Новости за 06.12.2021

Biologist Larry York's fascination with plant roots has spurred his research across four continents and inspired him to create accessible tools that enable others to explore the underground world.

People are significantly more supportive of public funding for artists when they see artists as collaborators who are working to bring attention to and help solve problems in their communities, according to a new study.

To date, CRISPR enzymes have been used to edit the genomes of one type of cell at a time: They cut, delete or add genes to a specific kind of cell within a tissue or organ, for example, or to one kind of microbe growing in a test tube.

Sous-vide cooking has inspired an idea that took promising technology out of the lab and into the barn. Researchers at Purdue University have successfully developed an on-site bovine respiratory disease test that provides results within an hour.

A predictive model of a polarized group, similar to the current U.S. Senate, demonstrates that when an outside threat—like war or a pandemic—fails to unite the group, the divide may be irreversible through democratic means. Published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences as part of a Dynamics of Political Polarization Special Feature, the model identifies such atypical behavior among the political elite as a powerful symptom of dangerously high levels of polarization.

As people curate their online news feeds, they may be unwillingly sorting themselves into polarized networks, according to a study led by researchers at Princeton University.

Iron is an essential nutrient that almost all life requires to grow and thrive. Iron's importance goes all the way back to the formation of the planet Earth, where the amount of iron in the Earth's rocky mantle was 'set' by the conditions under which the planet formed and went on to have major ramifications for how life developed. Now, scientists at the University of Oxford have uncovered the likely mechanisms by which iron influenced the development of complex life forms, which can also be used... Читать дальше...

Two companion research articles published in the current issue of Language point to persistent gender bias in both peer-reviewed journal articles and course materials used in the field of linguistics. The first study examined undergraduate textbooks commonly used for linguistics courses taught in English. The second study examined over 1,000 research articles published in top linguistics journals over the past 20 years. Further details about the findings of each article are presented separately below.

The next phase in the development of laser-plasma particle accelerators (LPAs)—potentially game-changing tools for research and practical applications—is underway at the Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab). A new approach to high-power lasers—combining the pulses from many fast-acting but lower-energy optical fiber lasers—will energize these super-compact accelerators.

A recent study by the Weber-Ban and Ban groups (IMBB) published in Science Advances uncovers that the master regulator of the DNA damage response in mycobacteria, PafBC, leverages a unique mechanism of transcriptional activation to allow promoter recognition at promoters lacking the canonical -35 motif.

Where and how did life begin on Early Earth more than 3.5 billion years ago from non-living chemicals? A key necessity for the first cells on Earth is the ability to make compartments and evolve to facilitate the first chemical reactions. Membraneless coacervate microdroplets are excellent candidates to describe protocells, with the ability to partition, concentrate molecules and support biochemical reactions. Scientists have not yet shown how those microdroplets could have evolved to start life on earth. Читать дальше...

Viral pathogens like the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus change the interior structure of the cells they infect. These changes occur at the level of individual cell components—the organelles—and can provide information on how viral diseases develop. Extremely powerful imaging techniques are needed to visualize them, but such methods are very data- and time-intensive. A German-American research team under the direction of Dr. Venera Weinhardt at the Centre for Organismal Studies (COS) of Heidelberg University... Читать дальше...

Juan Carlos Tiznado is the lead author on a new paper in the Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering that helps engineers better understand and predict the "liquefaction" hazard during earthquakes and more reliably mitigate it.

Phobias are often irrational by nature—especially in the case of spiders, as these creatures are usually more afraid of humans than vice-versa. But: some species are a force to be reckoned with—for example, the Latrodectus spider, more commonly known as the Black Widow. It catches its prey by using venom—to be precise, latrotoxins (LaTXs), a subclass of neurotoxins, or nerve poisons. A bite from a Black Widow can be fatal for humans. The exact structure of the nerve poison was previously unclear, but Prof. Читать дальше...

Though it is one of the great mysteries of science, the transformation of water into ice often escapes people's minds as it is just assumed that's what happens. But how and why it happens is the subject of intense scrutiny by ice scientists like Hadi Ghasemi, Cullen Associate Professor of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Houston. In order to watch the process of crystallization of water into ice at the molecular level, Ghasemi is reporting the best look yet at the process: water-ice phase... Читать дальше...

Researchers have developed a new method to estimate the risk of levee failure and flooding from burrowing animals like badgers and porcupines.

Mangrove ecosystems are distributed around the world, along tropical and subtropical coastlines. However, they do not extend beyond certain latitudes, even though the sites seem suitable for them. VUB researcher Ari Ximenes, with researchers from ULB and UCL, has now cracked this question among mangrove bio-geographers, by studying sites off the eastern coast of South America.

We are all closely associated with microorganisms. The most common example is the human gut, where bacteria are necessary for digestion and health or can be responsible for illness. The plant microbiome is similar. Depending on the microorganisms in and on it, a plant might be healthy and produce or it might die.

Agriculture is the major player in contributing to global food security. Increasing our crop productivity is currently a challenging task due to the limitations of climatic change and decreasing of agricultural land. Sustainable agriculture has been considered an excellent solution for the prevailing and future environmental conditions. To contribute to sustainable agriculture by improving crop productivity, we need precise information about these crops. Knowledge about the interactions of different... Читать дальше...

Species extinction, the introduction of non-native plants, climate change, and pollution are all major drivers of changes in biological communities due to human activity. Though these patterns have been well studied, most investigations focus on only one of these drivers and often in a localized area rather than more globally.

Springtails are those small hexapod invertebrates that are known to spring at the hint of foreign movement, thus acquiring their unique name. Though they form an active part of the soil food web by occupying lower trophic levels, little is known about their feeding habits. Usually, the feeding habits of soil mesofauna are deeply associated with litter decomposition, and, by extension, with terrestrial carbon cycling. Thus, exploration into the feeding habits and preferences of these minute creatures is essential.

More tigers now live in illegal captivity, on so-called "tiger farms," than in the wild. The prominence of these farms is highest in Vietnam, China and Thailand. On the farms, tigers are raised as livestock for the sole purpose of using their skeletons and body parts to produce illegal traditional medicines that are perceived as being able to treat rheumatic diseases and other ailments. In 2017, the Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA), an international NGO, identified more than 200 tiger farms in China, Lao PDR, Thailand and Vietnam. Читать дальше...

Because each person on the autism spectrum is very different, there is a saying that when you have met one person on the autism spectrum, you have met one person on the autism spectrum. Due to these many differences, providing learning in school settings can be challenging for teachers of autistic students, as well as for the professional development providers—such as district or regional autism experts who train and coach teachers.

Liquid crystals are not solid, but some of their physical properties are directional—like in a crystal. This is because their molecules can arrange themselves into certain patterns. The best-known applications include flat screens and digital displays. They are based on pixels of liquid crystals whose optical properties can be switched by electric fields.

Managing the United States' growing wild pig population has become a significant challenge over the past few decades, but new research from the University of Georgia may help landowners and government agencies fine-tune their strategies for limiting crop and property damage caused by the animals.