# developmental biology (blogs) — RSS Amplifier Recent posts from the 4 feeds in the RSS Amplifier directory that cover developmental biology. Page: Feed: --- ## [Quotes to think about #8](https://thoughtforms.life/quotes-to-think-about-8/) _2026-08-16 · Mike Levin · Forms of life, forms of mind_ Some interesting quotes to think about, on top of my nature photos: ## [Sensing Unfolded Proteins](https://biophilic.blogspot.com/2026/08/sensing-unfolded-proteins.html) _2026-08-15 · Burk · Biophilia_ Do cells take joy in tidying? Absolutely! But how can they tell where the messes are? Any household knows that without cleaning and disposal, nothing else is possible. Things pile up, messes accumulate, everything comes to a standstill. Cells are the same, needing a constant flow of new materials in, trash out, recycling, and cleanups. One of the major kinds of mess in cells is unfolded proteins,… ## [Journey through two lenses: SDB meeting 2026](https://thenode.biologists.com/journey-through-two-lenses-sdb-meeting-2026/societies/) _2026-08-09 · Zainab Afzal · the Node_ The first time I went to an SDB meeting as a new PhD student was in 2016. This year at the annual meeting in Las Vegas, I couldn’t believe that it had been 10 years since I first went. I can still remember my first meeting, I knew very little about developmental biology (having never \[...\] The post Journey through two lenses: SDB meeting 2026 appeared first on the Node . ## [Our Loopy Way of Learning](https://biophilic.blogspot.com/2026/08/our-loopy-way-of-learning.html) _2026-08-08 · Burk · Biophilia_ Different ways of learning go through different parts of the brain. Humans are champion learners. Other animals are smart, but we are smarter, spending more time in childhood soaking up the mysteries of the world around us, and storing them in a larger and better brain. Learning is our calling card, allowing us to adapt to any environment and defeat any foe. Indeed, we have overwhelmed the earth's… ## [The little beach hopper that could](https://thenode.biologists.com/the-little-beach-hopper-that-could/education/) _2026-08-06 · Billy Hinchen · the Node_ How Parhyale hawaiensis went from mundane beach critter to lab celebrity across biology, chemistry and even physics. The post The little beach hopper that could appeared first on the Node . ## [How to choose rotations and a dissertation lab](https://thenode.biologists.com/how-to-choose-rotations-and-a-dissertation-lab/uncategorized/) _2026-08-03 · David Fay · the Node_ With most first-year PhD students starting graduate programs this month, it seemed like a good time to address the most important dilemma faced by many incoming PhD students—how to choose rotation labs. Although perhaps obvious to those of us with some experience, many of the key factors are often overlooked by early career scientists. This \[...\] The post How to choose rotations and a dissertation… ## [From Bench to Bedside: Highlights from the 2026 FlyPower Meeting in São Paulo](https://thenode.biologists.com/from-bench-to-bedside-highlights-from-the-2026-flypower-meeting-in-sao-paulo/meeting-reports/) _2026-08-03 · Guilherme Oliveira Barbosa · the Node_ By: The FlyPower Team From July 27–28, 2026, the Institute of Biosciences at the University of São Paulo (IB-USP) hosted the FlyPower Meeting 2026, held as an official satellite event of the XXIII Congress of the Brazilian Society for Cell Biology (SBBC). Figure 1: FlyPower Meeting attendees at the Universidade de São Paulo. Bringing together \[...