Body

Lattice structures are widely studied due to the applications allowed by their periodic symmetry. The physics involved in electrons moving through crystals is all related to the properties of the lattices: How waves move through them and the resulting energy band structures. By constructing the lattice in precise topological or structural ways, it is possible to achieve specific regions which can confine, limit, or eliminate propagation of waves navigating the system but which leaves the system itself undistorted.

Giant Ice Age species including elephant-sized sloths and powerful sabre-toothed cats that once roamed the windswept plains of Patagonia, southern South America, were finally felled by a perfect storm of a rapidly warming climate and humans, a new study has shown.

Research led by the Australian Centre for Ancient DNA (ACAD) at the University of Adelaide, published today in Science Advances, has revealed that it was only when the climate warmed, long after humans first arrived in Patagonia, did the megafauna suddenly die off around 12,300 years ago.

WASHINGTON -- Researchers have developed a new enhanced DNA imaging technique that can probe the structure of individual DNA strands at the nanoscale. Since DNA is at the root of many disease processes, the technique could help scientists gain important insights into what goes wrong when DNA becomes damaged or when other cellular processes affect gene expression.

The new imaging method builds on a technique called single-molecule microscopy by adding information about the orientation and movement of fluorescent dyes attached to the DNA strand.

We tend to think the contours of biodiversity are well known, especially in extensively studied areas. However, this is not necessarily the case and sometimes strikingly new species are discovered even in well-trod areas. A case in point is the country of the Dominican Republic, which has been thoroughly studied by biologists for more than 40 years, particularly by herpetologists who have exhaustively catalogued the reptiles and amphibians there for several decades.

Researchers from the 'Angiogenesis signaling pathways' research group of the Institute of Biomedical Investigation of Bellvitge (IDIBELL), led by Dr. Mariona Graupera, have unveiled the potential therapeutic benefit of a selective inhibitior of the PI3-kinase (PI3K) protein in pancreatic neuroendocrine tumors (PanNETs). The study, published in the Clinical Cancer Research journal, provides a significant advance in understanding the role of PI3K signaling in cancer and opens new therapeutic opportunities for this and other types of cancer.

Uptake of potassium by bacteria is regulated by a single protein that senses the concentration of this cation both inside the cell and in the external medium, and controls the expression of the corresponding transport protein accordingly.

Researchers from the Mechanobiology Institute (MBI) at the National University of Singapore have developed a new method, using super-resolution microscopy, to determine the length of stretched proteins in living cells, and monitor the dynamic binding of proteins, at sub-second timescales. This study was published in Nano Letters in May 2016.

Monitoring force-induced talin stretching and the dynamic binding of vinculin to talin

In the 1950s, thalidomide (Contergan) was prescribed as a sedative drug to pregnant women, resulting in a great number of infants with serious malformations. Up to now, the reasons for these disastrous birth defects have remained unclear. Researchers at the Technical University of Munich (TUM) have at last identified the molecular mechanism of thalidomide. Their findings are highly relevant to current cancer therapies, as related substances are essential components of modern cancer treatment regimens.

We know that individuals who smoke take major health risks. Now a new research study from Lund University in Sweden shows that common treatment for breast cancer works less well in patients who smoke, compared to non-smokers.

The study is published in the British Journal of Cancer.

The well-known hormone melatonin is not just promoting sleep in humans and animals but is also involved in stress tolerance in plants.

And Crop Physiologists from the Department of Plant and Environmental Sciences at the University of Copenhagen has now documented the roles of melatonin in drought priming and stress memory in barley, together with The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, USA.

Warsaw, Poland, 17 June 2016 - A new study from the UK Centre for Substance Use Research, being presented today at the Global Forum on Nicotine, shows e-cigarettes are playing an important role in reducing the likelihood of young people smoking, in many cases acting as a 'roadblock' to combustible tobacco.

In detailed qualitative interviews with young people aged 16 to 25 across Scotland and England, the majority of participants viewed e-cigarettes as having reduced - not increased - the possibility of both themselves and other people smoking.

The recently recognised global distribution of the mcr-1 gene poses a substantial public health risk to the EU/EEA. The gene is widespread in several continents and has been detected in bacteria isolated from multiple different sources such as food-producing animals, food, the environment and humans.

Daejeon, Republic of Korea, June 17, 2016--Clostridium tyrobutyricum, a Gram-positive, anaerobic spore-forming bacterium, is considered a promising industrial host strain for the production of various chemicals including butyric acid which has many applications in different industries such as a precursor to biofuels. Despite such potential, C. tyrobutyricum has received little attention, mainly due to a limited understanding of its genotypic and metabolic characteristics at the genome level.

Scientists potentially have found a way to disrupt Zika and similar viruses from spreading in the body.

A team at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis has identified a single gene pathway that is vital for Zika and other flaviviruses to spread infection between cells. Further, they showed that shutting down a single gene in this pathway -- in both human and insect cells -- does not negatively affect the cells themselves and renders flaviviruses unable to leave the infected cell, curbing the spread of infection.

Here's another reason why you should hit the gym regularly as you grow older: A new report appearing online in The FASEB Journal shows that regular exercise plays a critical role in helping muscles repair themselves as quickly as possible after injury. For many mammals, including humans, the speed of muscle repair slows as they grow older, and it was once thought that complete repair could not be achieved after a certain age.