The fundamental carrier of life on Earth is a Cell. Cells are the structural and functional unit of all living organisms. The organisms range from single celled bacteria, to trillions of cells in large animals such as whales (humans consist of about 50 trillion cells, give or take a few billion ;)). Therefore, any new technique that enables us to understand how individual cells behave, or how they interact with their neighbors or the surroundings, has a lot of practical applications.
Now scientists at the University of Chicago and Argonne National Laboratory have constructed a computer simulation that allows them to study the relationship between biochemical fluctuations within a single cell and the cell's behavior as it interacts with other cells and its environment.

Simulation (Courtesy: University of Chicago)The simulation is called AgentCell. It is a model based on agents, which are semi-autonomous program modules that interact with other agents. For example, in a bacterial study, there will be hundreds of bacteria modeled, with each having it own chemotaxis network (phenomenon in which cells direct their movements according to certain chemicals in their environment), motors and flagella. If the cell behavior could be accurately modeled at the chemical level, then the aggregate network can be used to simulate large collections of cells, including bacterial swamps, diseases, and even population growths. Not surprisingly, this technique has possible applications in cancer research, drug development and combating bioterrorism.
A major goal in single-cell biology today is to document the connection between internal biochemical fluctuations and cellular behavior. AgentCell should be able to help in this research. It has already simulated some actual bacterial behavior: for example, In the bacteria E. Coli, one type of protein controlled the sensitivity of its chemotaxis system, which helps the bacteria find food. In the simulation, when the level of that protein was changed, it would change the sensitivity of the cell. The actual real-life cell behaved exactly in the same way:):).
The end goal of this research is focussed on solving problems involving bio-terrorism and disease spread. But another interesting by-product could be understanding how macro-processes (such as life) evolve from micro-processes (such as chemistry and fluid/energy transport systems):):).

Genes control the growth and development of our body. From the conception till death, the genes encode and regulate protein development, and also make sure that a eye grows in the eye socket and not a nose:)). There is considerable interest in the medical community about how the genes manage to make sure that the body develops as it does, since technically, all the cells in our body carry the same genetic material. It is the way the genes switch on and off that gives our body the final shape and form.

Fruit Fly compound eye, and its micrograph image (Courtesy: Wash. University)One interesting find is how physics influences the growth of organs. For example, the laws of physics combine with the mutual attraction of two proteins to create the honeycomb pattern of fruit fly eyes, say molecular biologists at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. This same combination of forces forms the delicate filtering structures of the mammalian kidney.
The findings are reported in the June issue of Developmental Cell, and provides a new understanding of how individual cells find their niche during organ developments. This means that the fruit fly eye can serve as a model for similar complex organs in higher animals.
Just as molecules of oil floating in water will gather together to exclude water molecules, cells with "sticky" molecules on their surface will gather together in clumps to exclude "non-sticky" cells during organ development. This property of cell adhesion has been previously proposed as a key to moving different cell types into the right positions as developing organs change from an immature, disorganized state to a mature, functional state.
Interestingly, the proteins that govern the growth of fruit fly eyes, are similar to those that contribute in the growth of mammalian kidneys! According to Professor Ross Cagan, The evolution of these similar proteins in two very distantly related groups of organisms and for these similar purposes suggests that the two systems, the developing kidney and the developing fly eye, used these proteins to solve the same problem—the problem of how to build intricate, fine-structured, tissues from a loose collection of cells:):).

Hominids are the members of the biological family Hominidae (the great apes), which includes the extant species of humans, chimpanzees, gorillas, and orangutans, as well as many extinct species. Very close members of the human subfamily, which would include Australopithecus (4.2 million years ago), Homo Habilis (2 - 1.5 million years ago), Home Erectus (1.2 - 0.5 million years ago) etc., are classified as Homininae.
Among these, the Homo Erectus lived in Asia and Europe, had a brain 74% as large as ours, and were on average 1.79m (5 feet, 10 inches) tall. Recent discoveries by a team of archaeologists indicate that the coast of the Caspian Sea in Mazandaran Province, Iran was home to the earliest such hominid habitation in that region:):).

Hominid skull (Courtesy: Wikipedia)Archaeologist Ali Mahforuzi said on Wednesday that 400,000-year-old stone tools discovered in the valleys of Shuresh near the Rostam Kola, Huto, and Kamarband caves are the oldest ever found in the area. Previous studies had indicated a human presence from about 50,000 years ago.
The studies were conducted by a joint team of archaeologists from the Mazandaran Cultural Heritage and Tourism Department and archaeologists from the Mazandaran National Museum. The stone tools that were discovered were firmly dated to about 400,000 years old by Professor Marcel Otte of the University of Liege in Belgium.
More studies are currently being planned and conducted to find more about these ancient people:).

The electronic revolution started with the invention of the Vacuum Tubes in the late 1800s. Soon, the inventions of Tesla, Marconi, Hertz and others, ushered in a revolution. Long distance communication through radio waves became a reality, and we were launched into the modern age. The pace of progress has only accelerated ever since, and with the invention of the (solid-state) transistor (semi-conductor based device which replaced the tube-based valves) by Shockley, Bardeen and Brattain around 1950, we step into the world of micro-electronics:):). Since then, the ubiquitous transistor has shrunk to a few microns inside a modern microprocessor chip.

