Biggest Breakthroughs in Biology and Neuroscience: 2023

Quanta Magazine's coverage of biology in 2023, including important research progress into the nature of consciousness, the origins of our microbiomes and the timekeeping mechanisms that govern our lives and development.

00:05 The Investigation of Consciousness
Our minds are constantly taking in new external information while also creating their own internal imagery and narratives. How do we distinguish reality from fantasy? This year, researchers discovered that the brain has a “reality threshold” against which it constantly evaluates processed signals.

04:30 Microbiomes Evolve With Us
This year, scientists provided clear evidence that the organisms in our microbiome —the collection of bacteria and other cells that live in our guts and elsewhere on our body — spread between people, especially those with whom we spend the most time. This raises the intriguing possibility that some illnesses that aren’t usually considered communicable might be.

08:43 How Life Keeps Time
The rate at which an embryo develops and the timing of when its tissues mature vary dramatically between species. What controls the ticking of this developmental clock that determines an animal’s final form? This year, a series of careful experiments suggest that mitochondria may very well serve dual roles as both the timekeeper and power source for complex cells.

[brycebyte]

Please never stop making these year end wrap up videos; what a treat every year!! Tell me where to donate

[Psychx_]

"When imagination gets really vivid, it can be mistaken for reality" if that doesn't just apply to visual perception, but is a broader concept in general, it once again shows how dangerous fanaticism can be.

[TheBooker]

This channel is so great. No clickbait, no random shouting or cussing. Only true and interesting science. Strive on!

[coenmuller]

Just want to say that the graphic design of this video and quanta in general is fire. Gives me goosbumps. I love the grain trend

[TheBioCosmos]

Absolutely fascinating. I'm so proud to be also working as a scientist in life sciences. Biology really is the science of the 21st century!

[gljames]

I wish there was more insight into how bonding and attraction works. Many people find that they are asocial, asexual, aromantic, aplatonic, and afamilial. I would love to know how oxytocin and neural wiring work or don't work to form relationships. I'd also like to gain further insights into the contrast between neurodivergence and trauma.

[mrtienphysics]

QuantaScience is the only science channel now doing annual summary. Keep it up!

[henaadlakha]

Watched this a few days ago and came back to rewatch. High quality, informative. Amazing video. Wish it was a bit longer haha.

[apoorvemishra]

For me, mitochondria will always be the power house of the cell 😊

[JordanSullivanadventures]

I know they're getting pretty high level explanations, but I think it's really great that we're hearing from the scientists directly involved in the discoveries in this video!

[vandero.]

For the first one. It seems like it's not just a matter of the Vividness of the imagination that leads one to think that one is dealing with something real, but also the odds that what one sees could be real or imagined. If one starts to see a green goblin out of nowhere, something in us will assume hallucination not reality regardless of how vivid the green goblin may to be. When something totally real but utterly absurd happens our instincts are to pinch an arm just to ensure one is not dreaming... Am I mistaken?

[nds]

The world has been dreaming for sustsinable development and happiness in all respects and the microbiome along with mitochondrial pleasure may become a rainbow in this domain. Awesome presentation!! Great message!

[fmictxr]

I never write YouTube comments, but I just found this channel and I am truly in love with the way the content is represented ❤ As a graphic designer: dear colleagues. the illustration and animation work put in these videos is AMAZING ❤

[pGHz]

Very curious to see where that first one goes with hallucinations. I wonder if they're lookling at sleep at all (probably hard to do) since we seem to believe all our silly hallucinations then. In sleep paralysis especially it's interesting to me the things I'll believe I'm really seeing. Different types of drug trips too... be lovely if they were able to look at the variety along witth disease. Suppose the change over time of day too... I am much more likely to hallucinate when I get tired assuming nothing else is at play.

[benandrew]

It would be interesting to see if Dijkstra's findings with neuroimagery could be compared with self reported results on an aphantasia test;

do people who consider themselves to be aphantasic have a noticeably different experience of imagining a fruit than people who consider themselves not to be?

[jackpatrick]

I love the findings which can be very practical- I would hope that we never increase our natural cycles of timing to develop people. The world is already fast enough as it is. We do not need to hasten our own mortality.
Production of supplemental and genetically modified cells for therapy is the backbone of any fantasy lore with healing.
If our bodies can adapt to healing faster, while stabilizing and retaining theses cellular sequences, we could accomplish more beyond the limitations of flesh and bone.

[KiloOscarZulu]

How do this work for people who have aphantasia? When you ask them to imagine diagonal lines, they can't, but they still have imagination and can plan for the future.

[wbiro]

Sad that these stories are not constantly sensationalized by major media like it does the seedier sides of humanity...

[friendsandfamily]

I would argue that the setup was so 'fine' that it was 50/50 that a subject would report "seeing" an image on a screen vs not seeing the image; even if NOT told to imagine anything at all.
What I would suggest is to develop a more concrete test for imagination to test this hypothesis.

[Braininthemorgue]

Do you think because of the transfer of microbiomes during social activity, that's part of the reason why we feel better/refreshed after? I know there's a gut-brain connection where the gut influences some of emotions, wouldn't this just further that?