The Year in Biology | Quanta Magazine

Topping Quanta's list of major advances in biology this year are ongoing, fundamental discoveries about condensates, "blobby masses of protein [or RNA] molecules that control a wide range of vital processes in cells." Condensates were first observed and described in the 2008 MBL Physiology course by Anthony Hyman, Cliff Brangwynne, and students in the course, as noted in this January 2021 Quanta article.

Among the year's advances in condensate biology are "designer" condensates engineered to control cell behavior, as reported in Nature and included in The Scientist's year-end roundup.

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The detailed understanding of brains and multicellular bodies reached new heights this year, while the genomes of the COVID-19 virus and various organisms yielded more surprises.

Three and a half billion years of evolution have given life on Earth plenty of time to explore the margins of what’s possible, so biological science has a lot of catching up to do. Biologists have identified some fundamental principles and mechanisms that govern their field, like natural selection, the cellular nature of organisms and the central dogma of molecular biology. They have toiled to catalog not only the diversity of what Charles Darwin called “endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful” but also the microscopic galaxies of complexity at the cellular level inside those species. They have even made headway in understanding the complex chemical give-and-take that animates cells, organisms and ecosystems.

Still, the living world never runs out of surprises. Things as mundane as soil and sleep harbor secrets, and some discoveries tear up scientists’ old assumptions about what is even biologically possible. Read more of the article here...

Source: The Year in Biology | Quanta Magazine