Asimov Press

A deep dive into how scientists probe sentience in tiny creatures and machines. They trace historical ideas from Darwin to modern connectomics. The talk tackles controversies over worm and insect awareness, the limits of behavioral evidence, and why neural wiring and valence matter. It highlights technical hurdles, competing brain theories, and the high moral stakes of deciding who can feel.

A roadmap for building human-scale brain emulations, covering breakthroughs that shifted feasibility like expansion microscopy and protein barcodes. Discussion of core needs: recording neural activity, reconstructing wiring, and digitally modeling neurons. Practical timelines, cost estimates, and scaling bottlenecks such as proofreading, compute, and data collection are explored.

Dive into the captivating world of developmental biology as a controversial discovery unravels. A researcher’s promising claim about the head activator ignites acclaim but quickly turns sour with failed replication attempts. Uncover the intricate biology of hydras and the ensuing battle over scientific recognition. Personal dynamics, gender issues, and fierce disputes color the story, ultimately leading to a major scientific shift towards the Wnt pathway. The unresolved puzzle leaves lingering questions and reflections on legacy.

Discover how Cultivarium is tackling the challenges of engineering non-model organisms. Niko McCarty delves into the limitations of E. coli dominance in research and the reasons scientists avoid less-studied microbes. Learn the ins and outs of electroporation, a groundbreaking technique that uses electrical pulses for DNA entry. The conversation highlights Cultivarium's innovative robotics that optimize transformation experiments and the significant role of non-model organisms in scientific breakthroughs like PCR and CRISPR.

What the evolution of scientific methods says about their future. By Andrew Hunt.Read all our work for free at press.asimov.com.

Despite attempts at variation, many new research organizations are canalized into just a handful of forms. By Sam Arbesman.Read all our work, entirely for free, by visiting press.asimov.com.

Since launching in 1869, Nature has evolved from a periodical offering commentary on pigeons to the prestige journal in science. But how did Nature build its reputation, and can it last? By Robert Reason.Read all of our work, entirely for free, at press.asimov.com.

Clinical trials are engines for scientific discovery. Better drugs require not just more trials, but also improved data collection, to create therapeutic feedback loops. By Ruxandra Teslo.Read all our work, for free, at press.asimov.com.

On the 90-year saga of oral phenylephrine. By Michael DePeau-Wilson.Read all articles from Asimov Press, for free, by visiting press.asimov.com.

On the origins of Arabidopsis thaliana, the premier model for plant biology. By Xander Balwit.Read all of our articles for free at press.asimov.com.