<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?><rss xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/" xmlns:content="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/content/" xmlns:atom="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom" version="2.0"><channel><title><![CDATA[Searching For Mind]]></title><description><![CDATA[A scientific exploration of mind at all scales of the universe]]></description><link>https://www.searchingformind.com/blog</link><generator>RSS for Node</generator><lastBuildDate>Mon, 27 Jul 2026 17:36:18 GMT</lastBuildDate><atom:link href="https://www.searchingformind.com/ru/blog-feed.xml" rel="self" type="application/rss+xml"/><item><title><![CDATA[mTOR’s Emergence as the Master Cellular Regulator ]]></title><description><![CDATA[Increasing Intelligence of mTOR: From a Primitive Survival Kinase to the Master Integrator of Complex Life The story of mTOR shows that biology builds increasingly intelligent molecules not by inventing entirely new molecules, but by continuously expanding the information-processing abilities of existing ones. Today, mTOR (mechanistic Target of Rapamycin) is near the top of the regulatory hierarchy of virtually every human cell. It decides whether cells should grow or shrink, divide or remain...]]></description><link>https://www.searchingformind.com/post/mtor-s-emergence-as-the-master-cellular-regulator</link><guid isPermaLink="false">6a6662cb35380d3132b5d08f</guid><category><![CDATA[Molecules]]></category><pubDate>Sun, 26 Jul 2026 19:50:28 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/daf835_0a29b848c8324867bc6bf08e8bc3b8fe~mv2.png/v1/fit/w_1000,h_1000,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>jonlieff</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[The Dance of Adenosine, AMP, ATP, and RNA]]></title><description><![CDATA[Adenosine is in perpetual motion. The aromatic adenine ring continually redistributes its electrons, creating changing electrostatic landscapes that influence how it interacts with neighboring molecules. The ribose sugar flexes between slightly different conformations, altering the molecule's three-dimensional geometry. The bond connecting the base to the sugar rotates, allowing adenosine to present different molecular surfaces to enzymes, receptors, and RNA. Around it, layers of water...]]></description><link>https://www.searchingformind.com/post/the-dance-of-adenosine-amp-atp-and-rna</link><guid isPermaLink="false">6a65201535380d3132b26e0d</guid><category><![CDATA[Molecules]]></category><pubDate>Sat, 25 Jul 2026 21:13:52 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/daf835_8f9db23efeee4479b3b286f4f811d083~mv2.png/v1/fit/w_1000,h_1000,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>jonlieff</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[Infectious RNA Dancing Structures: Highly Concentrated Biological Information]]></title><description><![CDATA[RNA is a structural molecule whose three-dimensional architecture stores biological information, interacts with cellular proteins, catalyzes chemical reactions, and coordinates an infectious life cycle. It carries out these actions through precise three-dimensional structures capable of recognizing and binding other molecules with high specificity. What is less widely appreciated is that RNA achieves this wide range of interactions not despite its constant movement, but because of it — a...]]></description><link>https://www.searchingformind.com/post/infectious-rna-dancing-structures-highly-concentrated-biological-information</link><guid isPermaLink="false">6a6277e1424f5a9980a5c819</guid><category><![CDATA[Viruses]]></category><pubDate>Thu, 23 Jul 2026 20:41:08 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/daf835_47c9a654c2734ea5b11eef32f4d3f8ef~mv2.png/v1/fit/w_1000,h_1000,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>jonlieff</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[The Language of Light]]></title><description><![CDATA[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, fungi, insects,...]]></description><link>https://www.searchingformind.com/post/the-language-of-light</link><guid isPermaLink="false">6a60f7213775830b10c7a36d</guid><category><![CDATA[Mysteries]]></category><pubDate>Wed, 22 Jul 2026 17:09:03 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/daf835_2a85e44d3492419f90bee5f8eaf6bcb6~mv2.png/v1/fit/w_1000,h_1000,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>jonlieff</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[Light As Biological Information]]></title><description><![CDATA[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 molecular level,...]]></description><link>https://www.searchingformind.com/post/light-as-biological-information</link><guid isPermaLink="false">6a5e80edfa1961e00432d5a5</guid><category><![CDATA[Mysteries]]></category><pubDate>Mon, 20 Jul 2026 20:30:15 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/daf835_e295df02f0f74a3794c1a615e3b5c1e3~mv2.png/v1/fit/w_1000,h_1000,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>jonlieff</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[A Strand of RNA with Only 250 Nucleotides Has a Complex Lifestyle ]]></title><description><![CDATA[A viroid is smaller than a virus. It is a strand of RNA with 246 to 467 nucleotides in length. It is single-stranded, with extensive self-bonding between bases and forms into a fluctuating rod-like or branched structure. It does not produce proteins, has no capsid or membrane, and hijacks cell enzymes to copy itself with a circular rolling mechanism.  