A sulfosugar from green vegetables promotes the growth of important gut bacteria. Diet and the gut microbiome With the consumption of a single type of vegetable such as spinach, hundreds of chemical components enter our digestive tract. There, they are further metabolized by the gut microbiome, a unique collection of hundreds of microbial species. The gut microbiome thus plays a major role in determining how nutrition affects our health. “So far, however, the metabolic capabilities of many of these microorganisms…
Spiders are master builders, expertly weaving strands of silk into intricate 3D webs that serve as the spider’s home and hunting ground. If humans could enter the spider’s world, they could learn about web construction, arachnid behavior and more. Today, scientists report that they have translated the structure of a web into music, which could have applications ranging from better 3D printers to cross-species communication and otherworldly musical compositions. The researchers will present their results today at the spring meeting…
Researchers at IMBA – Institute of Molecular Biotechnology of the Austrian Academy of Sciences – demonstrate that different viruses can lead to brain malformations through diverse mechanisms by using human brain organoid models. The results are published in the journal Cell Stem Cell. Microcephaly, a term referring to developmental malformations of the fetal brain, can be caused by diverse infections during pregnancy. The infectious agents in question are grouped under the general term of TORCH pathogens, in reference to Toxoplasma…
A clean energy future propelled by hydrogen fuel depends on figuring out how to reliably and efficiently split water. That’s because, even though hydrogen is abundant, it must be derived from another substance that contains it — and today, that substance is often methane gas. Scientists are seeking ways to isolate this energy-carrying element without using fossil fuels. That would pave the way for hydrogen-fueled cars, for example, that emit only water and warm air at the tailpipe. Water, or…
For the first time, researchers have been able to obtain data from underneath Thwaites Glacier, also known as the “Doomsday Glacier”. They find that the supply of warm water to the glacier is larger than previously thought, triggering concerns of faster melting and accelerating ice flow. With the help of the uncrewed submarine Ran that made its way under Thwaites glacier front, the researchers have made a number of new discoveries. Professor Karen Heywood of the University of East Anglia…
Two FRIB researchers create computer model to help explain and make nuclear discoveries. Michigan State University’s Witold Nazarewicz has a simple way to describe the complex work he does at the Facility for Rare Isotope Beams (frib.msu.edu), or FRIB. “I study theoretical nuclear physics,” said Nazarewicz, John A. Hannah Distinguished Professor of Physics and chief scientist at FRIB. “Nuclear theorists want to know what makes the nucleus tick.” There is a nucleus in every atom. Atoms, in turn, make up…
Heidelberg scientists achieve defect control with a new reaction pathway. The properties of carbon-based nanomaterials can be altered and engineered through the deliberate introduction of certain structural “imperfections” or defects. The challenge, however, is to control the number and type of these defects. In the case of carbon nanotubes – microscopically small tubular compounds that emit light in the near-infrared – chemists and materials scientists at Heidelberg University led by Prof. Dr Jana Zaumseil have now demonstrated a new reaction…
Nobel laureate in physics Richard Feynman once described turbulence as “the most important unsolved problem of classical physics.” Understanding turbulence in classical fluids like water and air is difficult partly because of the challenge in identifying the vortices swirling within those fluids. Locating vortex tubes and tracking their motion could greatly simplify the modeling of turbulence. But that challenge is easier in quantum fluids, which exist at low enough temperatures that quantum mechanics — which deals with physics on the…
For the millions of people worldwide who have sickle cell disease, there are only a few treatment options, which include risky bone marrow transplants, gene therapy or other treatments that address a subset of symptoms. Today, researchers will describe the discovery of a small molecule with the potential to address the root cause of sickle cell disease by boosting levels of fetal hemoglobin, a healthy form that adults normally do not make. The drug could be formulated into a convenient…
Extremely structured electromagnetic pulse carries not only the ultimate human dream of ultra-fast and ultra-intense energy extraction but also numerous extraordinary fundamental physical effects. As a traditional viewpoint, Electromagnetic pulses are typically treated as space-time (or space-frequency) separable solutions of Maxwell’s equations, where spatial and temporal (spectral) dependence can be treated separately. However, recent advances in structured light and topological optics have highlighted the nontrivial wave-matter interactions of pulses with complex space-time separability (STNS), as well as their potential for…
It may be possible in the future to use information technology where electron spin is used to store, process and transfer information in quantum computers. It has long been the goal of scientists to be able to use spin-based quantum information technology at room temperature. A team of researchers from Sweden, Finland and Japan have now constructed a semiconductor component in which information can be efficiently exchanged between electron spin and light at room temperature and above. The new method…
Short pieces of DNA–jumping genes–can bounce from one place to another in our genomes. When too many DNA fragments move around, cancer, infertility, and other problems can arise. Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL) Professor & HHMI Investigator Leemor Joshua-Tor and a research investigator in her lab, Jonathan Ipsaro, study how cells safeguard the genome’s integrity and immobilize these restless bits of DNA. They found that one of the jumping genes’ most needed resources may also be their greatest vulnerability. The…
By mashing up brains from various insect species, neuroscientists at the University of Arizona were able to count the neurons in individual brains, providing a more meaningful metric than traditional studies measuring brain size or weight. Using a surprisingly simple technique, researchers in the University of Arizona Department of Neuroscience have succeeded in approximating how many brain cells make up the brains of several species of bees, ants and wasps. The work revealed that certain species of bees have a…
Pioneering study co-led by Berkeley Lab has significance for next-gen information technologies. A decade ago, the discovery of quasiparticles called magnetic skyrmions provided important new clues into how microscopic spin textures will enable spintronics, a new class of electronics that use the orientation of an electron’s spin rather than its charge to encode data. But although scientists have made big advances in this very young field, they still don’t fully understand how to design spintronics materials that would allow for…
Machine-learning methods lead to discovery of rare “quadruply imaged quasars” that can help solve cosmological puzzles. With the help of machine-learning techniques, a team of astronomers has discovered a dozen quasars that have been warped by a naturally occurring cosmic “lens” and split into four similar images. Quasars are extremely luminous cores of distant galaxies that are powered by supermassive black holes. Over the past four decades, astronomers had found about 50 of these “quadruply imaged quasars,” or quads for…
Astronomers have found evidence that the first exoplanet that was identified transiting its star could have migrated to a close orbit with its star from its original birthplace further away. Analysis by international team including University of Warwick of the first transiting exoplanet that was discovered has revealed six different chemicals in its atmosphere. It is the first time that so many molecules have been measured, and points to an atmosphere with more carbon present than oxygen This chemical fingerprint…
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