Culture
TAMPA, Fla. (December 3, 2020)- A team of researchers at the University of South Florida Department of Surgery has made a key discovery as to why we become more susceptible to heart disease as we age. The human body, especially the heart, is dependent on the mitochondria, the part of the cell responsible for producing energy to maintain organ function. The protein, Sesn2, is located inside the mitochondria and plays a pivotal role in protecting the heart from stress.
Neuroscientists have provided clear visual evidence that a region of the human brain known as the ventral striatum kicks in during decision-making to weigh the costs versus the benefits of making a physical effort.
Nature Human Behavior published the research by scientists at Emory University. It gives the first detailed view of ventral striatum activity during three phases of effort-based decision-making -- the anticipation of initiating an effort, the actual execution of the effort and the reward, or outcome, of the effort.
A researcher at the University of Tartu described new associations between Neandertal DNA and autoimmune diseases, prostate cancer and type 2 diabetes.
The Gaia space telescope has measured the acceleration of the Solar System when it orbits the center of our Milky Way galaxy. The Solar System motion relative to the stars agrees with the results by Finnish astronomers in the 19th century.
Moreover, the observational data by Gaia improves satellite navigation. Finnish researchers are participating in this massive endeavor, that results in three-dimensional mapping of our galaxy, to be completed in 2024.
What makes the elderly and people with underlying conditions more vulnerable to COVID-19? According to a new study led by McGill University researchers, clues can be found in the proteins involved in initiating infection, as the virus binds to host cells of different animals. Greater cellular oxidation with aging and sickness may explain why seniors and people with chronic illness get infected more often and more severely.
DALLAS - Dec. 3, 2020 - A team led by UT Southwestern has derived a new "intermediate" embryonic stem cell type from multiple species that can contribute to chimeras and create precursors to sperm and eggs in a culture dish.
The findings, published online this week in Cell Stem Cell, could lead to a host of advances in basic biology, regenerative medicine, and reproductive technology.
Over a quarter of all proteins in a cell are found in the membrane, where they perform vital functions. To fulfil these roles, membrane proteins must be reliably transported from their site of production in the cell to their destination and correctly inserted into the target membrane. Researchers from the Heidelberg University Biochemistry Center (BZH) have succeeded in determining the three-dimensional structure of a molecular machine responsible for the correct placement of an important membrane protein family - the so-called "tail-anchored" membrane proteins, or TA proteins for short.
People with gambling problems are less likely to consider important information that could prevent them from losing, according to new research published today from the UBC's Centre for Gambling Research.
Instead, people with gambling disorder pay more attention to irrelevant information from the previous gamble to inform their next choice.
When Terrie Williams began hearing about the wide range of symptoms experienced by patients with COVID-19, she saw a connection between the various ways the disease is affecting people and the many physiological adaptations that have enabled marine mammals to tolerate low oxygen levels during dives.
Williams, a professor of ecology and evolutionary biology at UC Santa Cruz, has spent decades studying the physiology of marine mammals and their extraordinary ability to perform strenuous activities while holding their breath for long periods under water.
"Super-spreader" events and extensive person-to-person contact propelled an outbreak of hantavirus pulmonary syndrome in a small village in Argentina from 2018-2019, according to research published today in The New England Journal of Medicine.
Although separated by millions of years of evolution, plants and animals have independently alighted upon similar innate immune strategies to protect themselves against microbial infection. In both kingdoms of life, immune receptors called nucleotide-binding/leucine-rich-repeat (NLR) proteins form an important layer of defence inside cells against pathogen attack. NLRs are complex devices made up of several modules that recognize molecules from invading microbes termed effectors, and then locally activate resistance and cell death pathways to limit infection.
A new paper in Science Advances describes for the first time how minerals come together at the molecular level to form bones and other hard tissues, like teeth and enamel.
The University of Illinois Chicago researchers who published the paper described their experiments -- which captured high-resolution, real-time images of the mineralization process in an artificial saliva model -- and their discovery of distinct pathways that support bone and teeth formation, or biomineralization.
A new study has found that a novel T cell genetically engineered by University of Arizona Health Sciences researchers is able to target and attack pathogenic T cells that cause Type 1 diabetes, which could lead to new immunotherapy treatments.
Accelerating tree growth in recent years has been accompanied by a reduction in tree lifespan, which could eventually neutralize part of the increase in net uptake of carbon dioxide (CO2). This trade-off between tree growth and life expectancy applies to forests worldwide, including in the Amazon and other tropical regions, as well as temperate regions and the Arctic.
Stars are rather patient. They can live for billions of years, and they typically make slow transitions -- sometimes over many millions of years -- between the different stages of their lives.
So when a previously typical star's behavior rapidly changes in a few decades, astronomers take note and get to work.