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An international study has discovered a coronavirus epidemic broke out in the East Asia region more than 20,000 years ago, with traces of the outbreak evident in the genetic makeup of people from that area.

Researchers at Osaka University and Kyoto University show that an excited state previously predicted to exist in neon-20 is real by using particle scattering experiments. By merging into five groups of four, the protons and neutrons in neon-20 can exist in a special condensed state. This work may help scientists understand low-density nucleon many-body systems and neutron stars.

Researchers from Skoltech and their colleagues have shown that adaptation to similar environments hardly involves similar genomic positions when species are distantly related.It is still poorly understood to what extent adaptation to similar conditions is associated with parallel changes in the genome. The team investigated recurrent adaptations of wildlife birds' mitochondria to high altitude, migration, diving, wintering, and flight. Repeatable substitutions are rather a coincidence than adaptation, which confirms the scientific opinion that distant species 'choose' different ways of similar trait evolution.

Dopamine is often called the 'happy' or 'feel-good' hormone. It can help explain both autistic behaviors and men's need for passion in order to succeed.

An international study led by Helmholtz Zentrum München has revealed the structure of a membrane-remodeling protein that builds and maintains photosynthetic membranes. These fundamental insights lay the groundwork for bioengineering efforts to strengthen plants against environmental stress, helping to sustaining human food supply and fight against climate change.

Toxoplasma gondii is an obligate intracellular parasite which, to survive, must absolutely penetrate its host's cells. Understanding how the parasite manages to enter host cells offers opportunities to develop more prevention. A team (UNIGE/UZH/PSI) has identified the key role of RON13, which is essential for the invasion process. The three-dimensional structure and the site of action of this enzyme are atypical, thus offering the possibility of designing specific inhibitors to stop the infection.

Palladium nanostructures in the shape of Christmas-tree had created using a simple electrodeposition approach on a Glassy Carbon Electrode (GCE). In alkaline conditions, the modified electrode showed eight times higher catalytic activity than the unmodified GCE for Ascorbic Acid (AA) electro-oxidation. The multiple sharp edges of the hierarchical nanostructures are account for this excellent efficiency.

Photosystem II (PSII) is an essential photosynthesis-involved enzyme, participating in sunlight-harvest, water splitting, oxygen release, and proton/electron generation and transfer. PSII combines with synthetic hierarchical structures via biomimetic assembly, which facilitates natural photosynthesis processes, including photocatalytic water splitting, electron transfer, and ATP synthesis, in vivo. PSII-based biomimetic assembly offers opportunities to forward semi-biohybrid research and synchronously inspire optimization of artificial light-harvest devices.

Are the traditional practices tied to endangered species at risk of being lost? The answer is yes, according to the authors of an ethnographic study published in the University of Guam peer-reviewed journal Pacific Asia Inquiry. But the authors also say a recovery plan can protect both the species as well as the traditional CHamoru practice of consuming them.

Ultrasound can overcome some of the detrimental effects of ageing and dementia without the need to cross the blood-brain barrier, Queensland Brain Institute researchers have found.

Researchers have found a further reason for the severity of dual infection by influenza and Streptococcus pneumonia -- a new virulence mechanism for a surface protein on the pneumonia-causing bacteria S. pneumoniae. This insight comes 30 years after discovery of that surface protein, called pneumococcal surface protein A. This mechanism had been missed in the past because it facilitates bacterial adherence only to dying lung epithelial cells, not to living cells.

National Institutes of Health researchers fed fruit flies antibiotics and monitored the lifetime activity of hundreds of genes that scientists have traditionally thought control aging. To their surprise, the antibiotics not only extended the lives of the flies but also dramatically changed the activity of many of these genes. Their results suggested that only about 30% of the genes traditionally associated with aging set an animal's internal clock while the rest reflect the body's response to bacteria.

Using an unusually well-preserved subfossil jawbone, a team of researchers -- led by Penn State and with a multi-national team of collaborators including scientists from the Université d'Antananarivo in Madagascar -- has sequenced for the first time the nuclear genome of the koala lemur (Megaladapis edwardsi), one of the largest of the 17 or so giant lemur species that went extinct on the island of Madagascar between about 500 and 2,000 years ago.

Research News Tip Sheet: Story Ideas From Johns Hopkins Medicine.

When the summer sun blazes on a hot city street, our first reaction is to flee to a shady spot protected by a building or tree.A new study is the first to calculate exactly how much these shaded areas help lower the temperature and reduce the "urban heat island" effect.

A new study from researchers at the University of Toronto found that 63% of Canadians with migraine headaches are able to flourish, despite the painful condition.

New findings from heart experts at Cincinnati Children's shed light on the molecular triggers of rapid cardiac atrophy. Findings have potential implications for space travel.

Indonesia's volcanoes are among the world's most dangerous. Why? Through chemical analyses of tiny minerals in lava from Bali and Java, researchers from Uppsala University and elsewhere have found new clues. They now understand better how the Earth's mantle is composed in that particular region and how the magma changes before an eruption. The study is published in Nature Communications.

Our planet's strongest ocean current, which circulates around Antarctica, plays a major role in determining the transport of heat, salt and nutrients in the ocean. An international research team led by the Alfred Wegener Institute has now evaluated sediment samples from the Drake Passage.

A team from Japan and the United States has identified the design principles for creating large 'ideal' proteins from scratch, paving the way for the design of proteins with new biochemical functions.