Science, Space & Robots brings the paralysis of inhuman knowledge, as creatures tiny and writhing cast their malevolent gazes up at the electron scanning microscope. Sleeping or in trance, they seem, but still staring, always staring, and twining their long tentacles that earned them the name “Cthulhu”:

Newly discovered tiny octopus-like microorganisms have been named after the fictional monsters [...]

One step closer to androids. That’s where scilogs is bringing us. Making a blood supply for bioengineered organs from scratch:

Starting off with fibroblasts…, widespread cells that provide structure and support in every organ, the team supplied four lots of DNA-targeted instructions designed to reset the cells to a more primitive state. This prompted cells to enter a genetically [...]

Australian digital artist Russell Kightley does scientific visualization.

I found this particular vision on Scientific Illustration.

Nature celebrates the discovery of ancient life… not from the much-ballyhooed Lake Vostok project, but a smaller lake. Still frozen for a long, long time. And definitely home to life under the Antarctic ice:

Scientists drilling into the lake have found abundant and diverse bacteria. “Lake Vida is not a nice place to make a living in,” says [...]

New Scientist makes one more argument for breast-feeding, with research that shows breast milk seems to wipe out the virus that causes AIDS:

Previous research had hinted at breast milk’s antiviral properties, but it was unclear if they would prevent transmission of HIV. “We have shown that milk has an intrinsic innate ability to kill HIV,” says J. Victor [...]

New Scientist has a knack for bringing weird science to life. In this case, electronic germ-based computers:

Hard drives are usually made by “sputtering”, in which clouds of argon ions are fired at a sheet of magnetic material, knocking off particles which are deposited as a thin film on a disc. Groups of these particles, called grains, form the [...]

PhysOrg calls it “man’s remotest relative,” a living thing that has no branch on the tree of life. Why can’t they just call a shoggoth a shoggoth, man?:

The elusive, single-cell creature evolved about a billion years ago and did not fit in any of the known categories of living organisms — it was not an animal, plant, parasite, [...]

New Scientist reveals a possible irony of microbiology. It could be that obsessive-compulsive disorder – in which the brain gets stuck in loops of repetitive, ritualistic activity, like hand-washing or counting everyday objects – is caused by Streptococcus bacteria:

The immune system eventually catches on and makes antibodies to the proteins – but these can then attack human [...]

Look, this isn’t funny, OK? This isn’t funny at all.

If this wasn’t going on inside your body all the time, you would be SO sick. So TOTALLY sick. EVERY SINGLE DAY. But you’re not – at least, I hope you’re not – and it’s because these brave little guys are there, swooping down on foreign objects and other little [...]