Culture
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).
NYU and IBM research takes electrons for a spin in moving toward more efficient, higher density data
Researchers at New York University and IBM Research have demonstrated a new mechanism involving electron motion in magnetic materials that points to new ways to potentially enhance data storage. The work, reported in the journal Physical Review Letters, unveils a process for setting the direction of the magnetic information, or spin, based on an electrical current.
When bacteria such as Salmonella or Yersinia cause fever, diarrhoea or abdominal pain, tiny "injection needles" are at work: their type 3 secretion system, or T3SS for short, shoots bacterial virulence proteins directly into the eukaryotic host cells. Researchers have thought of using bacterial injection devices to introduce proteins into eukaryotic cells. A Max Planck research team has now succeeded in controlling the injection system optogenetically, i.e. with light. In the future this will enable to use the system in biotechnological or medical applications.
In a recently published study, researchers from Aarhus University document that the risk of atrial fibrillation is not linked to the amount of body fat, but instead to large muscle mass, or more precisely, a high fat-free weight.
Magnetic field sensors are largely used in industry, medicine, as well as in applied and fundamental physics. For example, it is impossible to assemble a car without magnetic sensors. Viktor Belyaev and Valeria Rodionova, researchers at the Laboratory of Novel Magnetic Materials at the Immanuel Kant Baltic Federal University, together with colleagues at the Laboratory of Nano-Optics and Metamaterials at the Department of Physics at the Lomonosov Moscow State University, have developed a sensor that combines advances in the fields of magnetism, optics, and solid-state physics.
Phasmatodea, commonly known as stick insects and leaf insects, are icons of crypsis and primary defense specialization, exhibiting a wide range of remarkable morphological and behavioral modifications associated with camouflage. Most of extant stick and leaf insects have the appearance of abdominal extensions, which has been one of the innovations contributing to their extraordinary crypsis. However, the early origin and evolution of mimetic and defensive strategies within Phasmatodea are meager understanding.
Hyaline Fibromatosis Syndrome (HFS) is a rare but severe genetic disease that affects babies, children, and adults. Hyaline, a glassy substance, accumulates in the skin and various organs, and causes painful deformities that can lead to an early death.
HFS is caused by mutation of a gene called Capillary Morphogenesis Gene 2 or CMG2. It is also abbreviated as ANTXR2 because it makes cells sensitive to anthrax infections.
Previous data from COVID-19 patients suggests that cigarette smokers are more likely to have health complications. One possible reason, researchers report May 15 in the journal Developmental Cell, is that smoking increases the gene expression of ACE2--the protein that binds SARS-CoV-2--which may promote COVID-19 infection. The study suggests that prolonged smoking could cause an increase of the ACE2 protein in the lungs, possibly resulting in a higher rate of morbidity in patients.
Although the SARS-CoV-2 outbreak was officially presented suddenly in the popular market of exotic and wild animals in Wuhan in December 2019, phylogenetic studies state that coronavirus was already present in latency phase since October in this city in the province of Hubei. During this latency phase, the infection followed its silent course and spread among the population in a stochastic way without showing epidemic signs.