Single Molecule Transistor (Courtesy: National Research Council, Canada)However, to keep pace with our insatiable requirements for faster and smaller processors, the size of the transistor must be reduced further. It seems that scientists from University of Liverpool may have finally achieved the ultimate goal: creation of a molecular transistor:):).
Dr. Werner Hofer, from the University's Surface Science Research Centre, is one of an international team of scientists who have created a prototype that demonstrates a single charged atom on a silicon surface can regulate the conductivity of a nearby molecule. Computers and other technology based on this concept would require much less energy to power, would produce much less heat, and run much faster.
The team tested the transistor potential of a molecule by using the electrostatic field emanating from a single atom to regulate the conductivity of a molecule, allowing an electric current to flow through the molecule.
Modern transistors are a few microns (1/1000th of a millimeter) in size. In contrast, the molecular transistor are a 1000 fold smaller (1/1000th of a micron), and if it is possible to integrate millions of such transistors on a chip, it should usher in a nano-electronic revolution. From Desktop, to Laptop, to Palmtop, we might have ThumbTop and PinheadTop computers in this century:D:D.

In physics, acceleration is defined as the rate of change of velocity (or speed). For example, if we drop a ball from our hand, it has an acceleration of about 9.81m/s² (also known as 1-g), which means it will have a speed of 9.81 m/s after the first second, 2x9.81=19.62 m/s after two seconds, and so on. We humans can endure accelerations of upto 5-10g.

Z Machine (Courtesy: LiveScience)Scientists at the Sandia National Labs in Albuquerque, New Mexico have accelerated a small plate from zero to 76,000 mph (34 km per second) in less than a second, which is equivalent to 10¹⁰g!! In contrast, the Earth travels at a speed of 30 km per second around the Sun. This is 50 times faster than the fastest bullet, and 10 times faster than the International Space Station:):).
The ultra-tiny aluminum plates are just 850 microns (1 micron = 1/1000th of a millimeter) thick. Z’s hurled plates strike a target after traveling only five millimeters, or less than a quarter-inch. The impact generates a shock wave - in some cases, reaching 15 million times atmospheric pressure - that passes through the target material. The waves are so powerful that they turn solids into liquids, liquids into gases, and gases into plasmas in the same way that heat melts ice to water or boils water into steam.
One purpose of these very rapid flights is to help understand the extreme conditions found within the interiors of giant planets in our solar system. By creating states of matter extremely difficult to achieve on Earth, the flyer plates provide hard data to astrophysicists speculating on the structure and even the formation of planets like Jupiter and Saturn.
Later this year and next, more experiments are planned, that will push towards higher and higher velocities:):).

Other than humans, many other animals have been observed to use tools in the wild. Chimpanzees use straws to dig out termites, and have been observed to break hard-to-crack nuts using a stone. Eagles have been known to throw turtles from great heights to crack open their shells. These animals even teach their young how to use the tools, thus hinting at a generation to generation transfer of knowledge hitherto believed to be employed only by humans. Now scientists in Australia have observed a community of dolphins to use sponges to protect their sensitive snout, and suspect that they teach the technique to their young too:):).

Poor Spongebob :D (Courtesy: NewScientist)Lacking hands, dolphins are limited in what they can do with a tool, but some bottlenose dolphins in Shark Bay, Western Australia, have devised a way to break marine sponges off the seafloor and wear them over their snouts when foraging. Most sponges are flat, but tool-using dolphins select conical ones that will not fall off their snouts. The majority of dolphin spongers are females.
A comparison of their nuclear DNA showed that the spongers were closely related, suggesting that spongers are descendants of a recent Sponging Eve. From the usage pattern among the different dolphins, the researchers conclude that the behaviour is culturally transmitted, presumably by mothers teaching the skills to their sons and daughters, although they have not actually observed this feat in action.
As we look more into the animal world, we find intelligent creatures employing creative ideas to make their lives a little better than usual. Our ancestors started the same way, hundreds of thousands of years ago. Who is to say the dolphins wont inherit the Earth, millions of years hence?

Our brain is the most complex piece of machinery on the planet. Now scientists at IBM and Brain and Mind Institute at the Ecole Polytecnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Switzerland have launched an effort to create the first computer simulation of the entire human brain, right down to the molecular level.
Termed the Blue Brain Project, the project will involve building a custom-made supercomputer based on IBM’s Blue Gene design. The hope is that the virtual brain will help shed light on some aspects of human cognition, such as perception, memory and perhaps even consciousness.

The Brain (Courtesy: University of Wisconsin, Madison)Over the next two years scientists from both organizations will work together using the huge computational capacity of IBM’s eServer Blue Gene supercomputer to create a detailed model of the circuitry in the neocortex – the largest and most complex part of the human brain. By expanding the project to model other areas of the brain, scientists hope to eventually build an accurate, computer-based model of the entire brain.
The system that will be installed at EPFL will occupy the floor space of about four refrigerators, and will have a peak processing speed of at least 22.8 trillion floating-point operations per second (22.8 teraflops), making it one of the most powerful supercomputers in the world.
The first phase of the project will be to make a software replica of a column of the neocortex. The neocortex constitutes about 85% of the human brain’s total mass and is thought to be responsible for the cognitive functions of language, learning, memory and complex thought. An accurate replica of the neocortical column is the essential first step to simulating the whole brain and also will provide the link between genetic, molecular and cognitive levels of brain function. The second and subsequent phases will be to expand the simulation to include circuitry from other brain regions and eventually the whole brain.
Hopefully, in our lifetime, we will solve the ultimate mystery... What makes us human?:):)