Five-hundred million years ago, it was relatively safe to go back in the water. That’s because creatures of the deep had not yet evolved jaws. In a new pair of studies in eLife and Development, scientists reveal clues about the origin of this thrilling evolutionary innovation in vertebrates. In the studies, Mathi Thiruppathy from Gage Crump’s laboratory at USC, and collaborator J. Andrew Gillis from the University of Cambridge and the Marine Biological Laboratory, looked to embryonic development as way to gain insight…
Equivalent total oxidation potential of a plasma-activated medium has implications for cancer treatments. Chinese researchers may have found a new approach to treat cancer by using a plasma treatment to induce apoptosis, the death of cancer cells, without any obvious side effect to normal cells. The catch is that while a plasma-activated medium (PAM) can be treated as a drug, there is always a dose-effect relationship. And within the plasma community, many researchers are defining the plasma dose as either…
Single gene previously linked to rare syndrome of epilepsy, autism and developmental disability. A single gene that was previously found to be the driving force in a rare syndrome linked to epilepsy, autism and developmental disability has been identified as a linchpin in the formation of healthy neurons. Duke researchers say the gene, DDX3X, forms a cellular machine called a helicase, whose job it is to split open the hairpins and cul-de-sacs of RNA so that its code can be…
Suppressing enzyme that removes oxygen from methionine sparks metastatic spread of cancer. Pancreatic cancer, though rare, is one of the deadliest of cancers, killing nearly 50,000 people yearly and doing so quickly, primarily because it metastasizes rapidly through the body. Barely one in 10 people survive beyond five years. But a discovery by chemists at the University of California, Berkeley, suggests a new way to slow or stop metastatic spread of pancreatic and perhaps other cancers. In last week’s issue…
Dissolving the problem: It has long been known that when salt is kept in a humid environment, it absorbs water, dissolving some of the salt and making it clump. Now, researchers from Japan have discovered that water vapor isn’t the only agent that can do this. In a study published on July 29, 2022 in RSC Advances, researchers from the Institute of Industrial Science, The University of Tokyo, have revealed that organic vapors can trigger the dissolution of molecular salts…
The work has been accepted at “SIGGRAPH”, the most important conference on computer graphics and interactive techniques. “LeviPrint” is a system that uses acoustic manipulation for assembling objects without physical contact. We generate acoustic fields that trap small particles, glue droplets and, most importantly, elongated stick-like elements that can be manipulated and reoriented as we levitate them. In short, it is a fully functional system for manufacturing 3D structures using contactless manipulation.” This is how it was explained by researchers…
A new GPU-based machine learning algorithm developed by researchers at the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) can help scientists better understand and predict connectivity between different regions of the brain. The algorithm, called Regularized, Accelerated, Linear Fascicle Evaluation, or ReAl-LiFE, can rapidly analyse the enormous amounts of data generated from diffusion Magnetic Resonance Imaging (dMRI) scans of the human brain. Using ReAL-LiFE, the team was able to evaluate dMRI data over 150 times faster than existing state-of-the-art algorithms. “Tasks that…
… using nanopore-based DNA computing technology. Cholangiocarcinoma, also known as bile duct cancer, is a cancer type with a characteristically high mortality. At the time of diagnosis, most bile duct cancers are typically already incurable. This is why methods for the early diagnosis of bile duct cancer are urgently needed. Liquid biopsy, the sampling of non-solid biological tissue like blood, is gaining interest as a quick and non-invasive method for diagnosing cancers. Unlike traditional biopsies that require surgery and often…
Researchers at KIT develop perovskite/CIS tandem solar cells with an efficiency of nearly 25 percent; combination of materials enables mobile applications. Stacking solar cells increases their efficiency. Working with partners in the EU-funded PERCISTAND project, researchers at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) have produced perovskite/CIS tandem solar cells with an efficiency of nearly 25percent– the highest value achieved thus far with this technology. Moreover, this combination of materials is light and versatile, making it possible to envision the use…
… will aim to think and act for themselves in the most hazardous places on Earth – and beyond. Manchester experts are combining expertise in “hot-robotics” and AI to make a new generation of robots to work in harsh hotspots. A new generation of smart robots is being developed at The University of Manchester as part of an ambitious R&D programme to help the UK maintain its leadership in automatation technologies, These new AI-powered machines will be designed to think…
Liquid water is an important prerequisite for life to develop on a planet. As researchers from the University of Bern, the University of Zurich and the National Centre of Competence in Research (NCCR) PlanetS report in a new study, liquid water could also exist for billions of years on planets that are very different from Earth. This calls our currently Earth-centred idea of potentially habitable planets into question. Life on Earth began in the oceans. In the search for life…
Unlocking possible new ways to make light act powerfully and drive chemical transformations. By trapping light into tiny gaps only a few atoms wide, a team from the NanoPhotonics Centre has magnified optical forces a thousand-fold, strong enough to force atoms into positions that drive chemical reactions more efficiently. “We found a new way to beef up the forces from light, enough to now move metal atoms, and that’s key to reduce the energy barrier for making catalysis work more…
Researchers discover new way in which T cells learn to tell friend from foe. The human immune system is a nearly perfect defense mechanism. It protects the body from disease-causing bacteria, viruses, and other pathogens. It detects nascent tumors and eradicates them. It cleans up cellular debris at the site of injury or infection. To perform its myriad functions, the immune system must, above all, differentiate between self and non-self—a remarkable selective ability that allows it to detect and disable…
Compounds that cut off the flow of fatty fuel stop the virus from replicating in the lab. The virus that causes COVID-19 undertakes a massive takeover of the body’s fat-processing system, creating cellular storehouses of fat that empower the virus to hijack the body’s molecular machinery and cause disease. After scientists discovered the important role of fat for SARS-CoV-2, they used weight-loss drugs and other fat-targeting compounds to try to stop the virus in cell culture. Cut off from its…
Rise of antimicrobial resistance adds urgency to research. Urinary tract infections are both very common and potentially very dangerous. More than half of all Australian women will suffer from a UTI in their lifetime, and nearly one in three women will have an infection requiring treatment with antibiotics before the age of 24. Around 80 per cent of UTIs are caused by uropathogenic E. coli (UPEC), which is increasingly resistant to antibiotics. E. coli-related death due to antimicrobial resistance is…
Using a time lens, Columbia Engineers resolve single photons 70x faster than other techniques, another step towards advancing quantum information processing. Light has long been used to transmit information in many of our everyday electronic devices. Because light is made of quantum particles called photons, it will also play an important role in information processing in the coming generation of quantum devices. But first, researchers need to gain control of individual photons. Writing in Optica, Columbia Engineers propose using a…
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