Biological mechanisms contradict AI consciousness: The spaces between the notes.

The presumption that experiential consciousness requires a nervous system and brain has been central to the debate on the possibility of developing a conscious form of artificial intelligence (AI). The likelihood of future AI consciousness or devising tools to assess its presence has focused on how AI might mimic brain-centered activities. Currently, dual general assumptions prevail: AI consciousness is primarily an issue of functional information density and integration, and no substantive technical barriers exist to prevent its achievement.

Sensing, feeling and sentience in unicellular organisms and living cells.

Cells represent the basic units of life, not only as structural building blocks, but also as cognitive agents endowed with subjective cellular feelings, sentience (consciousness), and cognitive infocomputatioal competence. Living cells act as 'Kantian Wholes': All of its parts exist for and by means of the whole system, allowing cells to use sentient agency for solving existential problems and evolve as living self-organizing units. Cell sentience is based on its excitable plasma membrane generating bioelectromagnetic fields that link to a whole-cell sensory architecture.

Biology in the 21st century: Natural selection is cognitive selection.

Natural selection has a formal definition as the natural process that results in the survival and reproductive success of individuals or groups best adjusted to their environment, leading to the perpetuation of those genetic qualities best suited to that organism's environmental niche. Within conventional Neo-Darwinism, the largest source of those variations that can be selected is presumed to be secondary to random genetic mutations. As these arise, natural selection sustains adaptive traits in the context of a 'struggle for existence'.

The sensual cell: Feeling and affect in unicellular species.

Our previous efforts to probe the complex, rich experiential lives of unicellular species have focused on the origins of consciousness (Reber, 2019) and the biomolecular processes that underlie sentience (Reber et al., 2023). Implied, but unexplored, was the assumption that these cognitive functions and associated unicellular organismal behaviors were linked with and often driven by affect, feelings, sensual experiences.

Why death and aging ? All memories are imperfect.

Recent papers have emphasized the primary role of cellular information management in biological and evolutionary development. In this framework, intelligent cells collectively measure environmental cues to improve informational validity to support natural cellular engineering as collaborative decision-making and problem-solving in confrontation with environmental stresses. These collective actions are crucially dependent on cell-based memories as acquired patterns of response to environmental stressors.

The CBC theory and its entailments : Why current models of the origin of consciousness fail.

The Cellular Basis of Consciousness (CBC) model of biological consciousness is based on the assumption that life and conscious sentience are coterminus. All living organisms, are conscious, self-aware, and have valenced sensory and perceptual experiences. [Image: see text]

Modulation of Singlet-Triplet Gap in Atomically Precise Silver Cluster-Assembled Material.

Silver cluster-based solids have garnered considerable attention owing to their tunable luminescence behavior. While surface modification has enabled the construction of stable silver clusters, controlling interactions among clusters at the molecular level has been challenging due to their tendency to aggregate. Judicious choice of stabilizing ligands becomes pivotal in crafting a desired assembly.

Unusually High-Spin FeC Metallo-Carbohedrene Clusters.

Ferromagnets constructed from nanometals of atomic precision are important for innovative advances in information storage, energy conversion, and spintronic microdevices. Considerable success has been achieved in designing molecular magnets, which, however, are challenging in preparation and may suffer from drawbacks on the incompatibility of high stability and strong ferromagnetism. Utilizing a state-of-the-art self-developed mass spectrometer and a homemade laser vaporization source, we have achieved a highly efficient preparation of pure iron clusters, and here, we report the finding of a strongly ferromagnetic metal-carbon cluster, FeC, simply by reacting the Fe clusters with acetylene in proper conditions.

Sentient cells as basic units of tissues, organs and organismal physiology.

Cells evolved some 4 billion years ago, and since then the integrity of the structural and functional continuity of cellular life has been maintained via highly conserved and ancient processes of cell reproduction and division. The plasma membrane as well as all the cytoplasmic structures are reproduced and inherited uninterruptedly by each of the two daughter cells resulting from every cell division. Although our understanding of the evolutionary emergence of the very first cells is obscured by the extremely long timeline since that revolutionary event, the generally accepted position is that the de novo formation of cells is not possible; all present cells are products of other prior cells.

Non-Contact Face Temperature Measurement by Thermopile-Based Data Fusion.

Thermal imaging cameras and infrared (IR) temperature measurement devices act as state-of-the-art techniques for non-contact temperature determination of the skin surface. The former is cost-intensive in many cases for widespread application, and the latter requires manual alignment to the measuring point. Due to this background, this paper proposes a new method for automated, non-contact, and area-specific temperature measurement of the facial skin surface.

Two-Dimensional Silver-Chalcogenolate-Based Cluster-Assembled Material: A -type Semiconductor.

We have synthesized and characterized a new two-dimensional honeycomb architecture resembling a single-layer of atomically precise silver cluster-assembled material (CAM), [Ag(SBu)(CFCOO)(4,4'-azopyridine)] (). The interlayer noncovalent van der Waals interactions within the single-crystals were successfully disrupted, leading to the creation of this unique structure. The optimized CAM demonstrates a valence band that is localized on the Ag cluster node situated near the Fermi energy level.

A revised central dogma for the 21st century: All biology is cognitive information processing.

Crick's Central Dogma has been a foundational aspect of 20th century biology, describing an implicit relationship governing the flow of information in biological systems in biomolecular terms. Accumulating scientific discoveries support the need for a revised Central Dogma to buttress evolutionary biology's still-fledgling migration from a Neodarwinian canon. A reformulated Central Dogma to meet contemporary biology is proposed: all biology is cognitive information processing.

