Energy

Results from neural networks support the idea that brains are “prediction machines” — and that they work that way to conserve energy.

New work suggests that the radiolytic splitting of water supports giant subsurface ecosystems of life on Earth — and could do it elsewhere, too.

The ingredients for reactions ancestral to metabolism could have formed very easily in the primordial soup, new work suggests.

A new model shows that the denizens of a vast, ancient biome beneath the seafloor use barely enough energy to stay alive — and broadens understanding of what life can look like.

Researchers explore a loophole that extracts useful energy from a fluid’s seemingly random motion. The secret? Sugar and asymmetry.

New modeling studies suggest that birds migrate to strike a favorable balance between their input and output of energy.

Metal-eating microbes get energy from rocks and could teach us about life on other worlds — but first scientists had to learn how to grow them in the lab.