Thus far, viroids are only found in plants. Also, they can contain ribozymes, which are RNA regions that are able to accurately cut an exact...]]></description><link>https://www.searchingformind.com/post/a-strand-of-rna-with-only-250-nucleotides-has-a-complex-lifestyle</link><guid isPermaLink="false">6a5d34d65e7d848635e51d57</guid><category><![CDATA[Viruses]]></category><pubDate>Sun, 19 Jul 2026 20:54:36 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/daf835_5aefb1be2b3949e28232503627b45326~mv2.png/v1/fit/w_1000,h_1000,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>jonlieff</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[What If Atoms Can Think…]]></title><description><![CDATA[If mind exists throughout all of nature, then how would it manifest in the realm of atoms? Would atoms have desires, goals, and plans?  What would be their behaviors and personalities?   Because their electronic structures are so different, each atom in living matter behaves in remarkably consistent, and different, ways. Therefore it is not difficult to describe them as having distinct personalities.  These personalities arise from the fundamental laws of quantum mechanics—the arrangement of...]]></description><link>https://www.searchingformind.com/post/what-if-atoms-can-think</link><guid isPermaLink="false">6a5bb0e5830cbda37bbf1aeb</guid><category><![CDATA[Molecules]]></category><pubDate>Sat, 18 Jul 2026 17:13:56 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/daf835_d2a640687ee6432a99257207bbabc33c~mv2.png/v1/fit/w_1000,h_1000,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>jonlieff</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[Complex Virus Communication]]></title><description><![CDATA[The first signals from bacteria communicating to fellow comrades were discovered in the 1960s.  It took 60 years of research to realize the intelligence of bacteria. The first virus signal was discovered in 2017 and in the nine years since then a vast amount of information has been discovered about virus communication. Much of the research has been in phage viruses––viruses that interact with and inhabit bacteria. It is clear now that phage viruses are not making decisions based on one or two...]]></description><link>https://www.searchingformind.com/post/complex-virus-communication</link><guid isPermaLink="false">6a57fb57f16fbd619a4b6bff</guid><category><![CDATA[Viruses]]></category><pubDate>Wed, 15 Jul 2026 21:36:36 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/daf835_aa268c3282744ea6828dd5607aa56019~mv2.png/v1/fit/w_1000,h_1000,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>jonlieff</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[Is This How Life Began?]]></title><description><![CDATA[Adenine––The First Intelligent Molecule Life did not begin with cells, organs, brains, or nervous systems. Some molecules possessed such extraordinary chemical and physical properties that they repeatedly became the foundation for increasingly complex intelligent biological systems. Among them, one molecule stands out above all others—adenine. Perhaps the reason adenine was the first truly intelligent molecule is the remarkable number of ways it can interact with its surroundings. Long before...]]></description><link>https://www.searchingformind.com/post/is-this-how-life-began</link><guid isPermaLink="false">6a4955ccf7b480551f10275d</guid><category><![CDATA[Molecules]]></category><pubDate>Sat, 04 Jul 2026 19:20:47 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/daf835_2c721999a58f47de9e55c841429cfc12~mv2.png/v1/fit/w_1000,h_1000,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>jonlieff</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[A Communication System for All Cells]]></title><description><![CDATA[In 1972, a British pharmacologist named Geoffrey Burnstock published a paper proposing that ATP is released from nerve terminals and acts as a neurotransmitter. The scientific establishment's response was a dismissal. The objections were that as the universal energy currency of all living cells, ATP was too ubiquitous to serve as a signal among neurons––it was everywhere, inside everything.   That skepticism delayed a medical revolution by two decades. Burnstock continued working, refining,...]]></description><link>https://www.searchingformind.com/post/a-communication-system-for-all-cells</link><guid isPermaLink="false">6a469461258f25aaabae50dd</guid><category><![CDATA[Humans]]></category><category><![CDATA[Human Cells]]></category><category><![CDATA[Molecules]]></category><pubDate>Thu, 02 Jul 2026 16:56:40 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/daf835_8ad03b5003a74a6bbda0e68e63113ae8~mv2.png/v1/fit/w_1000,h_1000,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>Jon Lieff</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[ATP and Adenosine—Fundamental Cellular Communication Signals]]></title><description><![CDATA[For more than a century, neuroscience has been built around a neuron-centered worldview. The heroes of this story are familiar neurotransmitters: dopamine, serotonin, norepinephrine, acetylcholine, glutamate, and GABA. Textbooks describe neurons communicating across synapses in brain circuits using these specialized chemical messengers. The vast ‘connectome’ network of axons and dendrites was believed to determine mental events. Neurons were viewed as the only true information-processing...]]