Working memory, also called short-term memory, was long theorised to have the core task of actively storing information over a short period of time. Nowadays, working memory is considered more complex, because processes such as information selection and the planning of future actions run in parallel. In a recent study, a group of researchers at Leibniz Research Centre for Working Environment and Human Factors at TU Dortmund (IfADo) shed light on the prerequisites for the initiation of motor preparation processes…
How can we see what neurons deep in the cortex are doing during behavior? Researchers of the MPINB developed a microscope small enough to be carried on the head of a freely moving mouse and capable of measuring neuronal activity in all, even the deepest, cortical layers. The 2-gram microscope is controlled remotely, minimizing the need to handle the animal. It also incorporates new technology enabling imaging in lit environments, something that comparable microscopes struggled to do. Neuronal activity can…
Discovery shows heat movement slowing down under extreme pressure instead of speeding up. UCLA researchers and their colleagues have discovered a new physics principle governing how heat transfers through materials, and the finding contradicts the conventional wisdom that heat always moves faster as pressure increases. Up until now, the common belief has held true in recorded observations and scientific experiments involving different materials such as gases, liquids and solids. The researchers detailed their discovery in a study published last week…
Laboratory parameters maintained at physiologically relevant levels allow for more robust experiments with human cells. A cell-culturing technique developed by KAUST scientists helps to create biological conditions that more closely mirror physiological environments compared to standard protocols used in most laboratories today. The new bioreactor system delivers gases — rather than chemicals — to keep acidity levels and oxygen exchange kinetics within body-like ranges, an approach that allows for more careful control of environmental parameters. It is also more responsive…
Is it possible to control an animal’s or a cell’s behavior using light? In recent years, remarkable progress in optogenetics has been made as research methods come close to realizing this goal. A research group led by Professors Mitsumasa Koyanagi and Akihisa Terakita of the Graduate School of Science, and Professor Eriko Kage-Nakadai of the Graduate School of Human Life and Ecology at Osaka Metropolitan University has revealed a new system that allows them to control the behavior of the…
New research helps to resolve evolutionary origins of the “platypus of fungi”. About 600 seemingly disparate fungi that never quite found a fit along the fungal family tree have been shown to have a common ancestor, according to a University of Alberta-led research team that used genome sequencing to give these peculiar creatures their own classification home. “They don’t have any particular feature that you can see with the naked eye where you can say they belong to the same…
– the elusive glow between distant galaxies. An international team of astronomers have turned a new technique onto a group of galaxies and the faint light between them – known as ‘intra-group light’ – to characterise the stars that dwell there. Lead author of the study published in MNRAS, Dr Cristina Martínez-Lombilla from the School of Physics at UNSW Science, said “We know almost nothing about intra-group light. “The brightest parts of the intra-group light are ~50 times fainter than…
Cephalopods like octopuses, squids and cuttlefish are highly intelligent animals with complex nervous systems. In “Science Advances”, a team led by Nikolaus Rajewsky of the Max Delbrück Center has now shown that their evolution is linked to a dramatic expansion of their microRNA repertoire. If we go far enough back in evolutionary history, we encounter the last known common ancestor of humans and cephalopods: a primitive wormlike animal with minimal intelligence and simple eyespots. Later, the animal kingdom can be…
— which type of packaging is more sustainable? The packaging world is experiencing a shift away from plastic toward paper, cardboard or paperboard. But how sustainable is this new trend? In its latest report “Reusable plastic crates vs. single-use cardboard boxes — two packag-ing systems in competition”1, the Fraunhofer Institute for Environmental, Safety and Energy Technology UMSICHT and the Fraunhofer Institute for Building Physics IBP were commissioned by the Stiftung Initiative Mehrweg (SIM) to explain the background to and correlations…
MHH psychiatry coordinates largest German study to improve depression treatment. Using biomarkers to find individual diagnostic and therapeutic paths – what already works in oncology is also to become possible in psychiatry. Under the leadership of Professor Dr Helge Frieling, Vice Head of the Department of Psychiatry, Social Psychiatry and Psychotherapy at the Hannover Medical School (MHH), a national research network is now being launched that aims to tailor the treatment of depression more closely to the individual patient than…
Collaborative Research Centre on magnetoreception and animal navigation at the University of Oldenburg has been awarded funding for another four years. The astonishing navigational skills of birds, bats and fish and their ability to use the Earth’s magnetic field for orientation have been the focus of the Collaborative Research Centre “Magnetoreception and Vertebrate Navigation” at the University of Oldenburg for the last four years. The German Research Foundation (DFG) has now extended its funding for the project, and the Collaborative…
– what does this have to do with volcanoes? Despite their differences, cold powder avalanches and hot pyroclastic flows during volcanic eruptions do have a number of things in common, not least their immense destructive power. Completely independently of one another, researchers from both fields have discovered that pulsating flows are responsible for the destructive power of these two natural hazards. A research project supported by the Swiss National Science Foundation is aiming to uncover the origin of this still…
Protein scissors activate defense function. For several years now, the CRISPR/Cas9 gene scissors have been causing a sensation in science and medicine. This new tool of molecular biology has its origins in an ancient bacterial immune system. It protects bacteria from attack by so-called phages, i. e. viruses that infect bacteria. Researchers from the Institute of Structural Biology at the University Hospital Bonn (UKB) and the Medical Faculty of the University of Bonn, in cooperation with the partner University of…
KIT researchers develop a chip that captures microbial dark matter in air, water, and soil – new tool for biotechnology and medicine. From human intestines to the bottom of the sea: Microorganisms populate nearly any habitat, no matter how hostile it is. Their great variety of survival strategies is of huge potential in biotechnology. Most of these organisms, however, are unknown, because they cannot be cultivated. To make better use of this “microbial dark matter”, a team of researchers from…
The JWST just scored another first: a detailed molecular and chemical portrait of a distant world’s skies. The telescope’s array of highly sensitive instruments was trained on the atmosphere of a “hot Saturn” — a planet about as massive as Saturn orbiting a star some 700 light-years away — known as WASP-39 b. While JWST and other space telescopes, including Hubble and Spitzer, previously have revealed isolated ingredients of this broiling planet’s atmosphere, the new readings provide a full menu of atoms, molecules, and…
With the help of an AI, researchers at Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden, have succeeded in designing synthetic DNA that controls the cells’ protein production. The technology can contribute to the development and production of vaccines, drugs for severe diseases, as well as alternative food proteins much faster and at significantly lower costs than today. How our genes are expressed is a process that is fundamental to the functionality of cells in all living organisms. Simply put, the genetic code…
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