Earth
CRISPR-Cas9 has revolutionized the field of genetics by its ability to cut DNA at defined target sites. Researchers are using the Cas9 enzyme to specifically switch off genes, or insert new DNA fragments into the genome. But no matter how specific the Cas9 enzyme is - sometimes it cuts where it shouldn't. Scientists at the Max Planck Unit for the Science of Pathogens in Berlin and the Faculty of Medicine of the Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg now report a Cas9 variant that increases the specificity of genome editing.
Researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis appear to have discovered a way to make radiation therapy for colorectal cancer more effective by inhibiting a protein found in cancer cells in the gut. The approach also helps protect healthy tissue from the negative effects of radiation.
Imagine a wire with a thickness roughly one-hundred thousand times smaller than a human hair and only visible with the world’s most powerful microscopes. They can come in many varieties, including semiconductors, insulators and superconductors.
NASA-NOAA's Suomi NPP satellite provided forecasters with a visible image ex-tropical cyclone Esther's remnant clouds that have now moved over Australia's Northern Territory. The remnants have generated a flood watch including in the Tanami and Central Deserts.
A new species of quail-sized fossil bird from 44 million year old sediments in Utah fills in a gap in the fossil record of the early extinct relatives of chickens and turkeys, and it shows strong links with other extinct species from Namibia in Southern Africa and Uzbekistan in Central Asia.
After the synchrotrons of the fourth generation were invented (these are particle accelerators, which are, in fact, giant research facilities), there was an urgent need for a fundamentally new optics that could withstand high temperatures and radiation loads created by a powerful x-ray stream.
Scientists use metal and polymer lenses, but they are short-lived and the image they produce is distorted.
In systems from batteries to semiconductors, edges and interfaces play a crucial role in determining the properties of a material. Scientists are driven to study places in a sample where two or more different components meet in order to create materials that are stronger, more energy-efficient or longer lasting.
James Cook University researcher Associate Professor Richard Franklin says drownings globally have dropped by half over the last 30 years, with rates reducing in all regions except Oceania.
Dr Franklin was the lead author of a world first study in partnership with the Institute of Health Metric and Evaluation and published in the journal BMJ Injury Prevention which found that age standardised mortality rates from unintentional drowning have decreased by 57% between 1990 and 2017.
Madison, WI (March 3, 2020): Recently published results from an evaluation of 1,065 chemical and drug substances using the devTOX quickPredict (devTOXqP) screening platform developed by Stemina Biomarker Discovery, Inc. demonstrated the platform's ability to predict developmental toxicity in humans with high accuracy using a cell-based test. In a peer-reviewed article published in Toxicological Sciences, scientists from the U.S.
WASHINGTON, March 3, 2020 -- In many coastal zones and gorges, unstable cliffs often fail when the foundation rock beneath them is crushed. Large water waves can be created, threatening human safety.
In this week's Physics of Fluids, from AIP Publishing, scientists in China reveal the mechanism by which these cliffs collapse, and how large, tsunami-like waves, known as impulse waves, are created. Few experimental studies of this phenomenon have been carried out, so this work represents valuable new data that can be used to protect from impending disaster.
Fast facts:
Conventional anticancer drugs (chemotherapeutics) suffer from a number of issues, including poor solubility, short blood circulation time, lack of selectivity, and toxicity to healthy tissue.
Nanomedicine has the potential to overcome these intrinsic limitations of conventional chemotherapy.
Nanomedicine involves the use of nanocarriers, which are typically NYUAD researchers have developed nanocarriers to effectively deliver chemotherapeutics specifically to cancer cells, while minimizing exposure of healthy tissue.
When the spinal cord is injured, the damaged nerve fibers--called axons--are normally incapable of regrowth, leading to permanent loss of function. Considerable research has been done to find ways to promote the regeneration of axons following injury. Results of a study performed in mice and published in Cell Metabolism suggests that increasing energy supply within these injured spinal cord nerves could help promote axon regrowth and restore some motor functions.
The biopolymer lignin is a by-product of papermaking and a promising raw material for manufacturing sustainable plastic materials. However, the quality of this naturally occurring product is not as uniform as that of petroleum-based plastics. An X-ray analysis carried out at DESY reveals for the first time how the internal molecular structure of different lignin products is related to the macroscopic properties of the respective materials.
Earth supports a breathtaking range of geographies, ecosystems and environments, each of which harbors an equally impressive array of weather patterns and events. Climate is an aggregate of all these events averaged over a specific span of time for a particular region. Looking at the big picture, Earth’s climate just ended the decade on a high note — although not the type one might celebrate.
Mangroves account for only 0.7 per cent of the Earth's tropical forest area, but they are among the world's most productive and important ecosystems. They provide a wealth of ecological and socio-economic benefits, such as serving as nursery habitat for fish species, offering protection against coastal surges associated with storms and tsunamis, and storing carbon.