who simply cannot admit that one religion can have more pernicious effects on the modern world than another.

The artists’s comment in the post: “It is worse.”

x

Ground-up concrete can remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere in a similar way to ground-up rocks, according to a field study in Ireland

UK MPs have just passed the Tobacco and Vapes Bill by a 383 to 67 vote. If the measure becomes law it will ban the sale of tobacco products to anyone born after January 1, 2009. This is not just an age limit – this is a permanent phased ban. If the law passes and stands, anyone born after that date will […]

The post UKs Phased Smoking Ban first appeared on Science-Based Medicine.

Universe Today has recently had the privilege of investigating a myriad of scientific disciplines, including impact craters, planetary surfaces, exoplanets, astrobiology, solar physics, comets, planetary atmospheres, planetary geophysics, cosmochemistry, meteorites, radio astronomy, and extremophiles, and how these multidisciplinary fields can help both scientists and space fans better understand how they relate to potentially finding life beyond Earth, along with other exciting facets. Here, we will examine the incredible field of organic chemistry with Dr. Andro Rios, who is an Assistant Professor in Organic Chemistry at San José State University, regarding why scientists study organic chemistry, the benefits and challenges, finding life beyond Earth, and potential paths for upcoming students. So, why is it so important to study organic chemistry?

“Organic chemistry is a fascinating and powerful discipline that is directly connected to nearly everything we interact with on a daily basis,” Dr. Rios tells Universe Today. “This can range from what gives our favorite foods the flavors we love, to the medicines we take to help alleviate our pain. Organic chemistry is also the basis of describing the known chemistry that makes up the biology on this planet (called biochemistry) and can possibly provide the clues to what extraterrestrial life might be based on as well, should we find evidence of it in the upcoming years.”

While its name implies a scientific field of complicated science, the field of organic chemistry essentially involves the study of organic compounds, also known as carbon-based life, which comprises all known lifeforms on the Earth. This involves studying the various properties, classifications, and reactions that comprise carbon-based life, which helps scientists understand their structural formulas and behaviors. This, in turn, enables overlap with other disciplines, including the aforementioned biochemistry, but also includes materials science, polymer chemistry, and medicinal chemistry, as well. Therefore, given its broad range of scientific potential, what are some of the benefits and challenges of studying organic chemistry?

“Organic chemistry has played a vital role in transforming the human experience on this planet by improving our health and longevity,” Dr. Rios tells Universe Today. “All of us, or nearly all of us, have known either family members, friends or even ourselves who have fallen severely ill or battled some chronic disease. The development of new medicines, both directly and indirectly through the tools of organic chemistry to fight these ailments has been one of the most beneficial contributions of this field to society.”

Dr. Rios continues, “Learning organic chemistry in the classroom often presents a challenge because it seems so different from the general chemistry courses that most students have learned to that point. The reason for this is because organic chemistry introduces new terminology, and its focus is heavily tied to the 3-dimensional structure and composition of molecules that is not considered in general chemistry courses. The good news is that organic chemistry provides the perfect bridge from general chemistry to biochemistry/molecular biology which also often focuses on the structures and shapes of molecules (biomolecules).”

The field of organic chemistry was unofficially born in 1807 by the Swedish chemist, Jöns Jacob Berzelius, after he coined the term when describing the origins of living, biological compounds discovered throughout nature. However, this theory was disproven in 1828 by the German scientist, Friedrich Wöhler, who discovered that organic matter could be created within a laboratory setting. It took another 33 years until the German chemist, Friedrich August Kekulé von Stradonitz, officially defined organic chemistry in 1861 as a subfield of chemistry involving carbon compounds. Fast forward more than 160 years later to the present day, and the applications of organic chemistry has expanded beyond the realm of the living and can be found in almost every scientific, industrial, commercial, and medical field throughout the world, including genetics, pharmaceuticals, food, and transportation.

As noted, the very basis of organic chemistry involves the study of carbon-based life, which is the primary characteristic of life on our small, blue world. The reason is because the structure of carbon can form millions of compounds due to their valence electrons that allow it to bond with other elements, specifically hydrogen and oxygen, but can also bond with phosphorus, nitrogen, and sulfur (commonly referred to as CHNOPS).

