May 24: How to live forever, and more...
Apart from their rich vocal palette, chimpanzees drum on trees to communicate over long distances. A new interdisciplinary study, led in part by PhD student Vesta Eleuteri and primatologist Cat Hobaiter from the University of St. Andrews, investigated the rhythms they used and found that different populations drum with rhythms similar to the beats in human music. The research was published in the journal Current Biology.
The Archaeopteryx, a 150-million-year-old bird-like dinosaur, is known from about a dozen fossils found in Germany. A new one recently studied at Chicago's Field Museum may be the best preserved yet. It's giving researchers, like paleontologist Jingmai O'Connor, new insights into how the ancient animal moved around the Jurassic landscape. The research was published in the journal Nature.
Inspired by the structure of bone, researchers have created limestone-like biomineralized construction materials using a fungal-scaffold that they seeded with bacteria. Montana State University's Chelsea Heveran said they demonstrated they could mould it into specific shapes with internal properties similar to bone, and that it remained alive for a month. It's early days yet, but she envisions a day when they can grow living structural material on site that may even be able to heal themselves. The study is in the journal Cell Reports Physical Science.
Scientists have created a clever combination of physical sensors and computer technology to produce a flexible Band-Aid-like device that can accurately read emotions when it is stuck to the face. It's not quite mind reading, but it could give physicians better insight into the emotional state of their patients. Huanyu Cheng of Penn State led the work, which was published in the journal Nano Letters.
Do you want to live forever? As he noticed himself showing signs of aging, immunologist John Tregoning decided to find out what he could do to make that possible. So he explored the investigations that scientists are doing into why we age and die — and tried a few experiments on himself. Bob speaks with him about his new book, Live Forever? A Curious Scientists' Guide to Wellness, Ageing and Death.
Tregoning dutifully documents everything he discovers as he undergoes testing for his heart, gets his genes sequenced, has a bronchoscopy, and follows an extreme diet, among other experiments. But he comes to the conclusion that "when it comes to improving life outcomes, exercise considerably trumps nearly everything I am planning to do whilst writing this book."
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CTV News
13 hours ago
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First evidence of ‘living towers' made of worms discovered in nature
A 10-millimetre (0.4-inch) nematode tower twists and folds as the mass of worms reaches for the lid of its petri dish. (Perez et al. 2025/Current Biology via CNN Newsource) Nature seems to offer an escape from the hustle and bustle of city life, but the world at your feet may tell another story. Even in the shade of a fruit tree, you could be surrounded by tiny skyscrapers — not made of steel or concrete, but of microscopic worms wriggling and writhing into the shape of long, vertical towers. Even though these miniature architects, called nematodes, are found all over Earth's surface, scientists in Germany recently witnessed their impressive building techniques in nature for the first time. After months of closely inspecting rotten pears and apples in local orchards, researchers from the Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior and the University of Konstanz were able to spot hundreds of the 1-millimetre-long (0.04-inch) worms climbing onto one another, amassing structures up to 10 times their individual size. To learn more about the mysterious physics of the soft, slimy towers, the study team brought samples of nematodes called Caenorhabditis elegans into a lab and analyzed them. There, the scientists noticed the worms could assemble in a matter of hours, with some reaching out from the twisting mass as exploratory 'arms' sensing the environment and building accordingly. But why the worms formed the structures wasn't immediately clear. The team's findings, published Thursday in the journal Current Biology, show that even the smallest animals can prompt big questions about the evolutionary purpose of social behaviours. 'What we got was more than just some worms standing on top of each other,' said senior study author Serena Ding, a Max Planck research group leader of genes and behaviour. 'It's a coordinated superorganism, acting and moving as a whole.' Living towers: A closer look To find out what was motivating the nematodes' building behaviour, the study team tested the worms' reactions to being poked, prodded and even visited by a fly — all while stacked in a tower formation. 'We saw that they are very reactive to the presence of a stimulus,' said the study's first author, Daniela Perez, who is a postdoctoral researcher at the Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior. 'They sense it, and then the tower goes towards this stimulus, attaching itself to our metal pick or a fly buzzing around.' This coordinated reaction suggests the hungry nematodes may be joining together to easily hitch a ride on larger animals such as insects that transport them to (not so) greener pastures with more rotten fruit to feast on, Perez said. 'If you think about it, an animal that is 1 millimetre long cannot just crawl all the way to the next fruit 2 metres (6.6 feet) away. It could easily die on the way there, or be eaten by a predator,' Perez explained. Nematodes are capable of hitchhiking solo too, she added, but arriving to a new area in a group may allow them to continue reproducing. The structures themselves may also serve as a mode of transport, as evidenced by how some worms formed bridges across gaps within the petri dishes to get from one surface to another, Perez noted. 'This discovery is really exciting,' said Orit Peleg, an associate professor of computer science who studies living systems at the University of Colorado Boulder's BioFrontiers Institute. 