Sublime

One of Dr Wallin’s most profound discoveries was in respect of mitochondria, which are organelles that are present within most cells of animals, the main exception being red blood cells. Dr Wallin discovered that mitochondria are bacterial in origin and that, “…mitochondria are living organisms, symbiotically combined within the cells of animals.”

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But chimpanzee leaders, like human power brokers, eventually grow old and weak. In their younger days when a potential rival showed up to challenge them, they reared back on their hind legs and made a dramatic show of brawn and agility. But when strength and swiftness fade, the aging leaders use another tactic. Like my dog, they pretend they do not

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Arlan Richardson and Holly Van Remmen spent about a decade at the University of Texas at San Antonio testing if increasing free-radical damage or mutations in mice led to aging; it didn’t.16 In my lab and others, it has proven surprisingly simple to restore the function of mitochondria in old mice, indicating that a large part of aging is not due t... See more

The strongest argument for gene editing cane toads, house mice, and ship rats is also the simplest: what’s the alternative? Rejecting such technologies as unnatural isn’t going to bring nature back. The choice is not between what was and what is, but between what is and what will be, which, often enough, is nothing. This is the situation of the Dev

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In clever vertebrates, such as mammals and birds, it is thought that a corpse represents a real cognitive challenge: the dead body looks like a member of your species, even an individual you know well, but it does not react. It should be alive and moving, and yet it is still, inert. The conflicting stimuli provoke strong emotional responses, and th

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Think about this. Humans, being conditioned to blink their eyes, and marine sea slugs, conditioned to withdraw their gills, haven’t shared a common ancestor for more than half a billion years. And here we are, with their neurons and ours using the same intracellular machinery for changing in response to experience. You and an Aplysia could trade yo

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