Laboraverum Eduard Kanalosh

The cyanobacterium UCYN-A lives inside single-celled algae as an endosymbiont. The researchers discovered that the cyanobacterium now imports from the host cell not only nutrients, which is typical for symbionts, but also unchanged proteins to build its own body, including proteins essential for biosynthesis, growth, and division. An isolated cyanobacterium can only produce half of the proteins it needs, meaning that the cyanobacterium has already lost a significant part of its DNA as the host cell's DNA has taken over these functions. Essentially, the metabolisms of cyanobacteria and algae are linked. UCYN-A also coordinates its life cycle with the host cell, including synchronizing its division with cell division. Moreover, UCYN-As are evenly distributed among algal daughter cells during cell division. The size ratio of cyanobacterium to host algae remains the same. The cyanobacterium’s growth appears to be controlled by algae. It appears that UCYN-A has moved beyond endosymbiosis and is in the process of becoming an organelle. The new organelle will be amazing in itself - it is capable of binding nitrogen from the environment and converting it into substances absorbed by cells. The new organelle can be called a "nitroplast", like the "chloroplast" of chlorophyll in plants.

The life of neutrophils, the most common white blood cells, is measured in hours. They fight against attackers that invade our body and then die, but they continue to fight after death. In the process of their death, neutrophils can cause their DNA to unwind. The pores of their nuclei open and strands of DNA leave the nuclei. These threads shoot out from dying cells into the extracellular space, bind together and form a three-dimensional net that physically traps microbes. Additionally, the net attracts germs because it has a negative charge. The net itself is toxic, but it also concentrates and immobilizes microbes so that living immune cells can easily find and destroy them. 

In the city of Yogyakarta, Indonesia, the number of dengue fever cases has decreased by 77%. Even more impressive results were achieved in northern Queensland, Australia. The reduction in dengue cases here was 96%. While the results themselves are impressive, what is stunning is not what was achieved, but how it was achieved! 

Researchers have demonstrated that myelin, a key element of our nerve fibres, can be a deformation caused by a virus that infected some jawed fish 360 million years ago, and thus who we are, including to some extent our intelligence, originates from that infection.

In April 1774, William Hawes, a 38-year-old medical practitioner, sat with 33 other gentlemen in Chapter Coffee House in St. Paul's Churchyard in London. The group was concerned about the number of people mistaken for dead who could still be resuscitated. What Hawes and this group decided to do suddenly brought them recognition not only from the people of London, but from the whole world. And not only their contemporaries, but also ours, 250 years later. We are talking not only about the Royal Humane Society, but also about the beginnings of resuscitation in general.

The Age of Exploration gave birth to truly great hopes in Europe. Each ship returning from distant worlds brought something new, unheard of, unseen. In medicine, hopes were about new medicines, new methods, new knowledge. In 1683, the Dutch physician Willem ten Rhijne published a book about what he had learned in Japan, a country unknown to most Europeans. This book talked about something completely unexpected - treatment by sticking dozens of needles into the body. The author called this method acupuncture.