Once again, a good number of biology articles this month but there is one about the Earth’s magnetic field which may be related to the planet bearing life, or it might not.

• Starting with that first, the study is about the realization that the strength of Earth’s magnetic field seems correlated with the abundance of oxygen in the atmosphere, roughly rising and falling together over the past billion years or so. The strange thing is that there is no obvious reason why they might be correlated with the best guess being merely that the magnetic field helps to deflect solar wind, thus slowing the loss of oxygen and other gases into space. Another explanation might be that tectonic motions can both affect the geomagnetic field and release nutrients that fuel blooms of oxygen-producing algae.
• Next is a development combines both biology and information technology. A private institute has just announced the creation of the first virtual model of a cell. This specific version is designed to predict how stem cells, cancer cells and immune cells respond to drugs, cytokines or genetic perturbations. The obvious benefit is that using a virtual model of the cell is far easier than having to run the experiment using real cells. Everyone will be testing to see how accurate the responses of this particular model will be but this is only the first attempt and future versions are only going to be better.
• Then we have this news about an experiment that has dramatically extended the lifespan of mice by giving them monthly injections of an antibody. The antibody in question, X203, works by inhibiting the natural protein interleukin 11. This is a cytokine whose concentration in the body increases with age and is associated with inflammation and cancer. The team claims that interleukin 11 has been observed to work similarly in humans as in mice but of course we still need to what effects this injection has on more subjects beyond mice and what the long-term effects other than extending life would be.
• Finally here’s an article that I included because it feels like something right out of the videogame Bioshock to me. It talks about how a specific species of sea slugs are able to gain new abilities by consuming algae with those abilities. For example they are able to gain photosynthesis from the algae when consuming. Instead of digesting the chloroplast cells, they build structures of their own around them, and keep them working. Similarly they are able to store the stinging cells from the sea anemones they consume and deploy them later against their own enemies.