Search results for author:(John Hewitt)

Cell & Microbiology Feb 11, 2015

Temperature dependence and the thermal limits of embryogenesis

(Phys.org)—Raising the temperature is one easy way to get chemical reactions to speed up. This temperature dependence can be accurately described by a simple exponential relation known as the Arrhenius equation. A commonly ...

General Physics Jan 20, 2015

Sonic booms in nerves and lipid membranes

(Phys.org)—Neurons might not be able to send signals as fast as electrons in wires or photons in fiber, but what if they can communicate using miniature sonic booms? That would be quite a revolutionary discovery. A group ...

Cell & Microbiology Dec 17, 2014

Origin of the Eukaryotic cell: Part II - Cytoskeleton, membranes, and beyond

(Phys.org) —In Part I of our review of the new book "The Origin and Evolution of the Eukaryotic Cell" we talked about the acquisition of endosymbionts by cells. While there we focused on some of the genetic issues involved ...

Cell & Microbiology Dec 4, 2014

Origin of the Eukaryotic cell: Part I - How to train your endosymbiont

(Phys.org)—"The origin and evolution of eukaryotes" is a tale that has yet to be told. At this point in time, it exists only as the title of a fascinating new compendium that has just been produced by the Cold Spring Harbor ...

Biochemistry Oct 1, 2014

The origins of handedness in life

Handedness is a complicated business. To simply say life is left-handed doesn't even begin to capture the blooming hierarchy of binary refinements it continues to evolve. Over the years there have been numerous imaginative ...

Cell & Microbiology Sep 25, 2014

The ultimate biofilament: Hagfish slime

(Phys.org) —Perhaps the worst fate to be had in the sea is to be slimed by the hagfish. The proteinaceous goo they secrete has gotten many a hagfish out of bind by gumming up the gills and suffocating a would be attacker. ...

General Physics Aug 11, 2014

Electron spin changes as a general mechanism for general anesthesia?

(Phys.org) —How does consciousness work? Few questions if any could be more profound. One thing we do know about it, jokes biophysicist Luca Turin, is that it is soluble in chloroform. When you put the brain into chloroform, ...

General Physics Jul 21, 2014

Fiber optic light pipes in the retina do much more than simple image transfer

(Phys.org) —Having the photoreceptors at the back of the retina is not a design constraint, it is a design feature. The idea that the vertebrate eye, like a traditional front-illuminated camera, might have been improved ...

Cell & Microbiology Jul 7, 2014

Nucleoids and the structure of life

(Phys.org) —In the brave new world of three-parent embryos several inherited mitochondrial diseases can potentially be solved. One slightly dubious argument used by its champions to assuage equally dubious traditional ethical ...

General Physics Jun 20, 2014

Solitary acoustic waves observed to propagate at a lipid membrane interface

(Phys.org) —Defining the essential character of the action potential of neurons has proven to be an elusive task. As typically happens, the biggest advances seem to have been made early on. In this case it was Hodgkin and ...

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