\] The post From Bench to Bedside: Highlights from… ## [Ohnologs and Paralogs: The Wages of Gene Duplication](https://biophilic.blogspot.com/2026/08/ohnologs-and-paralogs-wages-of-gene.html) _2026-08-01 · Burk · Biophilia_ Two whole genome duplications lie at the root of vertebrate evolution. Another week, another story about the power of gene duplication in evolution. While rare during normal reproduction, gene duplication happens pretty frequently over longer time scales. How else would we get a thousand olfactory receptor genes , all similar to each other? But other accidents can occur as well, like whole… ## [Win £200 for your post on the Node](https://thenode.biologists.com/win-200-for-your-post-on-the-node/news/) _2026-07-30 · the Node · the Node_ A chance to win £200 by posting on the Node before 4 September The post Win £200 for your post on the Node appeared first on the Node . ## [Revealing the Origin of Eukaryotes](https://biophilic.blogspot.com/2026/07/revealing-origin-of-eukaryotes.html) _2026-07-25 · Burk · Biophilia_ Tracing the breadcrumbs of deep phylogeny through gene duplications. Last week, we discussed the jamboree of mutation that is the MHC locus in animals. One part of that story was the persistent duplication and pseudogene-i-zation (which is to say, the birth and death) of genes in that locus through primate evolution, another consequence of the never-ending arms race with our pathogens. Gene… ## [Trade Bitcoin and Ethereum Today (Sponsored)](https://crawlproof.com/a/agbxJzKjD0cM) _2026-07-25 · **Sponsored**_ Buy, sell, and margin trade BTC and ETH with EUR, USD, CAD, GBP, or JPY. ## [PhD 4-year contract in Barcelona in the field of EvoDevo, Genomics and Bioinformatics](https://thenode.biologists.com/phd-4-year-contract-in-barcelona-in-the-fild-of-evodevo-genomics-and-bioinformatics/jobs/) _2026-07-23 · Cristian Cañestro · the Node_ Job offer: PhD contract (4 years) Cristian Cañestro’s lab offers a fully funded 4-year FPI PhD contract associated with our newly granted project PID2025-170547NB-I00, “Gene loss impact: evolution of cardioparaxial-neuromesodermal development and genome scrambling in Oikopleura dioica as a case study” (OikoLoss). The PhD will be carried out within the Genetics Doctoral Programme at \[...\] The post… ## [Causality and Comparative Genomics/Transcriptomics](https://thenode.biologists.com/causality-and-comparative-genomics-transcriptomics/uncategorized/) _2026-07-21 · Pedro Martinez · the Node_ One limitation of comparative genomics and transcriptomics in understanding the origin of evolutionary novelties is that these approaches typically provide long (or short) lists of genes that differ among the species being compared, but they cannot distinguish causal mechanisms from subsequent adaptive outcomes. The former are most likely involved in the rewiring of gene regulatory \[...\] The post… ## [A day in the life of a sea cucumber lab](https://thenode.biologists.com/a-day-in-the-life-of-a-sea-cucumber-lab/lablife/) _2026-07-20 · Margherita Perillo · the Node_ The adventure of a brave ENGAGE-Bio post-bac scholar at the MBL who set up a new sea cucumber species in the Perillo lab. The post A day in the life of a sea cucumber lab appeared first on the Node . ## [MHC Through Evolution: Breaking All the Rules](https://biophilic.blogspot.com/2026/07/mhc-through-evolution-breaking-all-rules.html) _2026-07-18 · Burk · Biophilia_ The immunologically critical MHC gene cluster plays by its own rules through the arms race of life. Last week, I discussed the very general landscape of variation in the human genome, specifically the tradeoff between prevalence in the population and effect size. Given that the vast majority of variants are deleterious, those that affect our phenotypic traits are more heavily selected against the… ## [Comparative Developmental Biology Course at the MBL, October 2026](https://thenode.biologists.com/93683-2/events/) _2026-07-16 · Karen Echeverri · the Node_ Comparative Developmental Biology Course at the MBL, October 2026 The post Comparative Developmental Biology Course at the MBL, October 2026 appeared first on the Node . ## [Post-doc position on Shh dynamics in limb development at NIH](https://thenode.biologists.com/post-doc-position-on-shh-dynamics-in-limb-development-at-nih/research/) _2026-07-15 · Susan Mackem · the Node_ \\ Limb development as a model for regulation and evolution of vertebrate form: Fellowship position to investigate dynamics of Shh regulation and function. Mackem lab is recruiting for NIH-funded post-doc position in developmental morphogenesis to study the roles of Shh in vertebrate limb patterning (different digit types, numbers, adaptations) using molecular-genetic