A study of 31 recreational weightlifters suggests that a real-time, music-based feedback system helps improve deadlift technique. Valerio Lorenzoni of Ghent University, Belgium, and colleagues present these findings in the open-access journal PLOS ONE on August 28, 2019.

Nocturnal and diurnal mammals see the same - but only for a brief time. When mice are born, the chromatin in the cells of their eyes has a diurnal structure. Day by day, the layout of this chromatin slowly inverts, allowing the mice to see at night. How this change happens was a mystery.

MIT engineers have developed a magnetically steerable, thread-like robot that can actively glide through narrow, winding pathways, such as the labrynthine vasculature of the brain.

In the future, this robotic thread may be paired with existing endovascular technologies, enabling doctors to remotely guide the robot through a patient's brain vessels to quickly treat blockages and lesions, such as those that occur in aneurysms and stroke.

Climate change affects not only the temporal pattern of floods, but also their magnitude. This is shown by an international study which evaluated data from more than 3,700 flood monitoring stations throughout Europe over a period of 50 years. According to the data, flood events are increasing in northwestern Europe and decreasing in southeastern Europe. The study, in which Bruno Merz of GFZ German Research Centre for Geosciences was also involved, appears in the journal Nature.

The 3.8 million-year-old fossil cranium represents a time interval between 4.1 and 3.6 million years ago, when A. anamensis gave rise to A. afarensis. Researchers used morphological features of the cranium to identify which species the fossil represents. "Features of the upper jaw and canine tooth were fundamental in determining that MRD was attributable to A. anamensis", said Melillo. "It is good to finally be able to put a face to the name." The MRD cranium, together with other fossils previously known from the Afar, show that A. anamensis and A.

In a new study, scientists led by the U.S. Military HIV Research Program (MHRP) at the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research identified a transcriptional signature in B cells associated with protection from SIV or HIV infection in five independent trials of HIV-1 vaccine candidates. The gene expression signature was found to correlate with protection in the only human HIV vaccine trial that previously showed modest efficacy, RV144. Results from the study were published today in Science Translational Medicine.

A new platform that combines two established imaging methods can peer into both the structure and molecular makeup of the prostate in men with prostate cancer. The technology is more sensitive and comprehensive compared to current "gold standard" methods, indicating it could allow clinicians to diagnose and monitor prostate cancers in real time with greater accuracy and confidence. Prostate cancer affects over 1.2 million people worldwide and is one of the most common malignancies in men.

New research from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill compares the growth rates between nearshore and offshore corals in the Belize Mesoamerican Barrier Reef System, the world's second-largest reef system. While nearshore corals have historically grown faster than those offshore, over the past decade there was a decline in the growth rates of two types of nearshore corals, while offshore coral growth rates in the same reef system stayed the same.

Within each cell, the power houses called mitochondria continuously break down molecules derived from food to generate energy as well as to produce new molecules that serve as building blocks of cells. Balancing these two opposing processes is accomplished by an enzyme called proton-translocating transhydrogenase or NNT (nicotinamide nucleotide transhydrogenase). NNT sits in the mitochondria's membrane and uses the electrochemical proton gradient generated by cellular respiration to provide the mitochondria with just the right amount of the co-enzyme NADPH, a vital metabolic precursor.

Scientists have made a new discovery that challenges previous understanding of the relationship between the polar Southern Ocean, next to Antarctica, and carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere. Their findings show that, contrary to existing assumptions, biological processes far out at sea are the most important factors determining how the ocean absorbs carbon dioxide. The results are published this week (28 August 2019) in the journal Science Advances.