Basically, Science

What happens when results reveal more than we anticipated?

The natural world doesn’t operate in isolation. Interactions, collaborations, and complex systems constantly produce outcomes greater than the sum of their parts.

Scientists often seek to understand these emergent effects—patterns and behaviors that arise through many elements working together. Sometimes, the results go beyond initial expectations, opening up new questions and directions. 

In this edition we look at how an ant colony works together to defend against disease, how an ancient plant type uses an unexpected microbe in reproduction, and how our brain stabilizes movement in real time.

© Sina Metzler & Roland Ferrigato

‌Ants Work Together to Fight Disease

Researchers at ISTA and Comenius University Bratislava have shown how ants decide when to groom their nest mates to reduce the spread of infection. What appears to be instinctive cooperation instead reveals a self-organising system, where group-level immunity emerges from individual decisions.

‌The Brain's Steady-Cam System Uncovered

Our eyes and heads move constantly, but the world stays steady. Neuroscientists at ISTA have found that a small region of the brain helps correct for motion blur in real time. What we see is not a raw feed, but a refined image emerging from many inputs working together.

© Fabrèges & Corominas Murtra et al./Science

‌An Embryonic Journey from Chaos to Structure

An international team of researchers, including ISTA's Edouard Hannezo, has mapped how mammalian embryos develop from disordered clusters of cells into structured organisms. Despite the apparent randomness in individual cell movements and divisions, the embryos consistently form robust structures.

© Maria Cristina Travaglio

‌Sleep Keeps Memories Fresh

‌Neuroscientists provide new insight into why sleep is so important for learning and memory. By reorganizing neural activity, the brain strengthens memories of learned tasks. This process illustrates how complex memory consolidation emerges from the coordinated activity of neurons during sleep.

‌New Blacksmith Technique Used to Form Molecular Bonds

With an innovative technique, the Pallacci Group at ISTA has used swimming bacteria to build tiny, spinning structures from scratch. Dropping microscopic particles into a bath of E. coli, similar to how a blacksmith quenches hot metal in water, the particles take shape, guided by the bacteria’s own motion.

‌How can Dead Matter be Brought to Life?

Research group leader Anđela Šarić is determined to find out and shares her approach to understanding life.

Living organisms are incredibly complex. They can reproduce, move, learn, adapt, and evolve—abilities that clearly set them apart from non-living things. But interestingly, both living and non-living matter are made from the same basic ingredients. For instance, carbon atoms that build pencils are no different from those that build living organisms. So, where do the special properties of life come from?

We believe the key lies in how the building blocks of matter are organized, how they interact, and—most importantly—how they use and disperse energy across different scales.

Even though the molecules in living systems follow the same physical laws as those in non-living matter, their collective behavior creates new, complex functions. This is called emergence—when the whole is more than just the sum of its parts.

From Top Left Clockwise: ISTA Professors Zoltan Haiman, Johann Danzl, Tamás Hausl, Peter Jonas

‌Four ERC Grants: 10 Million Euro for ISTA

ISTA receives over 10 million euro by the European Research Council (ERC). Four research projects—in astrophysics, neuroscience, brain imaging, and mathematics—were awarded around 2.5 million euro each in the form of a competitive ERC Advanced Grant.