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Researchers introduce "sci-Space," a new approach to spatial transcriptomics that can retain single-cell resolution and spatial heterogeneity at scales much larger than previous methods.

Researchers could not confirm that a feature that supposedly signals the presence of Majorana bound states - the unusual quasiparticles that may become the cornerstone of topological quantum computing - was in fact due to elusive Majorana particles, in full-shell semiconductor/superconductor nanowires.

Through the sequencing of more than 640,000 human exomes, researchers identify rare gene coding variants strongly associated with body mass index (BMI) - including the variant GPR75, which conferred protection from obesity in mouse models.

Although plastics have become an essential material, permeating almost all aspects of modern living, many of the inherent properties that make them useful in such a wide variety of applications also make them a serious environmental threat.

- A new study has uncovered a mechanism which installs epigenetic information in sperm.- Small RNAs are made in tapetal nurse cells and are drive all newly established DNA methylation in plant sperm.- Tapetal small RNAs deposit methyl marks on genes and jumping elements (transposons) in male germ cells.- This regulates genes important for reproductive success and stops the jumping elements (transposons) from moving around in the DNA, protecting the integrity of the genome passed between generations.

Researchers from Inserm, CNRS and Collège de France at the Center for Interdisciplinary Research in Biology have now uncovered their crucial role in closing the period of brain plasticity that follows birth, finding them to be key to the development of sensory and cognitive faculties. Over the longer term, these findings will make it possible to envisage new strategies for reintroducing brain plasticity in adults, thereby promoting rehabilitation following brain lesions or neurodevelopmental disorders.

A new report finds that 509,025 (9.17%) public high school students in 24 states experienced homelessness in spring 2019 -- three times the number recognized by the states' education agencies. This under-recognition creates gaps in funding and services needed by this vulnerable population.

A University of Houston College of Nursing researcher is reporting that use of a plastic drape during catheter insertion in very low birth-weight newborn babies can lower the rates of hypothermia, and she is recommending replacing cloth blanket and towels with them.

The Geological Society of America regularly publishes articles online ahead of print. GSA Bulletin topics include multiple articles about the dynamics of China and Tibet; the end-Permian terrestrial extinction paradigm in South Africa; prehistoric lava flows from the urban district of Catania (Etna volcano, Italy); the debated origins of granite, and "a tale of two Tweefonteins."

Scientists at Tokyo Institute of Technology (Tokyo Tech) have set out to harness the potential of self-assembling peptides (SAPs) in intracellular spaces. They present a de novo designed peptide, Y15, which displays a strong tendency to assemble in cellular environments. The addition of Y15-tagged bioactive proteins can functionalize these assemblies, enhancing their utility and relevance by leaps and bounds.

In the 'war' that the world has been fighting against COVID-19, scientists have been scanning their arsenals of previously used drugs in hopes of finding any that can be used to treat the disease. One of the contenders under scrutiny, an anti-malarial drug called mefloquine shows great promise, according to a new breakthrough study by a team of Japanese scientists, perhaps giving us a better fighting chance.

Metal additive manufacturing (AM) experiments are slow and expensive. Engineers from the University of Illinois are using physics-informed neural networks to predict the outcomes of complex processes involved in AM. The team trained the model on supercomputers at the Texas Advanced Computing Center using experimental and simulated data. They recreated the dynamics of two benchmark experiments in metal AM. The method could lead to fast prediction tools for AM in the future.

Earth-historical events such as ice ages or the shifting of continental plates are mainly responsible for the evolutionary success of proboscideans, but also for their decline. This is the main conclusion of a study published this week in Nature Ecology & Evolution by an international research team from Spain, Finland, Great Britain, Germany and Argentina with the participation of the Museum für Naturkunde Berlin.

The study, published in the American Economic Review, found that a relatively simple intervention directed to poor women -- providing them access to their own bank accounts and direct deposit for their earnings from a federal workfare program, along with basic training on how to use local bank kiosks -- increased the amount they worked, both in the government program and for other employers.

resurrected the genus Philozoon by using modern technologies to thoroughly characterize two of the species of algae that biologist Patrick Geddes had investigated in the mid-to-late 19th century, along with six new related ones.

Mayo Clinic researchers have discovered that genetic variants in a neuro-associated gene called SPTBN1 are responsible for causing a neurodevelopmental disorder. The study, published in Nature Genetics, is a first step in finding a potential therapeutic strategy for this disorder, and it increases the number of genes known to be associated with conditions that affect how the brain functions.

The adult brain is more malleable than previously thought, according to researchers from IDC Herzliya. They trained a 50-year-old man, blind from birth, to "see" by ear, and found that neural circuits in his brain formed so-called topographic maps - a brain organization previously thought to emerge only in infancy. This finding, reported in Neuroimage, sheds new light on the brain's ability for change and holds promise to restore lost functions, for example, after a stroke

Patients with Type 2 diabetes who were prescribed SGLT2 inhibitors lost more weight than patients who received GLP-1 receptor agonists, according to a University at Buffalo-led study.

By studying T cells, a team of scientists at Gladstone Institutes has uncovered fundamental differences between patients who overcome severe COVID-19 and those who succumb to it. The team also found that dying patients harbor relatively large numbers of T cells able to infiltrate the lung, which may contribute to the extensive lung deterioration that is a hallmark of fatal COVID-19.

What if a microscope allowed us to explore the 3D microcosm of blood vessels, nerves, and cancer cells instantaneously in virtual reality? What if it could provide views from multiple directions in real time without physically moving the specimen and worked up to 100 times faster than current technology?