From the clown fish to leopards, skin colour patterns in animals arise from microscopic interactions among coloured cells that obey equations discovered by the mathematician Alan Turing. Today, researchers at the University of Geneva (UNIGE), Switzerland, and SIB Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics report in the journal Nature that a southwestern European lizard slowly acquires its intricate adult skin colour by changing the colour of individual skin scales using an esoteric computational system invented in 1948 by another mathematician: John von Neumann. The Swiss team shows that the 3D geometry of the lizard's skin scales causes the Turing mechanism to transform into the von Neumann computing system, allowing biology-driven research to link, for the first time, the work of these two mathematical giants. A multidisciplinary team of biologists, physicists and computer scientists lead by Michel Milinkovitch, professor at the Department of Genetics and Evolution of the UNIGE Faculty of Science, Switzerland and Group Leader at the SIB Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics, realised that the brown juvenile ocellated lizard (Timon lepidus) gradually transforms its skin colour as it ages to reach an intricate adult labyrinthine pattern where each scale is either green or black. This observation is at odd with the mechanism, … Continue reading →

The idea of sleep is supposed to evoke feelings of peace, relaxation and refreshment, but when expert Mary Carskadon talks about teen sleep in school districts with early start times, she uses far less comfortable words. "Social policy clashes with what we see from the biology," said Carskadon, a professor of psychiatry and human behavior at the Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University. "For teens, when they have not gotten enough sleep and they have to get up too early, they are crushed in the morning." Over decades of study, Carskadon has shown that two systems that regulate sleep, circadian rhythms and sleep pressure, both change as children grow up. While they still need the same amount of sleep throughout childhood -- ideally 9 to 10 hours -- older kids naturally become inclined to go to sleep later (as their circadian rhythms skew later). That means they become biologically predisposed to sleep later, too, to fully relieve that sleep pressure -- or biological need to sleep. Yet society frequently requires that they wake early. "They are incredibly sleepy from the sleep pressure, but also they have to be at school at a time when their circadian system wants them … Continue reading →

CORPUS CHRISTI - Manuel Andres Soto is proud of his heritage. The Texas A&M University-Kingsville associate professor of biology will spoke openly about the care and loving he received from his parents and extended family and bragged about his upbringing as a tool that helped shape his destiny. Soto, called Andy, is also not afraid to brag about his humble beginnings in a South Texas Colonia in the farming community of Edroy, Texas, about 40 miles from Corpus Christi heading north on I-37. A Colonia is a community that lacks some of the most basic living necessities such as potable water and sewer systems, electricity, paved roads and safe and sanitary housing, Soto explains. But, he wasnt poor. The riches he received in that Colonia allowed him to earn bachelors and masters degrees in biology from Texas A&M University-Kingsville and later a doctorate from Gulf Coast Research Laboratory at the University of Southern Mississippi. Now, Soto tells all about his experiences in a new book titled simply, Life in a South Texas Colonia. The book also features Sotos original art depicting his experiences in the Colonia. Soto explained his book and art work at a reading and book-signing event at … Continue reading →