and genomic approaches. Our… ## [How Do Complex Human Traits Add Up?](https://biophilic.blogspot.com/2026/07/how-do-complex-human-traits-add-up.html) _2026-07-12 · Burk · Biophilia_ Notes on the genetics, traits, and evolution. Everything about us is a trait. Not everything about our traits is genetic, though. The conundrum of nature vs nurture, of genes vs environment, and the structure and meaning of genetics goes to the heart of biology. A few traits, like eye color, are simple enough. But they are the exception, by far. Body mass index is influenced by practically every… ## [Books in progress – update #3](https://thoughtforms.life/books-in-progress-update-3/) _2026-07-11 · Mike Levin · Forms of life, forms of mind_ Update #3 on my book plans. ## [Performing Search, as a Transcription Regulator](https://biophilic.blogspot.com/2026/07/performing-search-as-transcription.html) _2026-07-04 · Burk · Biophilia_ Billions of years have created some weird tricks in DNA search. Search is all around us, as we increasingly rely on search engines to find everything we need on the internet, want to watch, or want to buy. Search looks into databases, which hold the sought-after information. All our accounts, all the domain names, all the products... everything is held in databases of one kind or another, and… ## [Only Little People Pay Taxes](https://biophilic.blogspot.com/2026/06/only-little-people-pay-taxes.html) _2026-06-27 · Burk · Biophilia_ Review of " The Second Estate ", by Ray Madoff, about how the rich have excused themselves from paying taxes. "A system that requires someone who earns $100,000 to pay almost 30 percent in payroll and income taxes while giving another person who inherits $10 million a free pass is indefensible." As we head into the nation's birthday, we should take stock of how we are fulfilling its founding… ## [Earn crypto from idle GPUs (Sponsored)](https://crawlproof.com/a/iM0RzqwTgDf9) _2026-06-27 · **Sponsored**_ Run one CLI command, connect your GPU, and start receiving crypto payouts. ## [From Icebox to Hothouse, and Back Again](https://biophilic.blogspot.com/2026/06/from-icebox-to-hothouse-and-back-again.html) _2026-06-20 · Burk · Biophilia_ Better modeling, by including the biosphere, retrodicts more of Earth's dynamic climate history. Climate change, while ignored by the current administration, is not ignoring us. The Earth is warming well past where it has been for millions of years. But before that? While the planet has generally had stable climates, they have varied substantially through time, and have gone through occasional… ## [A talk for mental health professionals:](https://thoughtforms.life/a-talk-for-mental-health-professionals/) _2026-06-20 · Mike Levin · Forms of life, forms of mind_ A video of my talk and a downloadable slide set about mind-blindness and the future of the mental health field [Listen](https://videos.files.wordpress.com/R3l2k3I3/handraiseremoveanddesyncfix.mp4) ## [Nature Photography #24: Northern California](https://thoughtforms.life/nature-photography-24-northern-california/) _2026-06-16 · Mike Levin · Forms of life, forms of mind_ Nature photos of flora and fauna of the North California coast. ## [Vindman on Russia and Ukraine](https://biophilic.blogspot.com/2026/06/vindman-on-russia-and-ukraine.html) _2026-06-13 · Burk · Biophilia_ Not enough appeasement, or not enough deterrence? I have been watching the Harry Potter series of films, a decade or two after first reading the books. Aside from being extremely entertaining, they show Rowling to have been weirdly prescient about the moral dilemmas only developing as she was writing, and now flourishing in grotesque fashion. How large sectors of supposedly civilized populations… ## [Strides in Cancer Treatment](https://biophilic.blogspot.com/2026/06/strides-in-cancer-treatment.html) _2026-06-07 · Burk · Biophilia_ A new paper shows that CART therapies can be unleashed against solid tumors. We are finally in the payoff period in the decades-long war on cancer. Slowly, painfully, precision approaches are being developed to treat specific molecular lesions in ways