For most of scientific history, light was viewed primarily as a source of energy. Plants used it to power photosynthesis, animals used it for vision, and sunlight warmed the Earth. Modern biology has revealed that light is one of nature's richest information systems—connected to all other biological information systems. Every day, every organism on Earth continuously reads an enormous vocabulary carried by photons. From bacteria living deep in the oceans to giant sequoias, fu

The most fundamental distinction between life and non-life on Earth is not metabolism, reproduction, or even DNA—it is the capacity to harvest, transform, and respond to light energy. Every living system depends, directly or indirectly, on the ability of certain molecules to absorb photons and undergo electronic transitions that enable chemistry otherwise forbidden by ordinary energy. Light is life's most versatile form of information, regulation, and chemical power. At the m

For more than a century, biology has largely viewed cellular communication as a chemical process. This chemical view has been very helpful in describing a large number of cellular signaling pathways. However, modern cell biology increasingly reveals a deeper reality. Cells are not simply bags of chemicals. They are highly organized information-processing systems operating across many scales simultaneously. Within every cell, billions of molecules continuously exchange infor

With each mental event, dramatic structural changes occur inside large numbers of neurons, outside of neurons in the extracellular space, at the synapses between neurons and in glial brain cells. Remarkably, these molecular changes occur instantaneously all over the brain in specific circuits using many different mechanisms (some have been described in previous posts). For each different momentary event, the same neuron can be used in completely different circuits. Signals in

A thought ……. Suddenly, new synapses Learning a fact ……. Suddenly, a new brain cell in the hippocampus…. … Axons are built, axons are pruned. How does the brain know how to do this? How does neuroplasticity work? Learning stimulates new brain cells. Mental events instantly affect changes in dendrites and synapses. The brain noticeably changes shape with attention, meditation, exercise, diet, and habits of life.The active brain does much more. It changes its function when it

Only a very small percentage of the world’s microbes have been discovered, and even less of the much more plentiful and diverse viruses. So, it is not surprising that many dramatic new viruses have recently been found that alter our understanding of evolution. The giant Pandora viruses and many new unique ocean phages have brought forth questions about the validity of the current three-limbed diagram of the tree of life (archaea, bacteria, eukarya). With viruses and virus lik

Current science has no explanation for subjective experience. There isn’t even an adequate definition of consciousness. Recent research continues many approaches in attempts to find a brain region that is correlated with basic awareness or consciousness. In order to proceed without definitions, study attempts to find simple awareness without specific content. But, recent findings show that for most mental events, almost the entire brain is part of wide circuits signaling in m