Rice, UTHealth study adds details to mechanisms responsible for memory. A chameleonlike protein in neurons can change its mind, and in the process change our brains. Scientists at Rice University and the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston (UTHealth) uncovered new clues in the protein CPEB3 as part of their dogged pursuit of the mechanism that allows humans to have long-term memories. The study by Rice theoretical biophysicist Peter Wolynes and Neal Waxham, a neurobiologist at UTHealth’s McGovern…
The very heart of our Milky Way harbours a large bar-like structure of stars whose size and rotational speed have been strongly contested in the last years. A new study has found an elegant solution to the discrepancies found in different observational studies, using the fact that the bar and spiral arms move at different rotational velocities, encountering each other about every 80 Million years. As the faster-rotating bar approaches a spiral arm, it appears to be much longer and…
Researchers at Mainz University were able to show that information can be stored in antiferromagnetic materials and to measure the efficiency of the writing operation We all store more and more information, while the end devices are supposed to get smaller and smaller. However, due to continuous technological improvement, conventional electronics based on silicon is rapidly reaching its limits – for example limits of physical nature such as the bit size or the number of electrons required to store information….
Scientists led by Kiel University (Germany), in collaboration with the ESRF, University of Victoria (Canada), University of Barcelona (Spain) and Forschungszentrum Jülich (Germany), have now found out why and how platinum degrades. Degradation of platinum, used as a key electrode material in the hydrogen economy, severely shortens the lifetime of electrochemical energy conversion devices, such as fuel cells. For the first time, scientists elucidated the movements of the platinum atoms that lead to catalyst surface degradation. Their results are published…
The ATES iQ project aims to demonstrate whether the carbonate rocks 500 meters below Berlin are suitable for heating buildings. In 2017 a huge storage facility in the pores of a sandstone layer at a depth of between 1015 and 1045 meters below Berlin’s Grunewald forest that had been used to temporarily store natural gas, to cover the city’s fluctuating needs, was shut down. In 2017 a huge storage facility in the pores of a sandstone layer at a depth…
Model systems based on virus capsids have shown how large biomolecules are able to penetrate a cell nucleus / The larger the molecule, the more nuclear localization signals are needed A new study in the field of biophysics has revealed how large molecules are able to enter the nucleus of a cell. A team led by Professor Edward Lemke of Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (JGU) has thus provided important insights into how some viruses, for example, can penetrate into the…
An international research team led by the University of Bern has succeeded in developing an electrocatalyst for hydrogen fuel cells which, in contrast to the catalysts commonly used today, does not require a carbon carrier and is therefore much more stable. The new process is industrially applicable and can be used to further optimize fuel cell powered vehicles without CO2 emissions. Fuel cells are gaining in importance as an alternative to battery-operated electromobility in heavy traffic, especially since hydrogen is…
University of Sussex quantum physicists have developed an algorithm which helps early quantum computers to perform calculations most efficiently The team used their model to calculate the expected computational power of early quantum computers Their research highlights a fundamental advantage of the ‘trapped ion’ approach over other methods Quantum physicists at the University of Sussex have created an algorithm that speeds up the rate of calculations in the early quantum computers which are currently being developed. They have created…
Researchers at Osaka University identify vicious cycle involving RNA exosome that accelerates disease progression in FTLD/ALS. Researchers at Osaka University have identified a fault in the RNA quality control system of cells that leads to the haywire production of toxic proteins in frontotemporal lobar degeneration and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (FTLD/ALS). Their new study, published in The EMBO Journal, shows that an abnormality of the C9orf72 gene produces toxic proteins that hinder the cells’ ability to destroy defective C9orf72 RNA, which…
A congenital disorder of the fat metabolism can apparently cause chronic hyperreaction of the immune system. This is the conclusion reached by researchers from the University of Bonn in a recent study. The results are published in the journal Autophagy. Some individuals suffer from a genetic defect that causes their cells to form an unusual kind of fat. The consequences of this very rare disorder are grave. In some patients, the nerve cells responsible for transmitting pain die over time;…
Researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology discovered that strigolactones, a class of novel plant hormones, mediate the fine-tuning of the production plant defensive substances in the stem of plants of the wild tobacco species Nicotiana attenuata. In a cooperation with partners in China and Korea, they found that strigolactones and their crosstalk with other hormones involved in plant defense were crucial for tobacco plants’ ability to tolerate insects that live inside the stem. Plants that are no…
Ice is melting at a surprisingly fast rate underneath Shirase Glacier Tongue in East Antarctica due to the continuing influx of warm seawater into the Lützow-Holm Bay. Hokkaido University scientists have identified an atypical hotspot of sub-glacier melting in East Antarctica. Their findings, published in the journal Nature Communications, could further understandings and predictions of sea level rise caused by mass loss of ice sheets from the southernmost continent. The 58th Japanese Antarctic Research Expedition had a very rare opportunity to…
Interdisciplinary research team at Kiel University develops a microchannel matrix for tailored drug release. Glioblastomas are among the most aggressive brain tumours in adults and difficult to treat due to their rapid growth and their diversity. Usually, the malignant tumours cannot be completely or permanently removed by surgery. Thus, a combined radio- and chemotherapy follows, which, however, can be associated with side effects on the entire human body. So-called local therapy approaches are therefore being explored as possible alternatives. These…
The intervertebral discs connect the vertebrae and give the spine its mobility. The disc consists of a cartilaginous fibrous ring and a gelatinous core as a buffer. It has always been assumed that only humans and other mammals have discs. A misconception, as a research team under the leadership of the University of Bonn has now discovered: Even Tyrannosaurus rex could have suffered a slipped disc. The results have now been published in the journal “Scientific Reports”. Present-day snakes and…
Intestinal stem cells keep a fine balance between two potential forms: remaining as stem cells, or developing into intestinal epithelial cells. In a new study, researchers from Tokyo Medical and Dental University (TMDU) discovered a novel molecular mechanism that regulates this balance and preserves the stemness of intestinal stem cells–that is, their ability to develop into any intestinal epithelial cell type. The inner lining of intestines, the intestinal epithelium, ensures adequate digestion and adsorption of nutrients. It is made up…
A research group composed of Professor Takayuki Shibata and his colleagues at the Department of Mechanical Engineering, Toyohashi University of Technology has applied a microfluidic chip technology to develop a multiplex genetic diagnostic device for the early detection and prevention of crop diseases. The group conducted a gene amplification experiment using four kinds of cucumber viruses on the palm-size diagnostic device, and successfully demonstrated that the rapid multiplex diagnosis can be performed within 1 hour of testing. This diagnostic device…
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