Have there been any good commencement speeches this year? Or ever? You might bet tempted to cite Kurt Vonnegut’s “Wear sunscreen” speech, but he didn’t give it and it was written as an essay by Mary Schmich. I’ve never heard one that I would want to hear twice. But this year has suffered through some truly bad commencement speeches. I’ve already mentioned Chris Pan’s […]
https://freethoughtblogs.com/p....haryngula/2024/05/17

A new 'rule of biology' may have come to light, expanding insight into evolution and aging A molecular biologist at the USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences may have found a new "rule of biology."
https://phys.org/news/2024-05-....biology-insight-evol

Modern plant enzyme partners with surprisingly ancient protein Scientists from the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Brookhaven National Laboratory have discovered that a protein responsible for the synthesis of a key plant material evolved much earlier than suspected. The research published in The Plant Cell, explores the origin and evolution of the biochemical machinery that builds lignin, a structural component of plant cell walls with significant impacts on the clean energy industry.
https://phys.org/news/2024-05-....modern-enzyme-partne