Latest science news in Biology & Nature
Training neural circuits early in development improves response
When it comes to training neural circuits for tissue engineering or biomedical applications, a new study suggests a key parameter: Train them young.
Study finds high levels of toxic pollutants in stranded dolphins and whales
Researchers examined toxins in tissue concentrations and pathology data from 83 stranded dolphins and whales from 2012 to 2018. They looked at 11 different animal species to test for 17...
Microbe reveals link between primordial organisms, complex life
Primordial, single-celled organisms and complex life share an important cellular process, according to a new study published Thursday in the journal Science.
Algorithm created by deep learning finds potential therapeutic targets throughout genome
A team of researchers have developed an algorithm through machine learning that helps predict sites of DNA methylation - a process that can change the activity of DNA without changing...
Key to dialogue between brain cells to protect against stroke
LSU Health New Orleans research has unlocked a key fundamental mechanism in the communication between brain cells when confronted with stroke and found DHA not only protected neuronal cells and...
Lab-grown and replanted corals to spawn in the Florida Keys
Not long after the August full moon, Florida's reefs are the scene of an annual show of sexual reproduction called the coral spawn, with coral colonies releasing masses of tiny...
Washington dam removal means 37 more miles of salmon habitat restored
Washington's dam-busting summer is still rolling, with two more dams coming down on the Pilchuck River, opening 37 miles of habitat to salmon for the first time in more than...
Study sheds new light on vein formation in plants
Researchers have found plant hormones known as strigolactones suppress the transportation of auxin, the main plant hormone involved in vein formation, so that vein formation occurs slower and with greater...
Scientists discover cells that filter and sharpen spatial signals
How do you keep orientation in a complex environment, like the city of Vienna? You can thank your brain's 'global positioning system' (GPS), the hippocampus, for this sense of orientation....
AI May Offer a Better Way to ID Drug-Resistant Superbugs
Biomedical engineers at Duke University have shown that different strains of the same bacterial pathogen can be distinguished by a machine learning analysis of their growth dynamics alone, which can...
Eighth California corrections officer dies of COVID-19
Sgt. Seeyengkee Ly spent more than 17 years with the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.
Asian giant hornet complete genome released by the Agricultural Research Service
The first complete genome of the Asian giant hornet has been released by a team of Agricultural Research Service (ARS) scientists. ARS has made the genome available to the research...
Innovative method offers a new way of studying developmental cardiac biomechanics, live in 4-D
How a valveless embryonic heart tube pumps blood is a long-standing scientific mystery. Thanks to innovations in light-based technology, fresh insights are now available into the biomechanics of mammalian cardiogenesis—and...
Watch: 13-year-old swimmer becomes youngest to cross Lake Tahoe
A 13-year-old swimmer has become the youngest person to make the "Godfather" swim across California's Lake Tahoe.
The proteasome controls ESCRT-III-mediated cell division in an archaeon
Sulfolobus acidocaldarius is the closest experimentally tractable archaeal relative of eukaryotes and, despite lacking obvious cyclin-dependent kinase and cyclin homologs, has an ordered eukaryote-like cell cycle with distinct phases of...
Cell-cell adhesion in plant grafting is facilitated by {beta}-1,4-glucanases
Plant grafting is conducted for fruit and vegetable propagation, whereby a piece of living tissue is attached to another through cell-cell adhesion. However, graft compatibility limits combinations to closely related...
Ligand-recognizing motifs in plant LysM receptors are major determinants of specificity
Plants evolved lysine motif (LysM) receptors to recognize and parse microbial elicitors and drive intracellular signaling to limit or facilitate microbial colonization. We investigated how chitin and nodulation (Nod) factor...
Structural insight into precursor ribosomal RNA processing by ribonuclease MRP
Ribonuclease (RNase) MRP is a conserved eukaryotic ribonucleoprotein complex that plays essential roles in precursor ribosomal RNA (pre-rRNA) processing and cell cycle regulation. In contrast to RNase P, which selectively...
Erratum for the Report "Activation of methane: A selective industrial route to methanesulfonic acid" (previously titled "Activation of methane to CH3+: A selective industrial route to methanesulfonic acid") by C. Diaz-Urrutia and T. Ott
Nanoparticle system captures heart-disease biomarker from blood for in-depth analysis
Researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison have developed a method combining sticky nanoparticles with high-precision protein measurement to capture and analyze a common marker of heart disease to reveal details...
New insight into the evolution of complex life on Earth
A novel connection between primordial organisms and complex life has been discovered, as new evidence sheds light on the evolutionary origins of the cell division process that is fundamental to...
DNA from an ancient, unidentified ancestor was passed down to humans living today
A new analysis of ancient genomes suggests that different branches of the human family tree interbred multiple times, and that some humans carry DNA from an archaic, unknown ancestor. Melissa...
Tasmanian devil research offers new insights for tackling cancer in humans
Researchers found a single genetic mutation that leads to reduced growth of a transmissible cancer in Tasmanian devils in the wild. The finding gives hope for the animals' survival and...
How cells keep growing even when under attack
Biochemists report that a damage-containment system in stressed bacteria can become overrun and blocked, but that this leads to cells responding by turning on different pathways to make sure that...
Faster rates of evolution are linked to tiny genomes
Inside every cell lies a genome - a full set of DNA that contains the instructions for building an organism. Across the biological world, genomes show a staggering diversity in...
This fruit attracts birds with an unusual way of making itself metallic blue
Instead of relying solely on pigments, the metallic blue fruits of Viburnum tinus use structural color to reflect blue light, a mechanism rarely seen in plants. Researchers show that the...
Scientists discover new concept of bacterial gene regulation
Bacteria are always with us: These tiny organisms are found within and on our body as is the case with all animals and plants. As part of a healthy microbiome...
Uncovering developmental mechanisms of elaborate petals in Nigella damascena
Researchers led by Dr. Kong Hongzhi from the Institute of Botany of the Chinese Academy of Sciences reported the mechanisms underlying elaborate petal development and specialized character formation in Nigella...