CAMBRIDGE, MA - MIT chemists have devised a new way to synthesize a complex molecular structure that is shared by a group of fungal compounds with potential as anticancer agents. Known as communesins, these compounds have shown particular promise against leukemia cells but may be able to kill other cancer cells as well.
Earth
The less you comment on your daughter's weight, the less likely she is to be dissatisfied with her weight as an adult according to a new study from the Cornell Food and Brand Lab.
On the morning of June 2, the National Hurricane Center reported that post-tropical cyclone Bonnie has redeveloped into a tropical depression and was moving over the North Carolina Outer Banks. NASA-NOAA's Suomi NPP Satellite and NOAA's GOES-East satellite captured imagery and an animation that showed the movement of the storm.
Bonnie continues to pose a threat of heavy rain that is expected to continue today, June 2, in eastern North Carolina. The National Weather Service issued a flood watch and flood advisory for a small portion of the North Carolina Outer Banks.
Marianna Kharlamova (the Lomonosov Moscow State University Department of Materials Science) examined different types of carbon nanotubes' "stuffing" and classified them according to the influence on the properties of the nanotubes. The researcher's work was published in the high-impact journal Progress in Materials Science (impact factor -- 26.417).
Researchers from the Institute of Molecular Science and Technologies (ISTM-CNR, Italy), Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology (MIPT), and the University of Milan have experimentally confirmed a model to detect electron delocalization in molecules and crystals. The chemists, whose paper was published in Acta Crystallographica on April 1, 2016, have also illustrated examples on how the same approach have been used to obtain precious insights into the chemical bonding of a wide variety of systems, from metallorganic compounds to systems of biological relevance.
WASHINGTON, June 2, 2016 -- You've probably seen that pesky greenish stuff floating on lakes and ponds. Usually this pond "scum" is just a nuisance. But sometimes it is a horde of cyanobacteria -- also known as blue-green algae -- that can blossom into a harmful algal bloom capable of releasing all sorts of deadly poisons into the environment. In the latest Speaking of Chemistry, Sophia Cai jumps in the pond to teach you all about these blue-green menaces: https://youtu.be/kNL99XVJjQo.
You could think of bioorthogonal chemistry as a discreet valet or concierge that steers two world leaders to a private meeting without making noise or trouble along the way.
The valet is a catalyst of sorts, arranging the meeting to expedite a result that would not otherwise happen.
Bioorthogonal chemistry produces targeted reactions within living organisms that would not happen naturally. It is used in nuclear medicine, in imaging of cells, and in creating materials or adjusting the properties of materials already present.
Jülich/Kiel, 3 June, 2016 - Magnetic vortices - so-called skyrmions - were predicted theoretically more than 25 years ago, but it has only been possible to observe them experimentally in magnetic materials in recent years. Skyrmions are stable, can have a diameter of just a few nanometres, and can be moved efficiently by electrical currents. Therefore, they are presently being discussed as candidates for high density, energy-saving data storage and processing. However, until very recently, the only materials known to exhibit skyrmions did so at extremely low temperatures.
Alexandria, VA - As the U.S. celebrates National Oceans Month in June, scientists who study the seafloor are excited because they believe that humans will end this century with a far better view of our seafloor than at any other time in human history. Geoscientists have been mapping land on Earth, and even other planets in our solar system, in high definition for years, but the picture of the ocean floor has remained blurry for the most part. But with advances in engineering, what lies beneath is starting to come into much better focus.
Geophysical monitoring of the ground above active supervolcanoes shows that it rises and falls as magma moves beneath the surface of the Earth. Silica-rich magmas like those in the Yellowstone region and along the western margin of North and South America can erupt violently and explosively, throwing vast quantities of ash into the air, followed by slower flows of glassy, viscous magma.
But what do the subterranean magma chambers look like, and where does the magma originate? Those questions can't be answered directly at modern, active volcanoes.
The most intense source of gamma radiation constructed to date will soon become operational at the ELI Nuclear Physics research facility. It will be possible to study reactions that reveal the details of many processes occurring within stars, in particular those leading to the formation of oxygen. An important part of the equipment will rely on a particle detector built by physicists at the University of Warsaw. A prototype has recently concluded the first round of testing.
A study led by the Laboratory Evolutionary Biology and Ecology of the Université libre de Bruxelles published in Proceedings of the Royal Society B, shows that the humivorous French Guianan termite Cavitermes tuberosus routinely practice asexual queen succession (parthenogenesis).
Termite colonies are typically founded by a pair of sexually reproducing dispersers, which can sometimes be replaced by some of their full-sib offspring, resulting in inbreeding among the new cohort of reproductives.
Shifts in the distribution of Spectacled Eiders, a predatory bird at the top of the Bering Sea's benthic food web, indicate possible changes in the Arctic's marine ecosystem, according to new research in The Condor: Ornithological Applications.
It's the height of irony.
Irrigation systems designed to buffer farmers from the effects of a warming planet may be causing them to think their local area is cooler and wetter than it is, says research to be published June 1 in the journal Global Environmental Change - perceptions that other studies suggest may slow their efforts to address climate change.
The paper is the first to show the impact of infrastructure on climate perception, said principal investigator Meredith Niles of the University of Vermont.
Inflammasomes are assemblies that are central to inflammatory responses. Dr. Lieselotte Vande Walle, Daniel Jiménez Fernández and colleagues from Prof. Mo Lamkanfi's group (VIB/UGent) shed new light on the function of caspase 12. In doing so, they have rid the field of a stubborn dogma, which held that caspase 12 was a negative regulator of inflammasomes. These novel insights pave the way for researchers to break from the route of existing research and identify the real physiological functions of caspase 12.