Links from April 2025: LLMs biology & “reasoning”; UK microchips; animal testing; giant starfish

Biology and LLMs; decoding LLM “reasoning”; UK microchips; phasing out of animal testing; giant starfish

Revealed: where rare and giant starfish hide from an enigmatic killer
Nature
This starfish, the  sunflower sea star, “reaches one metre in diameter and has as many as 24 arms”. A disease, possibly related to sea water warming, has killed off 90% of them worldwide.

Learning the language of life with AI
Science
“For the first time in human history, biology has the opportunity to be engineering, not science” And: “I call it an engineering science, because unlike the natural sciences, you have to build the artifact of interest first, and then, once you have it, you can use the scientific method to reduce it down and understand its components”.

On the Biology of a Large Language Model
Anthropic
“Let’s consider the prompt 'Fact: the capital of the state containing Dallas is', which Claude 3.5 Haiku successfully completes with 'Austin'. Intuitively, this completion requires two steps – first, inferring that the state containing Dallas is Texas, and second, that the capital of Texas is Austin. Does Claude actually perform these two steps internally?” Too much detail, and I can’t make it through the whole thing at the moment, but kudos to Anthropic for pushing on understanding LLMs.

FDA Announces Plan to Phase Out Animal Testing Requirement for Monoclonal Antibodies and Other Drugs
FDA
“NAMs” (New Approach Methodologies) are an acknowledgement that drugs for humans tested on human cells and models makes more sense than testing on animals. “Thousands of animals, including dogs and primates, could eventually be spared each year as these new methods take root.” Some of the reasoning for this is in:  FDA Modernization Act 2.0: transitioning beyond animal models with human cells, organoids, and AI/ML-based approaches, Journal of Clinical Investigation, Nov 2023.

Intelligence Evolved at Least Twice in Vertebrate Animals
Quanta
The brain regions for bird and mammal intelligence looks to have evolved independently, but some of the circuits are similar.  It means we can ask: “What are the different neural solutions that these organisms have come up with to solve similar problems of living in a complex world and being able to adapt in a rapidly changing terrestrial environment?”

Where do proteins go in cells? Next-generation methods map the molecules’ hidden lives
Nature
“If you want to understand how cells function, you have to work out what proteins interact with — and where.” Summary of the methods used to find out where proteins are in the cell.

How the UK’s microchip industry is bouncing back after a quarter of a century
The Conversation
Scotland and Wales: “A new wave of companies is focusing on microchips designed for clean energy technology. These chips power electric vehicles and are vital for integrating renewable energy into the grid. They’re also widely used in data centres.”