Brain
Cells produce a great number of different protein complexes, each of which is made up of many individual proteins. These protein complexes, like ribosomes for example, are what regulate almost all of a cell's life-sustaining biological functions.
Boston - Results of a national study show significant sex and age-based differences among youth and young adults who experience a nonfatal opioid overdose. Female youth between the ages of 11 and 16 have a higher incidence of nonfatal opioid overdose compared to male youth of the same age. That reverses at age 17, however, as males between 17 and 24 have a higher incidence of nonfatal opioid overdose compared to their female peers.
Chemists at the University of Bonn (Germany) have synthesized extremely unusual compounds. Their central building block is a silicon atom. Different from usual, however, is the arrangement of the four bonding partners of the atom, which are not in the form of a tetrahedron around it, but flat like a trapezoid. This arrangement is usually energetically extremely unfavorable, yet the molecules are very stable. Their properties are completely unknown so far; researchers now want to explore them.
A research team from the Ruhr-Universität Bochum (RUB), together with colleagues from Lisbon, has produced a semi-artificial electrode that could convert light energy into other forms of energy in biosolar cells. The technique is based on the photosynthesis protein Photosystem I from cyanobacteria. The group showed that they could couple their system with an enzyme that used the converted light energy to produce hydrogen. The results were published online in advance in October 2020 in the journal Angewandte Chemie.
Many of us may still be familiar with the simple physical principles of magnetism from school. However, this general knowledge about north and south poles quickly becomes very complex when looking at what happens down to the atomic level. The magnetic interactions between atoms at such minute scales can create unique states, such as skyrmions.
The entire summit of the 2592 metres high Hochvogel is sliced by a five metres wide and thirty metres long fracture. It continues to open up by up to half a centimetre per month. Throughout the years, the southern side of the mountain has already subsided by several meters; and at some point it will fail, releasing up to 260,000 cubic meters of limestone debris down into the Hornbach Valley in Austria. Such a volume would roughly correspond to 260 family houses. When this will happen is hard to predict by conventional methods.
In a new report from the Microbiology Society, experts from around the UK explain the desperate need for long-term and ambitious funding for surveillance and research into antimicrobial resistance (AMR).
The next pandemic is likely to be associated with antimicrobial resistance, they say, and improved surveillance systems to monitor the evolution of AMR over time will be critical to avoid a surge in drug-resistant infections.
The famous patient Henry Molaison (long known as H.M.) suffered damage to his hippocampus after a surgical attempt to cure his epilepsy. As a result, he had anterograde amnesia, which meant that things he learned never made it past his short-term memory. Though his memories of childhood remained intact, H.M. might meet with his doctor and five minutes later say, 'Oh, I don't think I've ever met you. What's your name?'.
Wildfire smoke contains microbes, a fact that's often ignored, but one that may have important health repercussions.
Skoltech's evolutionary biologists discovered recombination in bdelloid rotifers, microscopic freshwater invertebrates, which have long been regarded as 'an evolutionary scandal' due to their presumed ancient asexuality. The existence of such anciently asexual groups calls into question the hypothesis that sexual reproduction is indispensable for long-term evolutionary success of species. However, the recent study published in Nature Communications provides evidence of recombination and genetic exchange in bdelloids.
Organoids are organ-like tissues derived from stem cells that are grown in labs, often referred to as miniature organs. Because they can imitate the structure and function of human organs, it is considered as the next-generation technology for creating artificial organs or developing new drugs. Recently, a research team in Korea introduced a new concept of mini-organs called assembloid that surpasses these organoids to structurally and functionally recapitulate human tissues.
Less traffic on the roads during the first lockdown led to a reduction in air pollution but may have caused potentially damaging surface ozone levels to rise, a new study has revealed.
The study - led by the University of York - shows levels of nitrogen dioxide (NO2) down on average across the UK by 42 per cent, but surface ozone (O3) increased by 11 per cent on average.
Surface, or ground-level ozone, can trigger a variety of health problems, particularly for children, the elderly, and people of all ages who have lung diseases such as asthma.
University of Minnesota Twin Cities researchers in the Department of Chemistry have created a new polymer to deliver DNA and RNA-based therapies for diseases. For the first time in the industry, the researchers were able to see exactly how polymers interact with human cells when delivering medicines into the body. This discovery opens the door for more widespread use of polymers in applications like gene therapy and vaccine development.
The research is published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), a peer-reviewed multidisciplinary scientific journal.
As glaciers flow outward from the Greenland Ice Sheet, what lies beneath them offers clues to their role in future ice thinning and sea-level rise contribution.
The jagged terrain of Greenland's mountains is protecting some of the island's outlet glaciers from warm coastal waters, according to a team of researchers that included scientists from The University of Texas at Austin and NASA.
Outlet glaciers protrude from the ice sheet into the sea, where surging ocean heat can speed up the loss of ice, making the glaciers thinner and raising sea levels. The scientists found that steep slopes in the bedrock under the ice form stabilizing areas the researchers termed "knickpoints" that prevent coastal thinning from reaching further inland.