A study in Nature shows that the single-celled form of a tiny, aquatic organism can turn into a multicellular version by three different routes. The discovery adds insight to the possible origins of multicellular life, suggesting a previously unrecognized degree of flexibility. 🧪
This is figure 2, which shows non-bilaterian metazoans, deuterostomes and problematic taxa from the Huayuan biota.
A paper in Nature describes a collection of soft‑bodied fossils discovered in a quarry in China, dating to around 512 million years ago. The Huayuan biota contains 153 animal species from 16 major groups, of which 59% are previously undiscovered species. go.nature.com/49KUOdw #Paleosky 🧪
Manual reconstruction of 658 neuronal structures, revealing their complex shapes and interwoven arrangement. © Tavakoli, Lyudchik et al./Nature
LICONN, an optical imaging technique for brain tissue developed by ISTA scientists in collaboration with Google Research, has been recognized by @nature.com as one of the seven technologies to make a splash in 2026!
Read more: https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-026-00188-6
🔬 New paper in Developmental Biology 🐟
Our researchers have now tested a largely ignored hypothesis—that the geometry of an embryo drives its development. Read more in the 🧵below.
📷 Zebrafish in ISTA’s Aquatic Facility.
ISTA Assistant Professor Lora Sweeney becomes an @embo.org Young Investigator! Using Xenopus frog as a model organism, her research focuses on molecular, cellular, and neural circuit components that cause differences in motor behavior. Congratulations, Lora!👏
i'm sure this is a very serious article or whatever, but...girl, your cells!
this is cool & would def make sense given how extant megafauna (elephants) shape habitats. But how is this dino-based influence disentangled from the rest of the K-T mass extinction? Obv much more than just large dinos disappeared. Were such changes *not* seen in areas w/o large dinos?
not the indie girl voice "GLAAAAISS DOEME" omg