></description><link>https://www.searchingformind.com/post/atp-and-adenosine-fundamental-cellular-communication-signals</link><guid isPermaLink="false">6a399d1e72415ea9e53b5406</guid><category><![CDATA[Humans]]></category><category><![CDATA[Human Cells]]></category><category><![CDATA[Molecules]]></category><pubDate>Mon, 22 Jun 2026 21:34:22 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/daf835_2eaa8b49b14a4646ba42f5ea5c9697e1~mv2.png/v1/fit/w_1000,h_1000,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>Jon Lieff</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[Are Cells Thinking in Light? ]]></title><description><![CDATA[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 information through a...]]></description><link>https://www.searchingformind.com/post/are-cells-thinking-in-light</link><guid isPermaLink="false">6a25bf9fbcf454bfefd92d08</guid><category><![CDATA[Human Cells]]></category><category><![CDATA[Molecules]]></category><category><![CDATA[Mysteries]]></category><pubDate>Sun, 07 Jun 2026 19:17:39 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/daf835_a960d58db9a24936a216649a18dec84f~mv2.png/v1/fit/w_1000,h_1000,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>Jon Lieff</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[Molecular Mind in Cellular Motors 7: The Society of Cell Motors and Tracks]]></title><description><![CDATA[When most people imagine a living cell, they picture a microscopic bag of organic materials. In fact, as described in prior posts, a cell is a vast, organized society whose members constantly communicate, cooperate, negotiate, compete, and adapt to changing conditions. At the center of this society lies a remarkable transportation system: an immense network of molecular tracks, scaffolds, motors, signaling complexes, organelles, and regulatory molecules that continuously exchange information...]]></description><link>https://www.searchingformind.com/post/molecular-mind-in-cellular-motors-7-the-society-of-cell-motors-and-tracks</link><guid isPermaLink="false">6a22f6693919feaaedf8e4e1</guid><category><![CDATA[Molecules]]></category><pubDate>Fri, 05 Jun 2026 18:46:46 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/daf835_4c95ecdefc134d9aba0aa342996f0a66~mv2.png/v1/fit/w_1000,h_1000,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>Jon Lieff</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[Molecular Mind in Cellular Motors 6: The Very Talented Dynein Motor]]></title><description><![CDATA[Dynein is a vastly more complex motor than kinesin. It walks along microtubules carrying vesicles, RNA granules, mitochondria, signaling complexes, and even large full chromosomes. It moves the entire cell nucleus during immune cell movement and manages the extraordinarily complex choreography of chromosome separation during cell division. It is a motor with awareness of what each situation requires.   Dynein is enormous. Including its essential additional dynactin complex, it has 21,000...]]></description><link>https://www.searchingformind.com/post/molecular-mind-in-cellular-motors-6-the-very-talented-dynein-motor</link><guid isPermaLink="false">6a18a3f5c2da9ec2684a7f73</guid><category><![CDATA[Molecules]]></category><pubDate>Thu, 28 May 2026 20:35:24 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/daf835_f02670a74acf485dbc8cfdc59905d56d~mv2.png/v1/fit/w_1000,h_1000,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>Jon Lieff</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[Molecular Mind and Cellular Motors 5: Kinesin Motors––Walking, Communicating Molecular Creatures]]></title><description><![CDATA[Kinesin is an individual cellular motor made of just four protein chains that senses, navigates, makes decisions, and walks with two feet, step by step like a human. It picks up a variety of cargo, such as vesicles, mitochondria, molecular complexes, or messenger RNA and walks, one deliberate step at a time, along a highway of protein cables toward a precise destination.   Walking upright on two legs is rare in nature—humans, ostriches, penguins, kangaroos, and a few others—each evolved this...]]