Culture
Ludwig-Maximilians-Universitaet (LMU) in Munich researchers have designed a light-sensitive inhibitor that can control cell division and cell death - and provides a promising approach for studies of essential cellular processes and the development of novel tumor therapies.
One year after the publication of research on the Xiahe mandible, the first Denisovan fossil found outside of Denisova Cave, the same research team has now reported their findings of Denisovan DNA from sediments of the Baishiya Karst Cave (BKC) on the Tibetan Plateau where the Xiahe mandible was found. The study was published in Science on Oct. 29.
At first glance, a pack of wolves has little to do with a vinaigrette. However, a team led by Ramin Golestanian, Director at the Max Planck Institute for Dynamics and Self-Organization, has developed a model that establishes a link between the movement of predators and prey and the segregation of vinegar and oil. They expanded a theoretical framework that until now was only valid for inanimate matter. In addition to predators and prey, other living systems such as enzymes or self-organizing cells can now be described.
There's a long-standing question in planetary science about the origin of water on Earth, Mars and other large bodies such as the moon. One hypothesis says that it came from asteroids and comets post-formation. But some planetary researchers think that water might just be one of many substances that occur naturally during the formation of planets. A new analysis of an ancient Martian meteorite adds support for this second hypothesis.
In a recent study, a research group led by Christian Gruber at MedUni Vienna's Institute of Pharmacology isolated a peptide (small protein molecule) from beetroot. The peptide is able to inhibit a particular enzyme that is responsible for the breakdown of messenger molecules in the body. Due to its particularly stable molecular structure and pharmacological properties, the beetroot peptide may be a good candidate for development of a drug to treat certain inflammatory diseases, such as e.g. neurodegenerative and autoimmune diseases.
Specialists from the Department of Fundamental Medicine of Far Eastern Federal University (FEFU) with Russian and Japanese colleagues have probed into mechanisms of COVID-19 inside-the-body distribution linked to erythrocytes damaging. According to researchers, the virus might attack red marrow, thus being detrimental not only for erythrocytes in the bloodstream but also for the process of the formation of the new ones. A related article appears in Archiv EuroMedica.
Massive galaxies were already much more mature in the early universe than previously expected. This is the conclusion of an international team of astronomers who studied distant galaxies with the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA). The result is now published by the National Radio Astronomy Observatory.
This ethereal remnant of a long dead star, nestled in the belly of The Whale, bears an uneasy resemblance to a skull floating through space. Captured in astounding detail by ESO's Very Large Telescope (VLT), the eerie Skull Nebula is showcased in this new image in beautiful bloodshot colours. This planetary nebula is the first known to be associated with a pair of closely bound stars orbited by a third outer star.
A pair of University of Michigan studies reveals how some massive stars--stars eight or more times the mass of our sun--become isolated in the universe: most often, their star clusters kick them out.
Massive stars typically reside in clusters. Isolated massive stars are called field massive stars. The papers published by U-M students examined most of these stars in the Small Magellanic Cloud, a dwarf galaxy near the Milky Way.
Researchers at the RIKEN Center for Biosystems Dynamics Research (BDR) have developed an improved human-skin equivalent that reproduces traction-force balance in the lateral direction, a property that controls the structure and physiological function of skin. This artificial skin will enhance in-depth analyses of physiological skin functions, provide solutions to skin problems caused by diseases or ageing, and reduce the need for animal testing.
How does Covid-19 affect sperm and thus the next generation´s immune system? Researchers from the University of Bergen are collecting sperm to find the answer.
So far, 50 Covid-19 patients between 30 and 40 have delivered a sperm sample. Students are next in line. The plan is that participants will return after 12 months for more testing.
isThe project aims to see how the infection affects the development of the immune system and, follow-up studies will reveal how Covid-19 will affect the immune system of their future children.
COVID-19 spreads faster and more widely throughout U.S. households than previously reported, according to new preliminary research from a multicenter study led by Vanderbilt University Medical Center researchers and published in MMWR, a weekly report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
The study, led by Carlos G. Grijalva, MD, MPH, associate professor of Health Policy, and H. Keipp Talbot, MD, MPH, associate professor of Medicine, found that 51% of others living in the home with someone who was positive for COVID-19 also became infected.
For Black LGBQ+ Americans, Intersectional Experiences Can Hurt -- Or Help, YSPH Study FindsUsing a new method for quantifying intersectional experiences, a new Yale School of Public Health study finds that Black LGBQ+ Americans tend to feel better about themselves after encountering events that affirm their identity.
One in 4,000 people is born without a corpus callosum, a brain structure consisting of neural fibres that are used to transfer information from one hemisphere to the other. A quarter of these individuals do not have any symptoms, while the remainder either have low intelligence quotients or suffer from severe cognitive disorders.
Like a specter, the question looms: How risky is trick-or-treating with SARS-Cov-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, in the air -- and possibly on the candy?
In a study published October 30, 2020 in the journal mSystems, researchers at University of California San Diego School of Medicine and San Diego State University analyzed the viral load on Halloween candy handled by patients with COVID-19.