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Category: evolution

Multiplexed ultrasound imaging of gene expression

Great paper from Mikhail Shapiro’s lab where Nyström et al. used directed evolution methods to create protein gas vesicles which respond to distinct acoustic pressures, allowing for ultrasound imaging in two ‘colors’! Of note, Mikhail Shapiro is involved in the extremely exciting Merge Labs, which was publicly announced recently. [ https://www.nature.com/articles/s41592-025-02825-w](https://www.nature.com/articles/s41592-025-02825-w)

Ultrasound imaging with acoustic reporter genes has been limited to a single ‘tone’, restricting the types of experiments that can be achieved. This work introduces two acoustic reporter genes that enable multiplexed imaging in vitro and in mice.

Tiny titans of recovery: Fossil burrows reveal resilient micro-ecosystem after global mass extinction

An international team of scientists from South Africa, Canada, France and the UK has uncovered fossil evidence of a tiny ecosystem that helped kick-start the recovery of Earth’s oceans after a global mass extinction.

The team, led by Dr. Claire Browning, an Honorary Research Associate at the University of Cape Town (UCT), found fossilized burrows and droppings left by creatures so small they lived between grains of sand, revealing an ancient community that probably played a critical role in reviving marine life after the end-Ordovician ice age and mass extinction event. The discovery is reshaping how scientists understand early marine resilience.

The findings are published in Nature Ecology & Evolution.

Ancient Type II supernova discovered from universe’s first billion years

Using the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), an international team of astronomers has discovered a new Type II supernova. The newly detected supernova, named SN Eos, exploded when the universe was only 1 billion years old. The finding was reported January 7 on the arXiv pre-print server.

Supernovae (SNe) are powerful and luminous stellar explosions. They are important for the scientific community as they offer essential clues into the evolution of stars and galaxies. In general, SNe are divided into two groups based on their atomic spectra: Type I (no hydrogen in their spectra) and Type II (showcasing hydrogen spectral lines).

Type II SNe are the result of rapid collapse and violent explosion of massive stars (with masses above 8.0 solar masses). Type II core-collapse supernovae (CC SNe), which can be brighter than the total emission of their host galaxies, allow astronomers to probe the final stages of stellar evolution, and studies of early-universe Type II CC SNe could be crucial to constrain early stellar evolution models.

New psychology research shows that hatred is not just intense anger

A new study suggests that anger and hatred are not merely different intensities of the same feeling but are distinct emotional systems with unique evolutionary functions. The study indicates that while anger motivates individuals to negotiate for better treatment, hatred drives them to neutralize or remove a threat. These findings were published in the journal Evolution and Human Behavior.

Scientists have long debated the relationship between anger and hatred. Some psychological models suggest hatred is simply a more intense or durable form of anger. Other perspectives argue they are qualitatively different.

The authors of the current study approached this debate through an adaptationist framework. This perspective views human emotions as evolved mechanisms designed to solve specific problems faced by our ancestors.

Dead galaxy spotted as black hole slowly starves it

Dr. Francesco D’Eugenio: “The galaxy looks like a calm, rotating disc. That tells us it didn’t suffer a major, disruptive merger with another galaxy.”

What were galaxies like in the early universe? This is what a recent study published in Nature Astronomy hopes to address as an international team of scientists investigated the formation and evolution of the first galaxies after the Big Bang. This study has the potential to help scientists better understand the conditions of the early universe and what this could mean for the development of life throughout the cosmos.

For the study, the researchers used a combination of data obtained from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) and the Atacama Large Millimeter Array (ALMA) located in Chile to examine “Pablo’s Galaxy” (officially designated as GS-10578) and is estimated to have existed approximately three billion years after the Big Bang. For context, the Big Bang is estimated to have occurred approximately 13.8 billion years ago. Using this data, the researchers discovered that Pablo’s Galaxy had a very short lifespan due to a lack of star formation from the galaxy’s black hole heated all of the cold gas, preventing new stars from forming.

Strange New Side of Viral Evolution Revealed on the International Space Station

Viruses that infect bacteria can still do their job in microgravity, but space changes the rules of the fight.

In a new experiment conducted aboard the International Space Station, scientists found that viruses which infect bacteria can still successfully infect E. coli under near-weightless microgravity conditions. While infection still occurred, the interaction between viruses and bacteria unfolded differently than it does on Earth. The research, led by Phil Huss of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, U.S.A., was published today (January 13th) in the open-access journal PLOS Biology.

A microscopic arms race in an unusual environment.

Scientists say evolution works differently than we thought

As species evolve, random genetic mutations arise. Some of these mutations become fixed, meaning they spread until every individual in a population carries the change. The Neutral Theory of Molecular Evolution argues that most mutations that reach this stage are neutral. Harmful mutations are quickly eliminated, while helpful ones are assumed to be extremely rare, explains evolutionary biologist Jianzhi Zhang.

Zhang and his colleagues set out to test whether this idea holds up when examined more closely. Their results pointed to a major problem. The researchers found that beneficial mutations occur far more often than the Neutral Theory allows. At the same time, they observed that the overall rate at which mutations become fixed in populations is much lower than would be expected if so many helpful mutations were taking hold.

Astronomers Witness ‘Missing Link’ in Planet Formation

“What’s so exciting is that we’re seeing a preview of what will become a very normal planetary system,” said Dr. John Livingston.

How are the most common types of planets made? This is what a recent study published in Nature hopes to address as a team of scientists investigated the intricate processes responsible for the most common types of exoplanets—super-Earths and sub-Neptunes—to form and evolve. This study has the potential to help scientists better understand not only planetary formation and evolution, but for solar systems, as our solar system doesn’t have super-Earths or sub-Neptunes.

For the study, the researchers conducted a multi-year examination of the V1298 Tau system, which is an approximately 20-million-year-old system located about 350 light-years from Earth and hosts four growing exoplanets orbiting in a tight formation, and each being between 5 to 10 Earth radii. Given the young age of the system, as our solar system is about 4.5 billion-years-old, the goal of the study was to predict the sizes of the four planets when they stop evolving.

In the end, the researchers ascertained that while the four young planets are between 5–10 Earth radii right now, they will end up being between 1–4.5 Earth radii when they are done forming. They note this is due to the rapid cooling they underwent after initial formation due to their small masses and large radii, resulting in their shrinking while losing their atmospheres, with one of the researchers calling this the “missing link” in understanding the formation of super-Earth and sub-Neptunes, which are the most common types of exoplanets.

Young galaxies grow up fast: Research reveals unexpected chemical maturity

Astronomers have captured the most detailed look yet at faraway galaxies at the peak of their youth, an active time when the adolescent galaxies were fervently producing new stars.

The observations focused on 18 galaxies located 12.5 billion light-years away. They were imaged across a range of wavelengths from ultraviolet to radio over the past eight years by a trio of telescopes: NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope; NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope (JWST); and ALMA (Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array) in Chile, of which the U.S. National Science Foundation National Radio Astronomy Observatory is a partner. Data from other ground-based telescopes were also used to make measurements, such as the total mass of stars in the galaxies.

“With this sample, we are uniquely poised to study galaxy evolution during a key epoch in the universe that has been hard to image until now,” says Andreas Faisst, a staff scientist at IPAC, a science and data center for astronomy at Caltech. “Thanks to these exceptional telescopes, we have spatially resolved these galaxies and can observe the stages of star formation as they were happening and their chemical properties when our universe was less than a billion years old.”

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