Culture
The mystery of some lava-like flows on Mars has been solved by scientists who say they are caused not by lava but by mud.
There are tens of thousands of these landforms on the Martian surface, often situated where there are massive channels scoured into the surface by ancient liquids flowing downstream.
CAMBIDGE, MA -- MIT neuroscientists have discovered that an enzyme called HDAC1 is critical for repairing age-related DNA damage to genes involved in memory and other cognitive functions. This enzyme is often diminished in both Alzheimer's patients and normally aging adults.
In a study of mice, the researchers showed that when HDAC1 is lost, a specific type of DNA damage builds up as the mice age. They also showed that they could reverse this damage and improve cognitive function with a drug that activates HDAC1.
A squad of climate-related factors is responsible for the massive Australian coral bleaching event of 2016. If we're counting culprits: it's two by sea, one by land.
Neural networks in the visual cortex of the brain do a remarkable job of transforming the patterns of light that fall onto the retina into the vivid sensory experience that we call sight. A critical element of this encoding process depends on neurons that respond selectively to different features in the visual scene.
White blood cells are known to circulate through the entire body inside blood vessels, acting as a surveillance system. However, a specialized group of these cells are permanently present in tissues like the skin, intestine and lungs, protecting against external invaders, such as microbes. But it is largely unknown how these cells are generated.
LA JOLLA, CALIF. – May 18, 2020 – Scientists at Sanford Burnham Prebys have discovered that combining immunotherapy with a drug called tumor necrosis factor (TNF) eradicated a deadly type of pediatric brain tumor in mice. The discovery, published in Nature Neuroscience, is expected to lead to a clinical trial to test the benefits of the treatment in patients.
Rockville, MD, May 18, 2020 - Increasing reports of severe COVID-19 illness in children - coupled with the fact that little is known about how and why the disease may behave differently in this younger population - demand that a set of critical steps be taken now to ensure children get the attention they need, according to an article just published in Pediatric Research.
A hidden Murray River rockshelter speaks volumes about local Aboriginal and European settlement in the Riverland, with symbols of conflict - including a swastika symbol - discovered in Aboriginal rock art.
The engravings studied in 188 engravings in a remote South Australian rockshelter are a stark reminder of colonial invasion and the strife brewing in Europe ahead of World War Two, Flinders University archaeologists have revealed.
Imagine a self-repairing rubber, or super-adhesive made entirely from waste materials.
It sounds like science fiction, but researchers have discovered a new kind of rubber and catalyst that together can be used with low energy consumption to make flexible, repairable, sustainable objects - including car tires.
An antibody first identified in a blood sample from a patient who recovered from Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome in 2003 inhibits related coronaviruses, including the cause of COVID-19.
The antibody, called S309, is now on a fast-track development and testing path at Vir Biotechnology in the next step toward possible clinical trials.
Professor Yutaka Amao of the Osaka City University Artificial Photosynthesis Research Center and Ryohei Sato, a 1st year Ph.D. student of the Graduate School of Science majoring in Physics and Chemistry, reveal that the catalyst formate dehydrogenase reduces carbon dioxide directly to formic acid.
Although all cells in an organism have the same genetic information, not all perform the same function, being as not all of them have the same active genes. Part of these differences in gene activity is due to DNA methylation, a process of silencing that labels genes in order to keep them "off" when they are not necessary. These labels are key epigenetic marks for the organism and are related to diseases such as cancer, since when they are uncontrolled, they can end up silencing important genes for normal cell activity.
Gesturing with the hands while speaking is a common human behavior, but no one knows why we do it. Now, a group of UConn researchers reports in the May 11 issue of PNAS that gesturing adds emphasis to speech--but not in the way researchers had thought.
Many 21st century challenges exist in science and technology, and one of these is the hypersonic vehicle from the dream for human beings to fly faster, higher and further. For developing such the hypersonic vehicle, one of the crucial problems appears to be advanced ground test facilities. After more than sixty year's research work, hypersonic ground test facilities suitable for verification of hypersonic techniques and exploration of the aero-thermochemistry of hypersonic flows still rely on shock tunnels that have some limitations to meet the ever-increasing demand.
Microscopic visualization of sub-cellular structures and constituents plays a central role in cell biology. Synchrotron-based X-ray microscopy (XRM) provides a unique approach for direct imaging a whole cell with intrinsic nanoscale resolution. However, existing approaches to label biomolecules rely on the use of exogeneous tags that are multi-step and error-prone (e. g. antibody-based detection).