biochemistry – Quanta Magazine https://www.quantamagazine.org Illuminating science Mon, 16 Sep 2024 14:10:47 -0400 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.2 The Cellular Secret to Resisting the Pressure of the Deep Sea https://www.quantamagazine.org/the-cellular-secret-to-resisting-the-pressure-of-the-deep-sea-20240909/ https://www.quantamagazine.org/the-cellular-secret-to-resisting-the-pressure-of-the-deep-sea-20240909/#respond Mon, 09 Sep 2024 14:18:08 +0000 https://www.quantamagazine.org/?p=140436 The post The Cellular Secret to Resisting the Pressure of the Deep Sea first appeared on Quanta Magazine

]]> The bottom of the ocean is cold, dark and under extreme pressure. It is not a place suited to the physiology of us surface dwellers: At the deepest point, the pressure of 36,200 feet of seawater is greater than the weight of an elephant on every square inch of your body. Yet Earth’s deepest places are home to life uniquely suited to these challenging conditions. Scientists have studied how the...

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]]> https://www.quantamagazine.org/the-cellular-secret-to-resisting-the-pressure-of-the-deep-sea-20240909/feed/ 0 What Happens in the Brain to Cause Depression? https://www.quantamagazine.org/what-happens-in-the-brain-to-cause-depression-20240523/ https://www.quantamagazine.org/what-happens-in-the-brain-to-cause-depression-20240523/#respond Thu, 23 May 2024 13:00:20 +0000 https://www.quantamagazine.org/?p=138100 The post What Happens in the Brain to Cause Depression? first appeared on Quanta Magazine

]]> For decades, the best drug therapies for treating depression, like SSRIs, have been based on the idea that depressed brains don’t have enough of the neurotransmitter serotonin. Yet for almost as long, it’s been clear that simplistic theory is wrong. Recent research into the true causes of depression is finding clues in other neurotransmitters and the realization that the brain is much more...

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]]> https://www.quantamagazine.org/what-happens-in-the-brain-to-cause-depression-20240523/feed/ 0 Magnetism May Have Given Life Its Molecular Asymmetry https://www.quantamagazine.org/magnetism-may-have-given-life-its-molecular-asymmetry-20230906/ https://www.quantamagazine.org/magnetism-may-have-given-life-its-molecular-asymmetry-20230906/#respond Wed, 06 Sep 2023 14:17:09 +0000 https://www.quantamagazine.org/?p=129777 The post Magnetism May Have Given Life Its Molecular Asymmetry first appeared on Quanta Magazine

]]> In 1848, when Louis Pasteur was a young chemist still years away from discovering how to sterilize milk, he discovered something peculiar about crystals that accidentally formed when an industrial chemist boiled wine for too long. Half of the crystals were recognizably tartaric acid, an industrially useful salt that grew naturally on the walls of wine barrels. The other crystals had exactly the...

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]]> https://www.quantamagazine.org/magnetism-may-have-given-life-its-molecular-asymmetry-20230906/feed/ 0 The Cause of Depression Is Probably Not What You Think https://www.quantamagazine.org/the-cause-of-depression-is-probably-not-what-you-think-20230126/ https://www.quantamagazine.org/the-cause-of-depression-is-probably-not-what-you-think-20230126/#respond Thu, 26 Jan 2023 15:29:18 +0000 https://www.quantamagazine.org/?p=122614 The post The Cause of Depression Is Probably Not What You Think first appeared on Quanta Magazine

]]> People often think they know what causes chronic depression. Surveys indicate that more than 80% of the public blames a “chemical imbalance” in the brain. That idea is widespread in pop psychology and cited in research papers and medical textbooks. Listening to Prozac, a book that describes the life-changing value of treating depression with medications that aim to correct this imbalance...

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]]> https://www.quantamagazine.org/the-cause-of-depression-is-probably-not-what-you-think-20230126/feed/ 0 How the ‘Diamond of the Plant World’ Helped Land Plants Evolve https://www.quantamagazine.org/how-the-diamond-of-the-plant-world-helped-land-plants-evolve-20220719/ https://www.quantamagazine.org/how-the-diamond-of-the-plant-world-helped-land-plants-evolve-20220719/#respond Tue, 19 Jul 2022 13:48:03 +0000 https://www.quantamagazine.org/?p=117040 The post How the ‘Diamond of the Plant World’ Helped Land Plants Evolve first appeared on Quanta Magazine

]]> When Fu-Shuang Li, a biochemist and research scientist at the Whitehead Institute in Cambridge, Massachusetts, needed some pollen for his research, he knew just where to go. Every spring, the pitch pine trees ringing Walden Pond in Concord release clouds of golden pollen that coat the water and gather in galactic swirls against the shore. Henry David Thoreau, who spent two years living beside the...

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