Earth
A Nordic study sheds new light on the role of northern peatlands in regulating the regional climate. According to the researchers, peatlands will remain carbon sinks until the end of this century, but their sink capacity will be substantially reduced after 2050, if the climate warms significantly.
An article published in the Journal of Medicinal Chemistry shows a new family of molecules with high affinity to join imidazoline receptors, which are altered in the brain of those patients with neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's, Parkinson's and Huntington's. According to the preclinical study, the merge of these specific ligands to I2 receptors improves cognitive skills and some biomarkers which are indicators of brain neurodegenerative processes in murine models.
Think about traffic flow in a city - there are stop signs, one-way streets, and traffic lights to organize movement across a widespread network. Now, imagine what would happen if you removed some of the traffic signals.
AMES, Iowa - Backed by experimental data from a laboratory machine that simulates the huge forces involved in glacier flow, glaciologists have written an equation that accounts for the motion of ice that rests on the soft, deformable ground underneath unusually fast-moving parts of ice sheets.
Low-carbon technologies that are smaller scale, more affordable, and can be mass deployed are more likely to enable a faster transition to net-zero emissions, according to a new study by an international team of researchers.
Innovations ranging from solar panels to electric bikes also have lower investment risks, greater potential for improvement in both cost and performance, and more scope for reducing energy demand - key attributes that will help accelerate progress on decarbonisation.
An unusual skullcap and thousands of clues have created a southern twist to the story of human ancestors, in research published in Science on 3 April.
The rolling hills northwest of Johannesburg are famous for fossils of human-like creatures called hominins. Because of this, the area is known as the Cradle of Humankind.
"During our field school excavations at Drimolen, a student began uncovering a cluster of fragments. We could see that they were parts of a skull. But they weren't immediately identifiable," says Ms Stephanie Baker.
Cells have a big decision: Should they replicate or sleep? Healthy cells can go either way. Cancer cells' replication switches are stuck in the 'on' position. Now a study by University of Colorado Cancer Center researchers working at CU Boulder's BioFrontiers Institute and published today in the journal Science overturns the conventional wisdom of how these switches work - a model accepted since 1974 and included in current textbooks.
Researchers from the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology, working with Spanish, French, and German colleagues, have determined and analyzed the high-resolution structure of a protein from the recently discovered heliorhodopsin family. Microbial rhodopsins play a key role in optogenetics -- a technique that uses light to control nerve and muscle cells in living tissue. The findings were published in PNAS.
Materials -- Molding molecular matter
Scientists at Oak Ridge National Laboratory used a focused beam of electrons to stitch platinum-silicon molecules into graphene, marking the first deliberate insertion of artificial molecules into a graphene host matrix.
While scientists have already used the beam of a high-resolution electron microscope to intentionally rearrange graphene's carbon-based molecular structure, this new development greatly enhances scientists' ability to control matter at the atomic scale.
A storm nears the coast, stirring up wind and waves. Along the boardwalk that lines the beach, a row of oversize concrete umbrellas begins to tilt downward, transforming from a convenient canopy to a shield against the coming onslaught.
Researchers in Japan have succeeded in creating a new type of helicoidal supramolecular polymer. The process and mechanism of the generation of its structure were observed using atomic force microscopy (AFM); the helicoidal structure grew spontaneously after two different monomers were mixed. The findings of the study, which was published in Nature Communications on April 1st, 2020 may lead to the design of original soft materials.
Researchers from the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology (IVPP) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences have found a new species of sandgrouse in six to nine million-year-old rocks in Gansu Province in western China. The newly discovered species points to dry, arid habitats near the edge of the Tibetan Plateau as it rose to its current extreme altitude.
According to their study published in Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution on Mar. 31, the new species, named Linxiavis inaquosus, fills a nearly 20 million-year gap in the sandgrouse fossil record.
Branching allows plants to occupy space in 3D, an innovation considered essential for their adaption. Stem cells are key to this process because they promote the establishment of new growth axes. But where do these stem cells come from?
New research led by investigators from the Institute of Genetics and Developmental Biology (IGDB) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) helps answer this question.
PITTSBURGH, April 2, 2020 - University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine scientists today announced a potential vaccine against SARS-CoV-2, the new coronavirus causing the COVID-19 pandemic. When tested in mice, the vaccine, delivered through a fingertip-sized patch, produces antibodies specific to SARS-CoV-2 at quantities thought to be sufficient for neutralizing the virus.
If the energy supply of a cell is disturbed by damage, it can protect itself from functional losses and repair itself in a kind of workshop mode. That is the result of a new study conducted by Professor Dr. Aleksandra Trifunovic and Dr. Karolina Szcepanowska as a leading scientist in her team, at the CECAD Cluster of Excellence in Aging Research at the University of Cologne. The findings have been published in Nature Communications under the title 'A salvage pathway maintains highly functional respiratory complex I'.