Earth
Cells can evolve specialised functions under a much broader range of conditions than previously thought, according to a study published today in eLife.
The findings, originally posted on bioRxiv*, provide new insight about natural selection, and help us understand how and why common multicellular life has evolved so many times on Earth.
Sensors for forest monitoring are already used to track changes in temperature, humidity and light, as well as the movements of animals and insects through their habitat. They also help to detect and monitor forest fires and can provide valuable data on how climate change and other human activities are impacting the natural world.
However, placing these sensors can prove difficult in large, tall forests, and climbing trees to place them poses its own risks.
Translation is the process by which genetic information is converted into proteins, the workhorses of the cell. Small molecules called transfer RNAs ("tRNAs") play a crucial role in translation; they are the adapter molecules that match codons (the building blocks of genetic information) with amino acids (the building blocks of proteins). Organisms carry many types of tRNAs, each encoded by one or more genes (the "tRNA gene set").
Inspired by a parasitic worm that digs its sharp teeth into its host's intestines, Johns Hopkins researchers have designed tiny, star-shaped microdevices that can latch onto intestinal mucosa and release drugs into the body.
Irvine, Calif., Nov. 3, 2020 -- Employing a strategy known as "population modification," which involves using a CRISPR-Cas9 gene drive system to introduce genes preventing parasite transmission into mosquito chromosomes, University of California researchers have made a major advance in the use of genetic technologies to control the transmission of malaria parasites.
CHAPEL HILL, N.C.--University of North Carolina Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center researchers have identified a new and evolutionarily conserved pathway responsible for "closing down" gene activity in the mammalian cell. The finding is closely related to the Polycomb pathway defined decades ago by a set of classic genetic experiments carried out in fruit flies.
Whether a Trump triumph or a Biden victory, millions of Americans may expect a decline in their mental health if they live in states that favor the losing candidate. And the higher the margin of victory for the losing candidate, the greater the number of days of stress and depression for residents in those states.
In 2017, while browsing the fossil collections of Yale's Peabody Museum of Natural History, University of Texas at Austin graduate student Simon Scarpetta came across a small lizard skull, just under an inch long.
The skull was beautifully preserved, with a mouth full of sharp teeth - including some with a distinctive curve.
Much to Scarpetta's surprise, no one had studied it. Since being discovered in 1971 on a museum fossil hunting trip to Wyoming, the 52 million-year-old skull had sat in the specimen drawer.
New Rochelle, NY, November 2, 2020--Depression symptoms and social anxiety are associated with greater use of mobile dating applications among women. The extent to which these are associated with dating app use is reported in the peer-reviewed journal Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking. Click here to read the article now.
Five million years ago, dangerous carnivores - such as giant wolverines and otters, bears, sabertooth cats, and large hyaenids - prowled the West Coast of South Africa. Today we can confirm that, among them, fearlessly roamed a smaller relative of the living honey badger.
SPOKANE, Wash. - Very rural areas in the United States have fewer mental health services for young people, yet that's where the help is needed the most, says a study led by Janessa Graves of the Washington State University College of Nursing, published in JAMA Network Open.
Canada should integrate self-testing for HIV into the health system to help reduce the burden of the disease, argues a commentary published in CMAJ (Canadian Medical Association Journal.
Self-testing for HIV (HIVST) -- taking a saliva, urine or blood sample and interpreting the result, similar to a home pregnancy test -- is available in the United Kingdom, France, the Netherlands, United States, Latvia, Spain, Kenya and South Africa, but not in Canada.
LUGANO, 31 October, 2020 - Research presented today at EADV's 29th Congress, EADV Virtual, shows hope that a form of vitamin B3 could protect skin cells from the effects of ultraviolet (UV) exposure: the main risk factor for non-melanoma skin cancers (1).
Researchers in Italy isolated cells (human primary keratinocytes) from the skin of patients with non-melanoma skin cancers. These cells were treated with three different concentrations of nicotinamide (NAM), a form of vitamin B3, for 18, 24, and 48 hours and then exposed to UVB.
CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA (NOVEMBER 1, 2020). We live in a litigious world. With respect to medicine, this manifests in medical malpractice suits. Patients sue doctors for unexpected adverse outcomes. One field prone to litigation is neurosurgery, which "treats acute pathology and refractory pain." Patient's dissatisfaction with the outcomes of neurosurgical procedures sometimes shifts over into the legal world where it forms the basis of medical malpractice suits.
Mega-droughts - droughts that last two decades or longer - are tipped to increase thanks to climate change, according to University of Queensland-led research.
UQ's Professor Hamish McGowan said the findings suggested climate change would lead to increased water scarcity, reduced winter snow cover, more frequent bushfires and wind erosion.
The revelation came after an analysis of geological records from the Eemian Period - 129,000 to 116,000 years ago - which offered a proxy of what we could expect in a hotter, drier world.