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How mitochondria make the cut
With the help of their custom-built super-resolution microscope, EPFL biophysicists have discovered where and why mitochondria divide, putting to rest controversy about the underlying molecular machinery of mitochondrial fission. Mitochondria either split in half or cut off their ends to self-regulate. The results are published in Nature.
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Catastrophic sea-level rise from Antarctic melting possible with severe global warming
The Antarctic ice sheet is much less likely to become unstable and cause dramatic sea-level rise in upcoming centuries if the world follows policies that keep global warming below a key 2015 Paris climate agreement target, according to a Rutgers coauthored study.
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Artificial intelligence system may improve diagnosis of complicated metastatic cancers
To improve diagnosis for patients with complex metastatic cancers, especially those in low-resource settings, researchers from the Mahmood Lab at the Brigham and Women's Hospital developed an artificial intelligence (AI) system that uses routinely acquired histology slides to accurately find the origins of metastatic tumors while generating a "differential diagnosis," for cancer of unknown primary patients.
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New modeling of Antarctic ice shows unstoppable sea level rise if Paris targets overshot
The world is currently on track to exceed three degrees Celsius of global warming, and new research led by the University of Massachusetts Amherst's Rob DeConto, co-director of the School of Earth & Sustainability, shows that such a scenario would drastically accelerate the pace of sea-level rise by 2100. If the rate of global warming continues on its current trajectory, we will reach a tipping point by 2060, past which these consequences would be "irreversible on multi-century timescales."
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The oldest human burial in Africa
A new study featured on the 6 May cover of Nature by an international team of researchers details the earliest modern human burial in Africa. The remains of a 2.5 to 3 year-old child were found in a flexed position, deliberately buried in a shallow grave directly under the sheltered overhang of the cave. The interment at Panga ya Saidi joins increasing evidence of early complex social behaviours in Homo sapiens.
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A high-tech textile to stay comfortable outdoors
Clothing, from tank tops to parkas, helps people adapt to temperatures outdoors. But you can only put on or take off so much of it, and fluctuations in weather can render what you are wearing entirely inadequate. In a new study in ACS' Nano Letters, researchers describe a high-tech alternative: a reversible textile they designed to trap warmth in the cold and reflect it during hot weather, all while generating small amounts of electricity.
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Why robots need reflexes - interview
Reflexes protect our bodies - for example when we pull our hand back from a hot stove. These protective mechanisms could also be useful for robots. In this interview, Prof. Sami Haddadin and Johannes Kühn of the Munich School of Robotics and Machine Intelligence (MSRM) of the Technical University of Munich (TUM) explain why giving test subjects a "slap on the hand" could lay the foundations for the robots of the future.
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Urgent action needed to protect dolphins and porpoises from bycatch in European waters
Marine scientists are calling on the EU to adopt a comprehensive plan to protect dolphins and porpoises from fisheries bycatch in European waters. To help address the bycatch issue, which is the primary global threat to dolphins and porpoises, the researchers put forward a framework to reduce bycatch levels.
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An uncrackable combination of invisible ink and artificial intelligence
Coded messages in invisible ink sound like something only found in espionage books, but in real life, they can have important security purposes. Yet, they can be cracked if their encryption is predictable. Now, researchers reporting in ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces have printed complexly encoded data with normal ink and a carbon nanoparticle-based invisible ink, requiring both UV light and a computer that has been taught the code to reveal the correct messages.
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New study identifies quality measures for end-of-life care for children with cancer
There is currently no consensus on what quality end-of-life care for children with cancer looks like, or how to measure and deliver it; however, investigators recently assembled an expert panel to help fill this void. In a study published early online in CANCER, a peer-reviewed journal of the American Cancer Society, the panel endorsed 16 measures that cover different aspects of care that are important for children with cancer and their families.
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Microneedles are promising devices for painless drug delivery with minimal side effects
A recent study from the University of Helsinki monitors the breakthrough progresses in the development of microneedles for immunotherapy and discusses the challenges regarding their production. Researchers suggest using microneedles for immunotherapy due to the high abundance of immune cells under the skin. The aim is to vaccinate or treat different diseases, such as cancer and autoimmune disorders, with minimal invasiveness and side effects.
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Sex-specific genetics of autism
Researchers at the Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC) report in Neuropsychopharmacology that a mutation in the gene EPHB2 is linked to increased autism risk in girls.
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Biophotonics in photomedicine
Biophotonics in Photomedicinehttps://doi.org/10.15212/bioi-2020-0043Announcing a new article publication for BIO Integration journal. In this editorial the authors Hui Liu and Juan Chen from Shanxi Eye Hospital, Taiyuan, China discuss biophotonics in photomedicine.
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Repeat vape aerosol exposure causes minimal damage to lung tissue compared to cigarettes
In this latest press release from the Imperial Brands Science website, we detail how our researchers developed an advanced 3D lung tissue model, leading to the first peer-reviewed vaping study evaluating repeated cigarette smoke and aerosol exposure. Results showed minimal effects to lung tissue from vape aerosol compared to cigarette smoke.
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The ants, bees and wasps of Canada, Alaska and Greenland - a checklist of 9250 species
A series of distributional lists is being published for a group of organisms that, despite its size and diversity, is still poorly known: the insect order Hymenoptera, which includes ants, bees and wasps. The surveyed area spreads across Canada, Alaska and Greenland. When complete, this will be the largest species checklist for northern North America. The checklists are being published as a topical collection of eleven papers in the open-access, peer-reviewed Journal of Hymenoptera Research.
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Examination of an Estonian patient helped discover a new form of muscular dystrophy
The examination of an Estonian girl with progressive muscle weakness brought about collaboration of researchers from ten countries, which led to the discovery of a new form of muscular dystrophy caused by changes in the Jagged2 (JAG2) gene. In the research, a special muscle magnetic resonance imaging study was used in Estonia for the first time, revealing a pattern of muscle involvement characteristic of pathogenic variants in JAG2.
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Coalitions and conflict among men
As in many other socially-living species, humans form coalitions to gain advantage in conflicts or to seek or maintain social status. However, studying coalition formation in human societies is complicated by the formal institutions - such as businesses, courts, and governments - that structure social relationships and conflict resolution. But even in small-scale human societies with a relative lack of such formal institutions, there is scant research on the details of coalition formation.
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Tübingen study raises hope for effective malaria vaccine
At the University Hospital of Tuebingen, a clinical trial led by Prof. Dr. Peter Kremsner, Director of the Institute of Tropical Medicine and Dr. Rolf Fendel, Research Group Leaderat the Institute of Tropical Medicine partnered with the German Center for Infection Research (DZIF), was able to show that the vaccine, "Sanaria® PfSPZ-CVac", which is being developed in Tuebingen together with the biotechnology company Sanaria Inc., provides 77 percent cross-strain protection against malaria parasites.
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Bees thrive where it's hot and dry: A unique biodiversity hotspot located in North America
Rarely has the United States-Mexico border become the source of positive news of lately. However, a new study, published in the Journal of Hymenoptera Research, demonstrates it's in fact one of the world's top biodiversity hotspots for bees. A multi-year survey led by Robert Minckley of the University of Rochester found more than 470 bee species in 16km2 of Chihuahuan Desert, equivalent to 14% of all known bee species from the United States.
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Release of drugs from a supramolecular cage
How can a highly effective drug be transported to the precise location in the body where it is needed? In the journal Angewandte Chemie, chemists at Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf (HHU) together with colleagues in Aachen present a solution using a molecular cage that opens through ultrasonification.
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