The cooling of a melt corresponding to the eutectic between wollastonite (CaSiO3) and diopside (CaMgSi2O6) determines synthesis an interesting example alkali-free bioactive glass, easily converted into glass-ceramics featuring two silicate phases, coupled also with åkermanite (Ca2MgSi2O7), by sinter-crystallization fine glass powders at 1000°C. fabrication scaffolds digital light processing sus...

When micro-organisms are in environments with multiple nutrients, they often preferentially utilise one first. A second is only utilised once the first is exhausted. Such a two-phase growth pattern is known as diauxic growth. Experimentally, this manifests itself through two distinct exponential growth phases separated by a lag phase of arrested growth. The duration of the lag phase can be quit...

The transition from a unicellular to a multicellular lifestyle has occurred multiple times—most notably in the lineages leading to plants, animals, and fungi. How this transition is made, however, has remained a major question among biologists, and new evidence may come from an unlikely quarter: The study of single-celled amoebae. In plants, animals, and fungi, dividing cells remain attached to...

The cellular slime mold Dictyostelium discoideum undergoes a transition from single-celled amoebae to a multicellular organism as a natural part of its life cycle. A method of cell-cell signaling that controls chemotaxis, morphogenesis, and gene expression has developed in this organism, and a detailed understanding of this signaling system provides clues to mechanisms of intercellular communic...

AMP-activated protein kinase appears to have evolved in single-celled eukaryotes as an adenine nucleotide sensor that maintains energy homeostasis at the cellular level. However, during evolution of more complex multicellular organisms, the system has adapted to interact with hormones so that it also plays a key role in balancing energy intake and expenditure at the whole body level.