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"Everyone knows these statements aren't literally true, but although we might understand their figurative meaning, they continue to reflect, and influence, how we think. Even biologists, being quite human, too often think metaphorically and assign properties to genes that genes don't have. The metaphor works because our society has a deeply embedded belief in genes as clearly identifiable material things which explain our individual natures, making them inherent from the moment of our conception and thus predictable. If hydrogen and oxygen are the causal atoms of water, genes are the causal atoms of our existence."

Experimental data and predictive algorithms combine to reveal the essential biomolecule's shape-shifting.

The application of network science to biology has advanced our understanding of the metabolism of individual organisms and the organization of ecosystems but has scarcely been applied to life at a planetary scale. To characterize planetary-scale biochemistry, we constructed biochemical networks using a global database of 28,146 annotated genomes and metagenomes and 8658 cataloged biochemical reactions. We uncover scaling laws governing biochemical diversity and network structure shared across levels of organization from individuals to ecosystems, to the biosphere as a whole. Comparing real biochemical reaction networks to random reaction networks reveals that the observed biological scaling is not a product of chemistry alone but instead emerges due to the particular structure of selected reactions commonly participating in living processes. We show that the topology of biochemical networks for the three domains of life is quantitatively distinguishable, with >80% accuracy in predicting evolutionary domain based on biochemical network size and average topology. Together, our results point to a deeper level of organization in biochemical networks than what has been understood so far.

As the planet continues to heat up due to human-caused greenhouse gas emissions, scientists continue to try to predict how the planet will respond. In this new effort, the researchers wondered what might happen if the people of the world finally saw the light and made serious efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

The application of network science to biology has advanced our understanding of the metabolism of individual organisms and the organization of ecosystems but has scarcely been applied to life at a planetary scale. To characterize planetary-scale biochemistry, we constructed biochemical networks using a global database of 28,146 annotated genomes and metagenomes and 8658 cataloged biochemical reactions. We uncover scaling laws governing biochemical diversity and network structure shared across levels of organization from individuals to ecosystems, to the biosphere as a whole. Comparing real biochemical reaction networks to random reaction networks reveals that the observed biological scaling is not a product of chemistry alone but instead emerges due to the particular structure of selected reactions commonly participating in living processes. We show that the topology of biochemical networks for the three domains of life is quantitatively distinguishable, with >80% accuracy in predicting evolutionary domain based on biochemical network size and average topology. Together, our results point to a deeper level of organization in biochemical networks than what has been understood so far.

In a collaboration with Italian scientists as part of the European project Ecopotential, EPFL scientists built a model to predict the dynamics of two carabid species across the landscape of Gran Paradiso National Park in the Graian Alps, in Northern Italy, now combining field measurement with advanced remote sensing. The results are published in PNAS and the open-model is available on GitHub. "The main result of this work, which I deem important, is to suggest that an integrated ecohydrological framework blending field evidence, both theoretical and remotely acquired, has contributed substantially to our understanding of key indicators of ecological well-being, carabid beetles, in complex environments like iconic mountains," explains Andrea Rinaldo, who leads the Laboratory of Ecohydrology.

Toothpaste, face creams, hair gel, mayonnaise and ketchup are household items that most people don't think twice about, but in terms of their flow behavior, they have unusual properties. They're all elasto-visco-plastic (EVP) materials, which behave like solids when at rest, but can yield to flow like liquids when placed under enough stress. Despite their ubiquity, the ability to model and predict their behavior relies on a theory that has only been shown to work under certain conditions.