Earth
New research has confirmed long-suspected links between sleep apnea and Alzheimer's disease, finding identical signs of brain damage in both conditions.
While the cause of Alzheimer's disease remains a mystery, amyloid plaques that are toxic to brain cells are known indicators of the disease.
The new research showed these plaques start in the same place and spread in the same way in the brains of people with obstructive sleep apnea, as in those with Alzheimer's.
Landslides have long-term effects on tundra vegetation, a new study shows. Conducting the study in North West Siberia, the researchers found that tundra vegetation regenerated rapidly after a major landslide event in 1989. Two decades later, differences in the vegetation of the landslide area and the areas surrounding it have evened out, but even after 30 years, the vegetation of the landslide area is nowhere close to the vegetation of the surrounding areas.
CO2 electroreduction reaction driven by renewable electricity is an effective way to reduce the concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere and alleviate environmental problems such as global warming. It can convert CO2 into valuable products (such as CO, HCOOH, CH4) to realize effective carbon cycle. At present, the reported highly efficient electrocatalysts for electrocatalytic CO2 reduction reaction (CO2RR) are mainly concentrated on nanomaterials.
Researchers in the group of Jeroen den Hertog, in collaboration with researchers in Leiden, have found that a compound inhibits a group of proteins called BMP receptors. This compound, called cercosporamide, was previously only known to inhibit a different group of proteins. When overactive, BMP receptors can induce several diseases. Studying compounds that may counteract this overactivity may lead to more treatment options in the future. Their results were published in the scientific journal Disease Models & Mechanisms.
Fungi
While the majority of snakes would normally swallow their prey whole, the Small-banded Kukri Snake seems to have evolved a particularly macabre feeding habit that has never before been witnessed in a serpent.
Orchids are more than just decorative - they are also economically important in horticulture, in the pharmaceutical industry and even in the food industry. For example, vanilla orchids are grown commercially for their seed pods, and the economy on the northeast of Madagascar centers around the vanilla trade. But many of the approximately 29,000 orchid species face immediate threats by land conversion and illegal harvesting, resulting in an urgent need to identify the most endangered species and protect them from extinction.
Introducing high doses of gluten from four months of age into infants' diets could prevent them from developing coeliac disease, a study has found.
A molecule that can mimic the function of zaxinone, a natural growth-promoting plant metabolite, has been designed and fabricated by an international team led by KAUST and the University of Tokyo. Their successful mimic may have wide-reaching applications in plant biology and agriculture.
Methane is a powerful greenhouse gas that plays a central role in the global carbon cycle. At the same time, it is an important energy source for us humans. About half of its annual production is made by microorganisms known as methanogens that decompose organic material such as dead plants. This normally takes place in a habitat without oxygen as this gas is lethal to methanogens. But even in actually oxygen-free habitats, oxygen molecules occasionally appear. To render these intruders harmless, methanogens possess a special enzyme that is able to convert oxygen into water.
Cell plasticity is a property by which a cell can take on different and reversible identities. Cell plasticity is also essential for embryo development and for the correct function of the immune system. This property is also crucial in cancer as many cancer cells use it to gain resistance to chemotherapy and invade and colonise distant parts of the body.
The results obtained are very encouraging and the researchers hope to be able to make headway in a multifunctional cell therapy system to treat inflammatory bowel disease. In fact, they have already commenced studies on ulcerative colitis in animal models.
Biodiversity increases plant decomposition rate; should be factored into climate models, study finds
The afterlife of plant matter plays a significant role in ecosystems, as a key processor and provider of key nutrients. The rate of decomposition for leaf litter, among other plant matter, heavily influences the health of animals and plants, and this rate is expected to significantly increase as Earth continues to warm. There is another factor that could hold impact these ecosystems even more than climate change: biodiversity.
The location of a country on the earth says a lot about its climate, its neighboring countries, and the resources that might be found there. The location therefore determines what kind of country you would expect to find at that point.
WASHINGTON, Sept. 28, 2020 -- Maybe you've seen a beautiful, color-changing tea on social media. Chances are, it's butterfly pea flower tea. This week, we're investigating what allows it to shift from one vibrant color to the next, and Sam and George play around to see how many different colors they can get: https://youtu.be/ORl6EKQI1ws.
Regrowing forests are absorbing just a small proportion of the carbon dioxide released from widespread deforestation in the Amazon, according to new evidence.
Secondary forests - areas of new forest growing on land that has previously been deforested - form a key part of policies aiming to tackle net carbon emissions and mitigate climate change.
In 2017 there were nearly 130,000 square kilometres of secondary forest in the Brazilian Amazon - roughly equivalent to the size of England.