… for sodium-ion batteries using microwaves. The research team led by Dr. Daeho Kim and Dr. Jong Hwan Park at the Nano Hybrid Technology Research Center of the Korea Electrotechnology Research Institute (KERI) has developed a groundbreaking process technology that enables for ultrafast, 30-second preparation of hard carbon anodes for sodium-ion batteries using microwave induction heating. One of the next-generation secondary batteries, the sodium-ion battery uses sodium (Na) in lieu of the current mainstay, lithium (Li). Sodium, the main component…

Temporarily silencing brain regions helped scientists pinpoint where different types of memories originate. How do we distinguish threat from safety? It’s a question important not just in our daily lives, but for human disorders linked with fear of others, such as social anxiety or post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). The microscope image accompanying this press release, from the laboratory of Steven A. Siegelbaum, PhD, at Columbia’s Zuckerman Institute, displays a powerful technique scientists used to help us find an answer. The…

Dysfunctional mitochondria disrupt the gut microbiome. Disruptions of mitochondrial functions have a fundamental influence on Crohn’s disease. This connection has now been demonstrated by researchers at the Technical University of Munich (TUM). They showed that defective mitochondria in mice trigger symptoms of chronic intestinal inflammation and influence the microbiome. Typical symptoms of Crohn’s disease include chronic diarrhea, abdominal pain and fever. Although the causes of Crohn’s disease are not yet fully understood, it has been known for some years that…

A team led by physicists Steffen Sahl and Stefan Hell at the Max Planck Institute (MPI) for Multidisciplinary Sciences in Göttingen and the MPI for Medical Research in Heidelberg has succeeded in measuring distances within biomolecules using a light microscope, down to 1 nanometer and with Ångström precision. The intra-molecular resolution achieved with MINFLUX microscopy makes it possible to optically record the spatial distances between subunits in macromolecules and thus to detect different conformations of individual proteins in the light…

Researchers from the University of Freiburg have identified the HAN molecule as an important regulator that controls plant growth in conjunction with WOX5. Understanding this mechanism is relevant for breeding more resilient or higher-yielding crops. Plants form new leaves, flowers and roots at the tips of shoots and roots, in specific growth regions known as meristems. These meristems contain stem cells that divide as needed and form new cells that develop into specialised tissue. Using the example of plant roots,…

ISTA scientists predict—and witness—evolution in a 30-year marine snail experiment. It is 1988. The Koster archipelago, a group of islands off the Swedish west coast near the border with Norway, is hit by a particularly dense bloom of toxic algae, wiping out marine snail populations. But why would anyone care about the fate of a bunch of snails on a three-square-meter rock in the open sea? As it turns out, this event would open up the opportunity to predict and…

From brighter TV screens to better medical diagnostics and more efficient solar panels, new Curtin-led research has discovered how to make more molecules stick to the surface of tiny nanocrystals, in a breakthrough that could lead to improvements in everyday technology. Lead author Associate Professor Guohua Jia from Curtin’s School of Molecular and Life Sciences, said the study investigated how the shape of zinc sulfide nanocrystals affected how well molecules, known as ligands, stick to their surface. “Ligands, play an…

Researchers at LMU University Hospital have discovered a new molecular switch that protects against cell death. Programmed cell death protects the body against cancer and other diseases. A team of researchers led by Professor Alexander Bartelt from the Institute for Cardiovascular Prevention (IPEK) has decoded a new mechanism by which oxidative stress influences cell death. The researchers hope this discovery will lead to novel approaches for targeting cancer cells and other diseases. Their findings were recently published in the journal…

The protein GBP1 is a vital component of our body’s natural defence against pathogens. This substance fights against bacteria and parasites by enveloping them in a protein coat, but how the substance manages to do this has remained unknown until now. Researchers from Delft University of Technology have now unravelled how this protein operates. This new knowledge, published in Nature Structural & Molecular Biology, could aid in the development of medications and therapies for individuals with weakened immune systems. So-called…

DOE tasks a Jefferson Lab team to evaluate whether proton therapy cancer treatments may serve as a safer alternative to treatments using radioactive isotopes. Radiation therapy techniques have been used for more than a century to treat cancers. Physicists in the Radiation Detector and Imaging group and associated with the Biomedical Research & Innovation Center (BRIC) at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility have been for several years pursuing radiation therapy technology improvements in collaboration with…

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…

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,…

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…

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…