Latest science news in Biology & Nature
A new hybrid fungus is found in hospitals and linked to lung disease
From the mythical minotaur to the mule, creatures created from merging two or more distinct organisms – hybrids – have played defining roles in human history and culture. However, not...
Is flying safe amid coronavirus outbreak? Guess what airlines say
Airline trade groups are making the case that the risk of getting COVID-19 on a flight is low.
CYCLIN-B1/2 and CYCLIN-D1 act in opposition to coordinate cortical stem cell self-renewal and lineage commitment
The capacity of a stem cell population to generate several distinct cell types in a temporally defined manner is fundamental to both organ development and homeostasis. To achieve this, stem...
Colourful Queensland, Australia
Image: This image, captured by Copernicus Sentinel-2, takes us over part of Channel Country – a pastural region located mostly in southwest Queensland, Australia.
UK's big zoos at risk of closure
The Covid crisis is putting the survival of one of the UK's largest zoos at risk.
Caleb Farny
Address: 2215Email: farny@bu.eduInstitution Name: Boston UniversityDivision: EngineeringArea of Expertise: Mechanical Engineering
Coronavirus lockdown wildlife recordings appeal
Scientists want people to send them recordings of their wildlife experiences under the lockdown.
'Tiger King': Joe Exotic speaks out after judge awards his zoo to Carole Baskin
Joe Exotic on Thursday weighed in on a ruling that handed the zoo at the center of the Netflix documentary Tiger King to his rival Carole Baskin.
Watch: Shark steals flipper from diver's foot off Australian coast
An Australian diver spear fishing off the coast of Queensland captured video of his encounter with a bull shark that stole the flipper off his foot.
New image of a cancer-related enzyme in action helps explain gene regulation
New images of an enzyme in action as it interacts with the chromosome could provide important insight into how cells—including cancer cells—regulate their genes.
Dozens of blue land crabs parade through Florida woman's yard
A Florida resident shared video of a parade of blue land crabs marching next to her home after recent rains forced them out of the ground.
Unexpected conservation and global transmission of agrobacterial virulence plasmids
The accelerated evolution and spread of pathogens are threats to host species. Agrobacteria require an oncogenic Ti or Ri plasmid to transfer genes into plants and cause disease. We developed...
Comment on "RNA-guided DNA insertion with CRISPR-associated transposases"
Strecker et al. (Research Articles, 5 July 2019, p. 48) described a system for exploiting a Tn7-type transposon-encoded CRISPR-Cas system to make RNA-guided, programmable insertions. Although this system has great...
NELL2-mediated lumicrine signaling through OVCH2 is required for male fertility
The lumicrine system is a postulated signaling system in which testis-derived (upstream) secreted factors enter the male reproductive tract to regulate epididymal (downstream) pathways required for sperm maturation. Until now,...
MTOR signaling orchestrates stress-induced mutagenesis, facilitating adaptive evolution in cancer
In microorganisms, evolutionarily conserved mechanisms facilitate adaptation to harsh conditions through stress-induced mutagenesis (SIM). Analogous processes may underpin progression and therapeutic failure in human cancer. We describe SIM in multiple...
Restoring light sensitivity using tunable near-infrared sensors
Enabling near-infrared light sensitivity in a blind human retina may supplement or restore visual function in patients with regional retinal degeneration. We induced near-infrared light sensitivity using gold nanorods bound...
The structure of human CST reveals a decameric assembly bound to telomeric DNA
The CTC1-STN1-TEN1 (CST) complex is essential for telomere maintenance and resolution of stalled replication forks genome-wide. Here, we report the 3.0-angstrom cryo–electron microscopy structure of human CST bound to telomeric...
Man finds 40 baby snakes living inside home air conditioner
An India resident who noticed baby snakes inside his home opened up his air conditioning unit and found about 40 snakes slithering around inside.
Novel switch protein that 'turns on' sperm for fertilization
For a sperm to fertilize an egg, the sperm must first mature in a man's epididymis. Now, an international team of researchers has identified a chain of events in which...
Plant detectives develop new way to trace global spread of major plant disease
A team led by Oregon State University scientists has developed a way to potentially thwart the spread of a disease-causing bacterium that harms more than hundred plant species worldwide, an...
Court cancels dicamba herbicide registration
Ruling nixes the use of herbicides formulated to spray on popular genetically modified soybean varieties
Butterfly-inspired nanotech makes natural-looking pictures on digital screens
Taking inspiration from nature's nanotech that creates the stunning color of butterfly wings, a University of Central Florida researcher is creating technology to make extremely low-power, ultra-high-definition displays and screens...
Atomic blueprint of 'molecular machine' reveals role in membrane protein installation
Scientists have revealed the first known atomic structure of a 'molecular machine' responsible for installing critical signaling proteins into cellular membranes. The findings shed new light on how this process...
DNA crossovers can drive healthy, abnormal sperm, egg cell division
Human genetic diversity wouldn't be possible without DNA crossovers in egg and sperm cells. Two studies provide new insights into how crossovers go right -- and wrong, leading to infertility,...
Egg-based coating preserves fresh produce
Eggs that would otherwise be wasted can be used as the base of an inexpensive coating to protect fruits and vegetables.
New role assigned to a human protein in transcription and genome stability
Transcription of genetic information is a fundamental process for life. If it does not work correctly, the consequences for the organism range from lethality to defects during development, genetic diseases,...
Fluorescence bioimaging: Near-infrared fluorescence imaging of living subjects
Scientists can monitor biomolecular processes in live tissue by noninvasive optical methods, such as fluorescence imaging. However, the fluorescent dyes used for that purpose are often rather unstable, and photobleaching,...
Discovery of a novel gene involved in DNA damage repair and male fertility
A research group from the Institute of Molecular Embryology and Genetics (IMEG) at Kumamoto University, Japan has discovered that the gene C19ORF57 plays a critical role in meiosis. The gene...