A team of leading scientists says that advances in artificial intelligence and masses of experimental data have put a virtual cell within reach. But getting there will take a global collaboration like never before.

Scientists have today announced the discovery of a species of lipstick vine completely new to science, from the depths of the Philippine rainforest. The findings have been published today in the Nordic Journal of Botany.

The team of botanists, from Oxford University and the University of the Philippines Los Baños, made the discovery during an expedition to the remote Barangay Balbalasang rainforest on the island of Luzon in 2022. This almost impenetrable wilderness takes days to reach and has to be hacked through by a machete. The team stayed with the Banao Tribe, an indigenous community who protect their local forest.

Researchers at Nagoya University in Japan have uncovered in anglerfish a specialized motor neuron population for the first dorsal fin used for “fishing”. When the first dorsal fin evolved from a swimming and buoyancy aid to a hunting tool, the motor neurons shifted their position in the central nervous system. The findings have implications for understanding the potential of evolutionary processes of vertebrates, including humans.

An Osaka Metropolitan University-led team analyzed the amino acids that affect the formation of spores in a bacterium that causes food poisoning, Clostridium perfringens, and identified serine as an amino acid that inhibits spore formation.

In a study recently published in the journal Nano Letters, published by American Chemical Society, researchers from Nano Life Science Institute (WPI-NanoLSI), Kanazawa University, Kanazawa, Japan, used frequency-modulated atomic force microscopy to reveal the submolecular structure of microtubule (MT) inner surface and visualize structural defects in the MT lattice, providing valuable insights into the complex dynamic processes that regulate microtubule function.