Transport proteins are responsible for the ongoing movement of substrates into and out of a biological cell. However, it is difficult to determine which substrates a specific protein can transport. Bioinformaticians at Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf (HHU) have developed a model – called SPOT – which can predict this with a high degree of accuracy using artificial intelligence (AI). They now present their approach, which can be used with arbitrary transport proteins, in the scientific journal PLOS Biology. Substrates in…

Clinical study of microscope-integrated system lays groundwork for using OCT to define tumor margins and reveal subsurface brain anatomy. Researchers have successfully integrated a megahertz-speed optical coherence tomography (MHz-OCT) system into a commercially available neurosurgical microscope and demonstrated its clinical usefulness. This advancement represents an important step toward developing an OCT instrument that could be used to identify tumor margins during brain surgery. OCT is a non-invasive imaging technique that provides high-resolution, cross-sectional images of tissue that allow visualization of…

Discovery of orbital angular momentum monopoles boosts the emerging field of orbitronics, an energy-efficient alternative to electronics. Orbital angular momentum monopoles have been the subject of great theoretical interest as they offer major practical advantages for the emerging field of orbitronics, a potential energy-efficient alternative to traditional electronics. Now, through a combination of robust theory and experiments at the Swiss Light Source SLS at Paul Scherrer Institute PSI, their existence has been demonstrated. The discovery is published in the journal…

Bonn researchers reclassify leading gene variants, a large proportion of them as benign. The genetic confirmation of a suspected diagnosis of “hereditary colorectal cancer” is of great importance for the medical care of affected families. However, many of the variants identified in the known genes cannot yet be reliably classified in terms of their causal role in tumor formation. Under the leadership of the University Hospital Bonn (UKB) and the University of Bonn, an international team of researchers has reassessed…

Plants can extract even the smallest traces of the important nutrient potassium from the soil. A team led by Würzburg biophysicist Rainer Hedrich describes how they achieve this in ‘Nature Communications’. Potassium is one of the nutrients that plants need in large quantities. However, the amount of potassium in the soil can vary greatly: potassium-poor soils can contain up to a thousand times less of this nutrient than potassium-rich soils. To be able to react flexibly to these differences, plants…

Scientists have found an alternative way to produce atoms of the superheavy element livermorium. The new method opens up the possibility of creating another element that could be the heaviest in the world so far: number 120. The search for new elements comes from the dream of finding a variant that is sufficiently stable to be long-lived and not prone to immediate decay. There is a theory in nuclear physics about an island of stability of superheavy elements. This is…

In the 1997 movie “Contact,” adapted from Carl Sagan’s 1985 novel, the lead character scientist Ellie Arroway (played by actor Jodi Foster) takes a space-alien-built wormhole ride to the star Vega. She emerges inside a snowstorm of debris encircling the star — but no obvious planets are visible. It looks like the filmmakers got it right. A team of astronomers at the University of Arizona, Tucson used NASA’s Hubble and James Webb space telescopes for an unprecedented in-depth look at…

In case you’re scratching your head, we help break it down. Using muon spin rotation at the Swiss Muon Source SmS, researchers at PSI have discovered that a quantum phenomenon known as time-reversal symmetry breaking occurs at the surface of the Kagome superconductor RbV₃Sb₅ at temperatures as high as 175 K. This sets a new record for the temperature at which time-reversal symmetry breaking is observed among Kagome systems. Excuse me, what? Yes, you read that right: -98 degrees Celsius….

University of Liverpool researchers are part of an international research collaboration that has shed light on what happens at the extremes of neutron and proton numbers, in search of where the periodic table of chemical elements ends. In a study published in the journal Nature, the research team provide insight into the structure of atomic nuclei of fermium (element 100) and nobelium (element 102) with different numbers of neutrons. Elements at the end of the periodic table do not occur naturally and must…

Borrowing principles from pest management, ASU researchers aim to extend survival rate, quality of life for cancer patients. Just as crop-devouring insects evolve to resist pesticides, cancer cells can increase their lethality by developing resistance to treatment. In fact, most deaths from cancer are caused by the evolution of therapeutic resistance. In a new review, Arizona State University researchers, working with colleagues around the world, explore how established agricultural pest management strategies could be adapted to address cancer therapy. The…