While carbon-based life is the most common form of life on Earth, the potential for silicon-based life has grabbed the attention of scientists throughout the world due to their similar bonding characteristics as carbon. However, certain attributes, including how it shares electrons (known as electropositivity), prevent it from being able to form lifelike attributes. Therefore, if carbon-based life is currently the primary characteristic of all life on Earth, what can organic chemistry teach us about finding life beyond Earth?

“Life on Earth is highly selective in its utility of organic compounds, both big and small, which is an outcome of biological evolution on this planet,” Dr. Rios tells Universe Today. “But over the years detailed studies on the properties (reactivity, function, preservation, etc) of these molecules and polymers have revealed to us that there is nothing inherently ‘special’ about those biochemicals compared to those that aren’t associated with life (called abiotic chemistry).”

Dr. Rios continues, “What we have learned, however, is that there are trends, or patterns in the selectivity of molecules used by life that might be helpful in informing us not only how life emerged on this planet, but in the search for life elsewhere. This suggests that when we go looking for life in other worlds, we shouldn’t necessarily expect to find the same biochemical make-up we see in our terrestrial biology. Rather, we should be keeping a lookout for any patterns or trends in the chemical make-up of alien environments that are distinct from what we might consider typical abiotic chemistry.”

As noted, the science of organic chemistry is responsible for myriad of applications throughout the world, which are accomplished through the creation of new compounds. One of the most well-known applications for organic chemistry is the pharmaceutical industry and the development of new drugs and treatments, including aspirin which is one of the most well-known drugs throughout the world. Additionally, organic chemistry is responsible for everyday products, including biofuels, biodegradable plastics, agriculture, and environmental purposes. Therefore, with the wide range of applications for organic chemistry, including the potential to find life beyond Earth, what is the most exciting aspect of organic chemistry that Dr. Rios has studied during his career?

“For me, it was when I was in graduate school when I made the realization that I could apply the knowledge and tools of organic chemistry that I was studying in the lab, to questions that were relevant to astrobiology,” Dr. Rios tells Universe Today. “I am particularly interested in questions surrounding prebiotic chemistry, chemical evolution and the origin of life. The primary area that captivates my interest within the origin of life field is metabolic chemistry —exploring the origins of metabolism. This field, known as protometabolic chemistry, has been gaining momentum in recent years. Our community has been uncovering that small prebiotic molecules have the ability, under a wide range of conditions, to initiate simple reaction networks that can lead to more complex molecules over time. These results are exciting because they are potentially helping us understand the origin of one of biology’s most complex processes.”

The individuals who study organic chemistry are aptly called organic chemists who spend time designing and creating new organic compounds for a variety of purposes. This frequently involves examining the myriad of structural drawings of organic compounds and learning how each one functions individually and adding or subtracting new elements to create new compounds. Like most scientific disciplines that Universe Today has examined throughout this series, organic chemistry is successful through the constant collaboration with other fields with the goal of gaining greater insight into life and the world around us, including beyond Earth. Therefore, what advice would Dr. Rios give to upcoming students who wish to pursue studying organic chemistry?

Dr. Rios tells Universe Today, “Organic chemistry is a discipline that fundamentally interacts with so many other fields of STEM; biology, medicine, synthetic biology, bioengineering, chemical engineering, ecology, etc. Taking the time to devote a portion of your education in learning the language of this discipline will be one of the most important intellectual investments you will make in your STEM related career.”

How will organic chemistry help us better understand our place in the cosmos in the coming years and decades? Only time will tell, and this is why we science!

As always, keep doing science & keep looking up!

The post Organic Chemistry: Why study it? What can it teach us about finding life beyond Earth? appeared first on Universe Today.

We know little about how embryonic development in animals evolved from single-celled ancestors, but simple organisms with a multicellular life stage offer intriguing clues

In an approach they call 'nanostitching,' engineers used carbon nanotubes to prevent cracking in multilayered composites. The advance could lead to next-generation airplanes and spacecraft.