that are superior to the old blunderbuss kill-everything approaches. At first, these treatments had only marginal effects, at astounding costs. But… ## [Biophysical Intelligence Between Genotype and Phenotype](https://thoughtforms.life/biophysical-intelligence-between-genotype-and-phenotype/) _2026-05-31 · Mike Levin · Forms of life, forms of mind_ This is a chapter for a book of my views on the mapping between genotype and phenotype as an intelligent process. ## [What is the Matter With the Labor Market?](https://biophilic.blogspot.com/2026/05/what-is-matter-with-labor-market.html) _2026-05-30 · Burk · Biophilia_ Labor's share of the economy has rarely been lower- what is going on? We will start with a graph of share of income, to labor, vs capital. Note that labor here includes all the highly paid executives- all those fat salaries. The share has been going down for decades, while the profit and capital share has been going up. The seventies were the high-water mark, when unions reached their apogee, and… ## [A paper by Francesca Crachilova](https://thoughtforms.life/a-paper-by-francesca-crachilova/) _2026-05-28 · Mike Levin · Forms of life, forms of mind_ It is my honor to occasionally mentor very early career scholars; truly amazing young people with whom we sometimes write papers (some at https://drmichaellevin.org/students/papers-k12.html). Below, you can read the thoughts of Francesca Crachilova on aspects of our work on life and mind (I encourage you to check out the whole issue of the new journal \[…\] ## [In the Depths, Antennas for Light](https://biophilic.blogspot.com/2026/05/in-depths-antennas-for-light.html) _2026-05-24 · Burk · Biophilia_ Coccolithophores are beautiful, inside and out. As we pump out ever more carbon, burned from fossil sources, we are relying on the great geochemical and biological cycles to take in this waste and clear the air. At the same time, we are impairing these cycles by chopping down forests and acidifying the oceans. Half of photosynthetic productivity happens in the oceans, thanks to phytoplankton.… ## [Dalio on Debt](https://biophilic.blogspot.com/2026/05/dalio-on-debt.html) _2026-05-16 · Burk · Biophilia_ Review of Ray Dalio's " How Countries Go Broke ". It is difficult to focus on important policy issues, as the national media is led around by the president's revolving fixations like a cat by a laser pointer. But focus we must, if we are not going to decline faster than we already are due to incompetent and corrupt leadership. One looming area is the federal budget. As a card-carrying acolyte of… ## [Save with community-voted codes (Sponsored)](https://crawlproof.com/a/5XaArOkkiZHU) _2026-05-16 · **Sponsored**_ Search thousands of community-verified coupon codes — 100% free, no account needed. ## [Nature Photography 23](https://thoughtforms.life/nature-photography-23/) _2026-05-16 · Mike Levin · Forms of life, forms of mind_ Photos of sunrise, ocean, birds, plants. ## [Reading the Eloquent Brain Regions](https://biophilic.blogspot.com/2026/05/reading-eloquent-brain-regions.html) _2026-05-10 · Burk · Biophilia_ Telling the difference between inner and outer speech. As we understand more about how the brain works, we can decode what is going on inside. But sometimes, the result is oversharing! A recent paper discussed how one lab is filtering out inner speech from intentional outer-directed speech in their BCI: brain-computer-interface. After a very long road of brain research, we understand a great deal… ## [Peak Carbon?](https://biophilic.blogspot.com/2026/05/peak-carbon.html) _2026-05-02 · Burk · Biophilia_ Are we at peak oil, perhaps even peak burning? Thanks to Donald Trump, renewables are looking better than ever. It turns out that using the oil weapon opens people's eyes to the alternatives. The Saudis have recognized for a long time that stability in oil pricing and supply was the way to keep the world addicted. But in the current wars, Russia has used the natural gas weapon, and Iran has used… ## [The History and Future of a Single Mutation](https://biophilic.blogspot.com/2026/04/the-history-and-future-of-single.html) _2026-04-27 · Burk · Biophilia_ The CCR5delta32 confers resistance to HIV. Where did it come from? We are edging into an age of precision medicine, where the causes of our maladies will be known in molecular detail, allowing treatments that address them at the root. Given the parlous state of medicine today, in the midst of financial breakdown and a continued mediocre level of basic diagnosis , it is hard to believe this is a… ## [Nature Photography #22](https://thoughtforms.life/nature-photography-22/) _2026-04-21 · Mike Levin · Forms of life, forms of mind_ Nature photography - animals, plants, ocean, light. ## [The Death of Boredom and the Future of Politics](https://biophilic.blogspot.com/2026/04/the-death-of-boredom-and-future-of.html) _2026-04-19 · Burk · Biophilia_ Can politics work without a civic sphere? How can we have a loneliness epidemic when we are connected like never before? It is a problem that perplexed Robert Putnam in " Bowling Alone ". He put it mostly down to TV, internet, and the growth of passive and isolated forms of entertainment generally. When you read between the lines of history of any time before about one hundred years ago, you… ## [Pumping Calcium](https://biophilic.blogspot.com/2026/04/pumping-calcium.html) _2026-04-11 · Burk · Biophilia_ An ornate ion pump manages rapid outflow of calcium. In the beginning, the egg cell experienced a wave of calcium release, triggered by union with a sperm cell. This blocked other sperm from entering, and prepared the egg to become a zygote and embark on embryogenesis. It is but one example of the pervasive role of calcium signaling among animals. Another is the muscle activation cycle, which… ## [Not Every Transcript is Golden](https://biophilic.blogspot.com/2026/04/not-every-transcript-is-golden.html) _2026-04-04 · Burk · Biophilia_ Reflections on junk DNA, and junk transcripts. Some time ago, a large project in molecular biology determined that most regions of the genome are transcribed. The authors and most observers took this to mean that most regions are functional, quite in contrast to the reigning theory up to that point, that our genomes host a smattering of genes floating in a sea of "junk" DNA . That theory was based… ## [A short argument on Platonic Space: variable-agency patterns that in-form physics, biology, computer science, and cognitive science](https://thoughtforms.life/a-short-argument-on-platonic-space-variable-agency-patterns-that-in-form-physics-biology-computer-science-and-cognitive-science/) _2026-03-31 · Mike Levin · Forms of life, forms of mind_ This is a short, logical argument (and commentary) on my current Platonic Space model. ## [Death and Resurrection ... Of a Gene](https://biophilic.blogspot.com/2026/03/death-and-resurrection-of-gene.html) _2026-03-28 · Burk · Biophilia_ The SLAMF9 gene became non-functional in the human lineage, and then later was re-activated. Why? Biology is amazingly intricate, but it is often also needlessly complex- evidence for the haphazard, if eventually pointed, mechanisms of the evolutionary process. We will take up the discussion of "junk" DNA again next week, but molecular biology is full of redundant and excessive processes, which… ## [Dreaming Our Way Out of Capitalism](https://biophilic.blogspot.com/2026/03/dreaming-our-way-out-of-capitalism.html) _2026-03-21 · Burk · Biophilia_ Review of " Understanding Capitalism ", by Richard Wolff. When I picked up this book, I thought it was going to be a sober analysis of capitalism, by a real economist. But what I was met with was something quite different- a Marxist screed with the most flaccid intellectual grounding, disingenuous and dishonest by turns. Wolff apparently has been paid to teach economics at liberal institutions,… ## [Just Whose Foreign Policy Is This?](https://biophilic.blogspot.com/2026/03/just-whose-foreign-policy-is-this.html) _2026-03-14 · Burk · Biophilia_ Our foreign policy appears to be led by people whom Trump gets weak in the knees for. Does that serve US or world interests? US foreign policy serves not only US interests. We share an interest in the