'It's both establishing the ecological function of creating a tower, and it really opens up the door to do more controlled experimentation to try to understand the perceptual world of these organisms, and how they communicate within a large group.' Peleg was not involved in the study. The unknowns in stacks of worms As the next step, Perez said her team would like to learn whether the formation of these structures is a cooperative or competitive behaviour. In other words, are the towering nematodes behaving socially to help each other out, or are their towers more akin to a Black Friday sale stampede? Studying the behaviours of other self-assembling creatures could offer clues to the social norms of nematodes and help answer this question, Ding said. Ryan Greenway Study coauthor Ryan Greenway, a technical assistant at Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior in Germany, sets up a field microscope that could record videos of the natural worm towers. 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Additionally, socially co-operative creatures tend to use some form of communication, Peleg said. In the case of ants, it may be their pheromone trails, while honeybees rely on their ritual dance routines and slime molds use their pulsing chemical signals. With nematodes, however, it's still not clear how they might communicate — or if they are communicating at all, Ding said. 'The next steps for (the team) are really just choosing the next questions to ask.' Notably, there has been a lot of interest in studying cooperative animal behaviours among the robotics community, Hu said. It's possible that one day, he added, information about the complex sociality of creatures like nematodes could be used to inform how technology, such as computer servers or drone systems, communicates. By Kameryn Griesser, CNN
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The expanding applications of HCS in personalized medicine, oncology research, and cell- based assays contribute to market growth. Furthermore, government funding for cell-based research and the rising prevalence of chronic diseases are increasing the adoption of HCS technologies across various research fields. Key segments positively impacting the market include high-content imaging platforms, which dominate due to their critical role in drug discovery and cellular research. Among applications, drug discovery and development lead the market, with pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies being the largest end users due to their extensive R&D investments. The rising adoption of toxicology screening and target identification further supports market growth. Browse in-depth TOC on " High Content Screening Market" 363 - Tables 31 - Figures 358 - Pages By Based on cell detection and analysis system segment, the market is segmented by instrument into high content imaging platforms, cell detection and analysis systems, and cell imaging systems. The high content imaging platforms segment dominated the market in 2024. High content imaging platforms hold a significant share in the market owing to their critical role in cellular analysis, drug discovery, and phenotypic screening. These platforms enable high-throughput imaging of live and fixed cells, providing detailed cellular morphology and functional insights necessary for drug screening, toxicity assessment, and disease modelling. By Based on Primary and Secondary screening, the application segment is divided into drug discovery & development applications, toxicology, and basic research. The drug discovery & development application segment is further divided into primary screening and secondary screening, target identification and validation, compound profiling, and other drug discovery & development applications. The rising focus on precision medicine, personalized therapies, and high-throughput screening applications has reinforced the demand for high content imaging systems in research and clinical settings. By Based on end user, the market is segmented into pharmaceutical & biotechnology companies, academic & government institutes, and CROs & CDMOs. pharmaceutical & biotechnology companies dominated the segment in 2024 and is anticipated to grow at the highest CAGR during the forecast period of 2025-2030. Dominance of the segment is attributable to increasing complexity of drug candidates, particularly in oncology, immunology, and neurological disorders, which has further boosted the demand for HCS in cellular imaging and phenotypic screening. Moreover, the growing trend of precision medicine and biologics development also contributes to the increased utilization of HCS technologies, which is supporting the segment growth in high content screening market. By geography, the high content screening market is segmented by region into North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Latin America, the Middle East, and Africa. North America dominated the market due to a strong presence of leading academic institutions and market players, substantial investments in biotechnology and pharmaceutical research, and advanced healthcare infrastructure. Asia-Pacific (APAC) is witnessing rapid growth, due to the rising prevalence of chronic diseases, increasing healthcare investments, and expanding research capabilities. Countries like China, India, and Japan are experiencing substantial advancements in biotechnology and drug discovery, supporting to the growing demand for high content screening technologies. Request Sample Pages: The prominent players operating in the high content screening market are Danaher Corporation (US), Revvity, Inc. (US), BD (US), Carl Zeiss AG (Germany), Merck KGaA (Germany), and Thermo Fisher Scientific, Inc. (US), among others. Danaher (US) is one of the leading players in the high content screening market. The company has a presence in more than 60 countries and offers a diversified product portfolio of instruments and software in the high content screening market. Danaher strongly focuses on organic and inorganic growth strategies to maintain a dominant position in the market. The company operates in the market through Beckman Coulter, Molecular Devices, and Integrated DNA Technologies, among others. Danaher's robust global distribution network and dedicated customer support help the company to maintain its dominant position in the market. Revvity, Inc. (US) is one of the dominant players in the high content screening market. The company has a global presence in more than 150 countries and has diversified products for the high content screening market. The company's product offerings include instruments, software, and consumables such as automated cell counter, flow cytometer, microscope, cell imaging systems, and microplate readers. A robust global distribution network and customer-centric approach ensure Revvity serves diverse sectors, including academia, biotechnology, and pharmaceuticals. For more information, Inquire Now!
