Messenger RNA, or mRNA for short, serves as a blueprint for proteins. When mRNA is no longer needed, it has to be degraded. Director Elena Conti and her team at the Max Planck Institute of Biochemistry in Martinsried near Munich have now been able to show that the various molecular machines that translate and degrade mRNA are physically linked to each other and jointly form a supercomplex. This supercomplex consists of the ribosome, the SKI complex and the exosome and…
Imagine yourself sometime in the far future aboard a routine rocket to Mars. Someone just spilled their drink. Without gravity, it collects in floating blobs that ripple right before your eyes. Now freeze. What you see might look something like the above image from Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory’s (CSHL’s) Cheadle lab. But those purple and green blobs aren’t the floating remains of somebody’s drink. They’re mysterious cells in the brain’s visual cortex called OPCs. The visual cortex processes everything we…
Researchers at ETH Zurich have developed a laser that produces the strongest ultra-short laser pulses to date. In the future, such high power pulses could be used for precision measurements or materials processing. In brief Researchers have developed a laser that can produce extremely short pulses with peak powers up to 100 megawatts and 550 watts of average power. This was made possible by an optimized arrangement of the mirrors in the laser and improvements of a special mirror, which…
Using mechanisms inspired by nature to create new technological innovations is a signature of one Virginia Tech research team. The group led by Associate Professor Michael Bartlett has created an octopus-inspired adhesive, inspired by the shape of octopus suckers, that can quickly grab and controllably release challenging underwater objects. Having the ability to grab and release these underwater objects like heavy rocks, small shells, and soft beads, and other debris could be a powerful tool for underwater salvage and even rescue operations….
Fluorescein angiography capable of assessing neural blood flow in chronic nerve compression neuropathy. In modern office life, avoiding the onset of carpal tunnel syndrome might be a daily struggle. The worst case could mean needing surgery to alleviate compression of the nerves or to repair damaged nerves. Helping surgeons visually check the areas where neural blood flow has decreased due to chronic nerve compression can lead to improvements in diagnostic accuracy, severity assessments, and outcome predictions. With this in mind,…
Materials researchers have created a new composite material that combines two incompatible properties: stiff yet with a high damping capacity. In brief Oscillations and vibrations damage machines and buildings, while noise affects human health and wellbeing. Damping materials are consequently needed that are not only both rigid and load-bearing but also mitigate noise. Based on simulations, ETH materials researchers have developed a composite material that combines both these properties. This consists of layers of a stiff material in combination with…
…traveling across the interface of two semiconductor materials. UC Santa Barbara researchers have achieved the first-ever “movie” of electric charges traveling across the interface of two different semiconductor materials. Using scanning ultrafast electron (SUEM) techniques developed in the Bolin Liao lab, the research team has directly visualized the fleeting phenomenon for the first time. “There are a lot of textbooks written about this process from semiconductor theory,” said Liao, an associate professor of mechanical engineering. “There are a lot of…
… Aims to Enhance Safety in Autonomous Driving. Researchers from Jena have developed a cost-effective yet powerful infrared camera particularly suited for use in autonomous vehicles. The Fraunhofer Institute for Applied Optics and Precision Engineering IOF is presenting the innovative infrared camera at the International Suppliers Fair (IZB) in Wolfsburg. Fall is here, bringing rain, fog, and early darkness. For road users, this means heightened caution, as visibility conditions increasingly deteriorate. Thermal imaging cameras that can reliably detect people even…
…with Gaia and machine learning. A group of scientists led by the Leibniz Institute for Astrophysics Potsdam (AIP) and the Institute of Cosmos Sciences at the University of Barcelona (ICCUB) have used a novel machine learning model to process data for 217 million stars observed by the Gaia mission in an extremely efficient way. The results are competitive with traditional methods used to estimate stellar parameters. This new approach opens up exciting opportunities to map characteristics like interstellar extinction and…
Study by researchers from Freie Universität Berlin and the University of California, Santa Barbara published in “Nature” delivers new insights into how fruit flies process visual information and use it to navigate the world around them. An international team comprised of researchers from Freie Universität Berlin and the University of California, Santa Barbara have carried out the first-ever systematic analysis of all synaptic connections in the brain of an adult animal. This pioneering research focused on the connectome – a…
New findings on the function of cells published in Nature. Cellular droplets function in more diverse ways than previously known: The ability to fission membranes in cells was previously attributed solely to certain proteins. In a new publication in the renowned journal Nature, an international research team now shows that small cellular droplets, so-called biomolecular condensates, can also split membranes without the help of proteins. Simulations by mathematician Prof Sebastian Aland of the TU Bergakademie Freiberg illustrate how the droplets…
Light pollution is more serious than expected: Moths not only lose their orientation directly under street lamps. Their flight behaviour is also disturbed outside the cone of light. The increasing use of artificial light at night is one of the most dramatic man-made changes on earth. Streetlights and illuminated buildings are significantly changing the environment for nocturnal animals. Scientists have identified light pollution as one of the causes of the sharp decline in insects in recent years: many nocturnal insects…
Machine learning-equipped camera systems can be an effective and low-cost flood defence tool, researchers show. Smart CCTV systems trained to spot blockages in urban waterways could become an important future tool in flood prevention, new research published today has found. Researchers at the University of Bath have shown that their AI-enabled detection software, ‘AI on The River’ trained to accurately detect natural debris, litter or waste blocking trash screens mounted in culverts, can be integrated to existing CCTV systems to…
Researchers at the University of Liverpool and collaborators have discovered new understanding of bacterial photosynthesis. Using cutting-edge techniques, investigators have unveiled intricate detailed images of the key photosynthetic protein complexes of purple bacteria. These images shed new light on how these microorganisms harness solar energy. The study, published today, not only advances scientists’ understanding of bacterial photosynthesis but also has potential applications in the development of artificial photosynthetic systems for clean energy production. Like plants, many bacteria have evolved the…
A research team led by the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory has devised a unique method to observe changes in materials at the atomic level. The technique opens new avenues for understanding and developing advanced materials for quantum computing and electronics. The new technique, called the Rapid Object Detection and Action System, or RODAS, combines imaging, spectroscopy and microscopy methods to capture the properties of fleeting atomic structures as they form, providing unprecedented insights into how material properties evolve at the smallest scales. Traditional…
Astronomers have observed Jupiter’s legendary Great Red Spot (GRS), an anticyclone large enough to swallow Earth, for at least 150 years. But there are always new surprises – especially when NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope takes a close-up look at it. Hubble’s new observations of the famous red storm, collected 90 days between December 2023 to March 2024, reveal that the GRS is not as stable as it might look. The recent data show the GRS jiggling like a bowl of gelatin. The…
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