peaceful, prosperous, and sustainable future of the whole world, and as the leading nation, have an outsize role in its development. That is why Barack Obama got a Nobel peace prize, and why Donald… ## [How 5S rRNA Gets Into the Ribosome](https://biophilic.blogspot.com/2026/03/how-5s-rrna-gets-into-ribosome.html) _2026-03-07 · Burk · Biophilia_ For a minor component, it gets a lot of molecular love. As mentioned several times in this space, the ribosome, which synthesizes proteins according to mRNA instructions, is an extremely ancient and complicated machine. Its core, including the catalytic site, is RNA. This marks it as a hold-over from the RNA world, as the thing that made proteins, (probably tiny proteins at first), before proteins… ## [Nature Photography #21 – Northern California](https://thoughtforms.life/nature-photography-21-northern-california/) _2026-02-22 · Mike Levin · Forms of life, forms of mind_ Nature photography from Northern California ## [Bad Faith](https://biophilic.blogspot.com/2026/02/bad-faith.html) _2026-02-21 · Burk · Biophilia_ " Skepticism" about vaccines, or about evolution... isn't skepticism at all. This was going to be a post about the Ediacaran epoch , which is a fascinating time, spanning the hundred million years before the Cambrian, when animals began to appear in the fossil record. First tentatively, as sessile sheets of tissue, then later as beautiful motile segmented discs (below), and later still as… ## [Unforgettable](https://www.sumonsadhu.com/post/793662600306212864) _2025-09-03 · sharpshoot · Leonardo's way_ The worst state to be in is forgettable. A forgettable person is one who you have no desire to stay in touch with again after you meet them once. A forgettable holiday is one where you weren’t able to relax and nothing interesting happened. A forgettable city is one where everything blends together into an unmemorable mass of activity, averaging out to the same thing every single day. To be… ## [The Shape of an Idea](https://www.sumonsadhu.com/post/793512222093672448) _2025-09-01 · sharpshoot · Leonardo's way_ When you are thinking of an idea to work on for a company, the shape of the idea matters. Just like fitting together a puzzle, the skills that you have and what activities give you energy as a founder really matter, how they fit together with your co-founder really matter, and how they connect with the shape of an idea will determine if there is success or not. This is a spatial puzzle. What if… ## [The Electronome: The New Central Dogma Of Biology](https://www.sumonsadhu.com/post/793220760150966272) _2025-08-29 · sharpshoot · Leonardo's way_ We have long sought to understand biology through the central dogma of biology proposed by Sir Francis Crick in 1952. The central dogma of biology – where understanding DNA, RNA, and Protein structures as the key information architecture of biology may just be at the wrong level of abstraction to predict exactly what happens in biology. The electronome is a concept that may just upend all of this,… ## [The Solution To The Lottery Ticket Mentality](https://www.sumonsadhu.com/post/793220323714744320) _2025-08-29 · sharpshoot · Leonardo's way_ The Lottery Ticket Mentality plagues us when we make decisions in life. The idea is simple. With a small amount of effort, and if everything goes really well, that lottery ticket leads to some abnormal payoff that means we won’t have to do any work again. The optimism that leads us to take the lottery ticket overrides the potential risks. We are seduced into thinking that this low effort, high… ## [Supporting Arsenal, and persevering like a Death In The Family](https://www.sumonsadhu.com/post/786958350281752576) _2025-06-21 · sharpshoot · Leonardo's way_ I’ve been an Arsenal supporter since the age of three. It formed the fondest of childhood memories watching players like Dennis Bergkamp and Thierry Henry bring mesmeric moments to the club, culminating in the Invincibles era. I got busy with work for a number of years and lapsed being on top of what was going on with the club, until 2021, where a behind the scenes documentary on Amazon…