Eurekalert

Newly-hatched pterosaurs may have been able to fly but their flying abilities may have been different from adult pterosaurs, according to a new study.Researchers from the Universities of Portsmouth and Bristol, along with palaeontologist Darren Naish, found that hatchling humerus bones were stronger than those of many adult pterosaurs, indicating that they would have been strong enough for flight.

DeepMind is partnering with EMBL to make the most complete and accurate database yet of the predicted human protein structures freely and openly available to the scientific community The AlphaFold Protein Structure Database will enable research that advances understanding of these building blocks of life, accelerating research across a variety of fields.AlphaFold's impact is already being realised by early partners researching neglected diseases, studying antibiotic resistance, and recycling single-use plastics.

Restoration of degraded drylands is urgently needed to mitigate climate change, reverse desertification and secure livelihoods for the two billion people who live there, experts warn in a major new paper in Nature Ecology & Evolution. Scientists leading the Global Arid Zone Project examined restoration seeding outcomes at 174 sites on six continents, encompassing 594,065 observations of 671 plant species - with the lessons learned important to meeting ambitious future restoration targets.

Drought can have a lasting impact on the community of microbes that live in and around roots of rice plants. The results show how plants may more quickly adapt to repeated intermittent drought.

What The Study Did: This study included 647 patients with untreated nonmetastatic prostate cancer (269 patients during the pandemic and 378 from before the pandemic). During the initial COVID-19 lockdown, only 1% of Black men underwent prostatectomy, while 26% of white patients did.

A new randomized controlled trial shows wearing a vibrating collision device can reduce collisions in people who are blind and visually impaired, adding a potential new tool that can be used by these populations in addition to a long cane, to ensure independent travel safety.

A new RNA breakthrough is allowing plants to yield dramatically more crops and increase drought tolerance, which could have an impact on food scarcity and production as climate change threatens ecosystems. In initial tests, adding a gene encoding for a protein called FTO to both rice and potato plants increased their yield by 50% in field tests - and the plants grew significantly larger, produced longer root systems and were better able to tolerate drought stress.

Advances in microscopy reveal how the human genome organises itself in three-dimensional space at much higher resolution than previously possible. A new study finds that transcription generates a force that moves across DNA strands like ripples through water. The discovery may have future implications for the understanding of genetic diseases such as Cornelia de Lange syndrome, developmental disorders linked to chromatin folding, and open new avenues of research in genome fragility and cancer development.

A form of gene therapy protects optic nerve cells and preserves vision in mouse models of glaucoma, according to research supported by NIH's National Eye Institute. The findings suggest a way forward for developing neuroprotective therapies for glaucoma, a leading cause of visual impairment and blindness.

Geneticists from Trinity College Dublin have discovered how a specific genetic mutation (H3K27M) causes a devastating, incurable childhood cancer, known as diffuse midline glioma (DMG), and - in lab studies working with model cell types - successfully reverse its effects to slow cancer cell growth with a targeted drug. Their landmark work - just published in leading international journal, Nature Genetics - translates crucial new understanding of the genetics of DMG progression into a highly promising, targeted therapeutic approach and offers significant hope of improved treatments in the future.

Mount Sinai researchers uncover a potential pathway for treatment that can prevent blindness.

Newly-hatched pterosaurs may have been able to fly but their flying abilities may have been different from adult pterosaurs, according to a study published in Scientific Reports.

The discovery of a Roman road submerged in the Venice Lagoon is reported in Scientific Reports this week.

Disagreement seems to spread online posts faster and further than agreement, according to a new study from the University of Central Florida.The finding comes from an examination of posts labeled controversial on social news aggregation site Reddit. To perform the study, the researchers analyzed a Reddit dataset that was collected by DARPA.

Scientists from Goethe University Frankfurt, University of Warsaw, State Authority for Mining, Energy and Geology in Hanover, and from other institutions have found in Salzgitter-Salder what researchers have been searching for for more than 20 years: A geological formation that perfectly represents the transition from the Cretaceous Turonian to the Coniacian Age. The former limestone quarry is now considered a global reference point (GSSP) for the turn of the ages 89.4 million years ago.

Researchers at the University of Pittsburgh Swanson School of Engineering and the Mascaro Center for Sustainable Innovation used the City of Pittsburgh to create a model built upon the design, materials and purpose of commercial buildings to estimate their energy usage and emissions.

With the application of a novel three-dimensional imaging technology, researchers at Karolinska Institutet in Sweden have discovered that one portion of the autonomic nervous system in the liver undergoes severe degeneration in non-alcoholic fatty liver disease. The study, which is conducted in mice and human liver tissue, shows that the degeneration of nerves is correlated with the severity of liver pathology. The results are being published in the journal Science Advances.

Researchers from Nanyang Technological University, Singapore (NTU Singapore), in collaboration with French specialty materials leader Arkema, have developed a tougher, safer bicycle helmet using a combination of materials. The new helmet prototype has higher energy absorption, reducing the amount of energy transferred to a cyclist's head in the event of an accident and lowering the chances of serious injury.

A joint research team from the University of Hong Kong reported the development of a transferrable and integrative type I CRISPR-based platform that can efficiently edit the diverse clinical isolates of Pseudomonas aeruginosa, a superbug capable of infecting various tissues and organs and a major source of nosocomial infections. The technique can accelerate the identification of resistance determinants of multidrug resistant (MDR) pathogens and the development of novel anti-resistance strategies.

A research team led by Wim Annaert (VIB-KU Leuven) uncovered the early assembly of gamma-secretase, a protein complex linked to numerous cellular processes including the development of Alzheimer's disease. In a first step, two dimeric subcomplexes are formed, which independently exit the ER and only afterwards assemble into a four-subunit complex. This 'buckle up' mechanism is thought to prevent premature assembly and activity.