Periodic Trends in the Infrared and Optical Absorption Spectra of Metal Chalcogenide Clusters.

We have investigated the optical absorption, infrared spectra, binding energies, and other cluster properties to investigate whether periodic trends can be observed in the electronic structure of transition metal chalcogenide clusters ligated with CO ligands. Our studies demonstrate the existence of several periodic trends in the properties of pure and mixed octahedral metal chalcogenide clusters, TMSe(CO) (TM = W-Pt). We find that octahedral metal chalcogenide clusters with 96, 100, and 114 valence electrons have larger excitation energies, consistent with these clusters having closed electronic shells.

Magic Numbers in Octahedral Ligated Metal-Chalcogenide Superatoms.

The attainment of the superatomic state offers a unifying framework for the periodic classification of atomic clusters. Metallic clusters attain the superatomic state via the confined nearly free electron gas model that leads to groupings of quantum states marked by radial and angular momentum quantum numbers. We examine ligated octahedral metal-chalcogenide clusters where the nearly free electron gas model is invalid; however, the high symmetry can also lead to the bunching of electronic states.

Electron transport properties of PAl-based cluster complexes.

The electronic transport properties of PAl-based cluster complexes are investigated by density functional theory (DFT) in combination with the non-equilibrium Green's function (NEGF) method. Joining two PAl clusters a germanium linker creates a stable semiconducting complex with a large HOMO-LUMO gap. Sequential attachment of an electron-donating ligand, -ethyl-2-pyrrolidone, to one of the two linked clusters results in the shifting of the electronic spectrum of the ligated cluster while the energy levels of the unligated cluster are mostly unchanged.

Cellular sentience as the primary source of biological order and evolution.

All life is cellular, starting some 4 billion years ago with the emergence of the first cells. In order to survive their early evolution in the face of an extremely challenging environment, the very first cells invented cellular sentience and cognition, allowing them to make relevant decisions to survive through creative adaptations in a continuously running evolutionary narrative. We propose that the success of cellular life has crucially depended on a biological version of Maxwell's demons which permits the extraction of relevant sensory information and energy from the cellular environment, allowing cells to sustain anti-entropic actions.

The New Ag-S Cluster [AgS(SBu)][CFCOO] with a Unique hcp Ag Kernel and Ag Keplerian-Shell-Based Structural Architecture and Its Photoresponsivity.

In metal nanoclusters (NCs), the kernel geometry and the nature of the surface protecting ligands are very crucial for their structural stability and properties. The synthesis and structural elucidation of Ag NCs is challenging because the zerovalent oxidation state of Ag is very reactive and prone to oxidization. Here, we report the NC [AgS(SBu)][CFCOO] with a hexagonal close-packed () cagelike Ag kernel.

Tumor cell budding in preoperative biopsies of esophageal and gastroesophageal junction carcinoma independently predicts survival in a grade-dependent manner.

Background: Tumor budding is a prognostic factor in biopsies of different tumor entities. Recent evidence suggests that this also applies to esophageal squamous cell carcinomas. Since esophageal cancer is diagnosed by biopsy, the aim of this study was to investigate whether tumor budding in pretherapeutic biopsies of a mixed tumor population of the esophagus and gastroesophageal junction might predict survival.

High-Spin Superatom Stabilized by Dual Subshell Filling.

Quantum confinement in small symmetric clusters leads to the bunching of electronic states into closely packed shells, enabling the classification of clusters with well-defined valences as superatoms. Like atoms, superatomic clusters with filled shells exhibit enhanced electronic stability. Here, we show that octahedral transition-metal chalcogenide clusters can achieve filled shell electronic configurations when they have 100 valence electrons in 50 orbitals or 114 valence electrons in 57 orbitals.

The superatomic state beyond conventional magic numbers: Ligated metal chalcogenide superatoms.

The field of cluster science is drawing increasing attention due to the strong size and composition-dependent properties of clusters and the exciting prospect of clusters serving as the building blocks for materials with tailored properties. However, identifying a unifying central paradigm that provides a framework for classifying and understanding the diverse behaviors is an outstanding challenge. One such central paradigm is the superatom concept that was developed for metallic and ligand-protected metallic clusters.

Interfacial magnetism in a fused superatomic cluster [CoSe(PEt)].

An isolated CoSe(PEt) cluster is non-magnetic; however, we find that a magnetic unit can be formed by fusing two CoSe(PEt) superatoms into a [CoSe(PEt)] dimer. Theoretical studies indicate that the dumbbell-shaped [CoSe(PEt)] dimer has a spin moment of 2, and the spin density is primarily localized at the interfacial Co-sites where two clusters are fused into a dimer. The dimer has a low ionization energy of 4.

CBC-Clock Theory of Life - Integration of cellular circadian clocks and cellular sentience is essential for cognitive basis of life.

Cellular circadian clocks represent ancient anticipatory systems which co-evolved with the first cells to safeguard their survival. Cyanobacteria represent one of the most ancient cells, having essentially invented photosynthesis together with redox-based cellular circadian clocks some 2.7 billion years ago.

Biomolecular Basis of Cellular Consciousness via Subcellular Nanobrains.

Cells emerged at the very beginning of life on Earth and, in fact, are coterminous with life. They are enclosed within an excitable plasma membrane, which defines the outside and inside domains via their specific biophysical properties. Unicellular organisms, such as diverse protists and algae, still live a cellular life.