></description><link>https://www.searchingformind.com/post/molecular-mind-and-cellular-motors-5-kinesin-motors-walking-communicating-molecular-creatures</link><guid isPermaLink="false">6a14a16cf3bc0136e51b8345</guid><category><![CDATA[Molecules]]></category><pubDate>Mon, 25 May 2026 20:51:16 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/daf835_8978b387a5464d2ca8ee8f4e691b756e~mv2.jpg/v1/fit/w_1000,h_1000,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>Jon Lieff</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[Molecular Mind in Cellular Motors 4: The City Inside the Cell––An Infrastructure that Thinks]]></title><description><![CDATA[Many of the cell’s most important functions occur through the actions of a huge, dynamic, complex scaffold that extends throughout the cell. It consists of tracks along which molecular motors walk and carry necessary cargo everywhere in the cell. This scaffold is not made like rigid, passive railroad tracks, but tracks that grow, shrink, and bend—precisely organized, but dynamic and instantly responsive. The tracks stretch from the cell's center outward like spokes, providing routes along...]]></description><link>https://www.searchingformind.com/post/molecular-mind-in-cellular-motors-4-the-city-inside-the-cell-an-infrastructure-that-thinks</link><guid isPermaLink="false">6a0a1cf1d7b330c99a63524b</guid><category><![CDATA[Molecules]]></category><pubDate>Sun, 17 May 2026 20:38:55 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/daf835_9241c5c1edd44331aec68de74179ffbc~mv2.webp/v1/fit/w_1000,h_559,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>Jon Lieff</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[Molecular Mind in Cellular Motors 3: Disordered Dancing Molecules Allow for Infinite Agility and Creativity ]]></title><description><![CDATA[Since DNA’s discovery, molecular biology had operated on reassuring assumptions: every protein folds into one precise, stable shape; shape determines its function; and shape is determined by a sequence of amino acids produced by a sequence of DNA letters. It was a clean idea. The holy grail of bioscience for decades was finding the shapes of proteins and the DNA codes that determine that shape. It is very difficult to determine the shapes of any protein from the sequence of amino acids and...]]></description><link>https://www.searchingformind.com/post/molecular-mind-in-cellular-motors-3-disordered-dancing-molecules-allow-for-infinite-agility-and-cre</link><guid isPermaLink="false">6a04f0952fe6e98eed483e3f</guid><category><![CDATA[Molecules]]></category><pubDate>Wed, 13 May 2026 22:19:00 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/daf835_73d17d38b9f648fdac86d5412aeedb89~mv2.png/v1/fit/w_960,h_295,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>Jon Lieff</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[Molecular Mind in Cellular Motors 2:  Water, The Universal, Dynamic, Non-covalent, Weak Bonds for all of Life’s Activity ]]></title><description><![CDATA[Water is the medium that makes life possible. Water is so ordinary that we rarely think of it as doing anything. But inside a living cell, water is not a passive background—it is an active participant in nearly every molecular event and every cellular structure. The water molecule has a peculiar geometry. One oxygen atom pulls so strongly on two hydrogen atoms that it ends up slightly negative, while the two hydrogens are left slightly positive, which results in four partial charges pointing...]]></description><link>https://www.searchingformind.com/post/molecular-mind-in-cellular-motors-2-water-the-universal-dynamic-non-covalent-weak-bonds-for-al</link><guid isPermaLink="false">6a00d4cbb1ac8cd94fa71c1f</guid><category><![CDATA[Molecules]]></category><pubDate>Sun, 10 May 2026 04:00:00 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/daf835_7e8119ecb85a4d168bebc428d44d26c5~mv2.jpg/v1/fit/w_841,h_726,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>Jon Lieff</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[Molecular Mind in Cellular Motors 1: Chemical Bonds for Agile, Ingenious, Perceptive, Resourceful Behavior.]]></title><description><![CDATA[Most people picture molecules as rigid, locked-together structures — like tiny pieces of stone. But the molecules inside every living cell are something far more remarkable: they hold together loosely and temporarily on purpose. The strongest molecular bonds—called covalent bonds—share electrons so firmly that breaking them requires a serious chemical event. These strong bonds produce the stable structures of large molecules like DNA, RNA, lipids, and proteins. When the DNA/RNA/Protein dogma...]]></description><link>https://www.searchingformind.com/post/molecular-mind-in-cellular-motors-1-chemical-bonds-for-agile-ingenious-perceptive-resourceful-be</link><guid isPermaLink="false">69fe49d64f7ebdc9f6ab0702</guid><category><![CDATA[Molecules]]></category><pubDate>Thu, 07 May 2026 04:00:00 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/36b122_e2503062ee474f729eea71d4d15d27fe~mv2.jpg/v1/fit/w_300,h_243,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>Jon Lieff</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[Do Rocks Have Minds under FMI?]]></title><description><![CDATA[The short answer is yes but not very complex minds.]]></description><link>https://www.searchingformind.com/post/do-rocks-have-minds</link><guid isPermaLink="false">69f0e699ff2e2005e9262691</guid><category><![CDATA[FMI]]></category><pubDate>Tue, 28 Apr 2026 17:10:10 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/nsplsh_32516a6b3250666148336f~mv2_d_5184_3456_s_4_2.jpg/v1/fit/w_1000,h_1000,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>Mike Rowen</dc:creator></item></channel></rss>