The mystery of why life uses molecules with specific orientations has deepened with a NASA-funded discovery that RNA — a key molecule thought to have potentially held the instructions for life before DNA emerged — can favor making the building blocks of proteins in either the left-hand or the right-hand orientation. Resolving this mystery could provide clues to the origin of life. The findings appear in research recently published in Nature Communications. Proteins are the workhorse molecules of life, used…

Scientists from the H.E.S.S. collaboration including a consortium of German universities, the Max-Planck-Institut für Kernphysik and the CNRS in France have recently identified electrons and positrons with the highest energies ever recorded on Earth. They provide evidence of cosmic processes emitting colossal amounts of energy, the origins of which are as yet unknown. These findings are due to be published on November 25 in the journal Physical Review Letters. The universe is full of extreme environments, from the coldest temperatures…

Old DSMZ treasures with new potential. Researchers name newly described bacteria exclusively after female scientists. Researchers led by Dr Imen Nouioui and Prof. Dr Yvonne Mast from the Department Bioresources for Bioeconomy and Health Research at the Leibniz Institute DSMZ-German Collection of Microorganisms and Cell Cultures GmbH have characterised 28 actinomycetes and investigated their biotechnological potential. The results of the study show that all actinomycetes have an inhibiting effect against a panel of test bacteria and yeasts. The researchers have…

With integrated gain-filtering, new device could boost 5G/6G networks and enhance data transmission. Researchers have developed a 3D-printed device that generates twisting light beams with orbital angular momentum (OAM), a form of rotational energy that can carry more data than regular beams. The efficient, compact and low-cost vortex beam generators could help enhance the capacity and reliability of future wireless systems. “The growing demand for high-capacity, interference-resistant communication systems in applications like 5G/6G wireless networks requires innovative solutions,” said research…

The quest for sustainable energy solutions has been a major focus of scientific research for decades. Solar energy, a clean and renewable source, has emerged as a promising alternative to traditional fossil fuels. In particular, perovskite solar cells have gained significant attention due to their flexibility and sustainability. A Collaborative Approach A recent breakthrough in materials science has accelerated the discovery of novel perovskite materials. By leveraging the power of artificial intelligence (AI) and high-throughput synthesis, researchers have been able…

New technology could remotely identify various types of plastics, offering a valuable tool for future monitoring and analysis of oceanic plastic pollution. Researchers have developed a new hyperspectral Raman imaging lidar system that can remotely detect and identify various types of plastics. This technology could help address the critical issue of plastic pollution in the ocean by providing better tools for monitoring and analysis. “Plastic pollution poses a serious threat to marine ecosystems and human livelihoods, affecting industries like fisheries,…

Insights from the first global appraisal of microbiomes in earth’s subsurface environments. Which microbes thrive below us in darkness – in gold mines, in aquifers, in deep boreholes in the seafloor – and how do they compare to the microbiomes that envelop the Earth’s surfaces, on land and sea? The first global study to embrace this huge question, conducted at the Marine Biological Laboratory (MBL), Woods Hole, reveals astonishingly high microbial diversity in some subsurface environments (up to 491 meters…

With a processing speed a billion times faster than nature, chip-based laser neuron could help advance AI tasks such as pattern recognition and sequence prediction. Researchers have developed a laser-based artificial neuron that fully emulates the functions, dynamics and information processing of a biological graded neuron. With a signal processing speed of 10 GBaud —a billion times faster than its biological counterparts — the new laser graded neuron could lead to breakthroughs in fields like artificial intelligence and other types…

The evolution of the lunar dynamo is crucial for understanding the Moon’s deep interior structure, thermal history, and surface environment. A recent study by Chinese scientists conducted paleomagnetic analyses on basalts returned by the Chang’e-6 mission and revealed a significant reinforcement of the lunar dynamo approximately 2.8 billion years ago (Ga). This groundbreaking work was published in Nature. Previous paleomagnetic studies of nearside lunar samples have established a general timeline for the evolution of the Moon’s magnetic field. However, limited spatial…

Active monitoring is a sufficiently safe option when prostate MRI findings are negative. There are several strategies for the early detection of prostate cancer. The first step is often a blood test for prostate-specific antigen (PSA). If PSA levels exceed a certain threshold, the next step typically involves taking a tissue sample for analysis. Another option is to use magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to search for signs of a tumor before deciding whether a biopsy is necessary, reserving biopsies only…