Researchers at Linköping University, together with colleagues in China, have developed a tiny unit that is both an optical transmitter and a receiver. "This is highly significant for the miniaturisation of optoelectronic systems", says LiU professor Feng Gao. The results have been published in Nature Electronics.

The regulators of apoptosis watch over cell replication and the decision to enter the cell cycle. Researchers now show a direct link between the protein MCL1 -- a member of the BCL2 protein family known as the gatekeepers of apoptosis -- and the cell-cycle checkpoint protein P18. Through this link, MCL1, which functions in the decision between either cell survival or programmed death, can also...

Materials that combine topological electronic properties and quantum magnetism are of high current interest, for the quantum many-body physics that can unfold in them and for possible applications in electronic components. For one such material, physicists at ETH Zurich have now established the microscopic mechanism linking magnetism and electronic-band topology.

A previous study has shown that a type of squill growing in Madeira produces a chemical compound that may be useful as a medicinal drug. But a new study from researchers at Uppsala University has shown that this is probably not true: instead, the plant had likely accumulated antibiotics from contaminated soil.

Researchers in the Arizona State University Department of Psychology have shown that chemogenetic activation of the anterior insula restores prosocial behavior in an animal model of opioid addiction and empathy. The findings suggest an important role for the anterior insula in the brain response to addiction.

A case study of a patient in Wuhan, China, suggests that the immunosuppressant tocilizumab may be an effective COVID-19 treatment for very ill patients who also have multiple myeloma and other blood cancers. The report, published in Blood Advances, also suggests that blood cancer patients may have atypical COVID-19 symptoms.

While drylands around the world will expand at an accelerated rate because of future climate change, their average productivity will likely be reduced, according to a new study. These regions, which primarily include savannas, grasslands and shrublands, are important for grazing and non-irrigated croplands. They are also a critical part of the global carbon cycle and make up 41% of Earth's land...

An antibody recovered from a survivor of the SARS epidemic in the early 2000s has revealed a potential vulnerability of the new coronavirus at the root of COVID-19, according to a study from scientists at Scripps Research.

You might have heard that COVID-19 vaccine trials are underway in Seattle. What exactly is being tested? How much longer will these tests take? And when can we expect a vaccine against the novel coronavirus? We chat with Benjamin Neuman, Ph.D., one of the world's experts on coronavirus, and Daniel Wrapp, one of the scientists who mapped the structure of the protein that the coronavirus uses to...

In early February, research teams from Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin, München Klinik Schwabing and the Bundeswehr Institute of Microbiology published initial findings describing the efficient transmission of SARS-CoV-2. The researchers' detailed report on the clinical course and treatment of Germany's first group of COVID-19 patients has now been published in Nature*. Criteria may...

Discussion of recommendations for angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitor and angiotensin receptor blocker use in patients with or at risk of contracting coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19).

Public health scientists predict that school closures due to the COVID-19 pandemic will exacerbate the epidemic of childhood obesity in the United States. Andrew Rundle, DrPH, associate professor of epidemiology at Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health, and colleagues expect that COVID-19-related school closures will double out?of?school time this year for many children in the US and...

Scientists uncover an unusual partnership at the bottom of the ocean.

Whether individuals should continue to take angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors and angiotensin receptor blockers in the context of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is discussed in this article.

Melatonin controls the body clock -- high melatonin levels make us feel tired in the evening. However, the hormone also plays an important role in animals' biological rhythms. Artificial light at night -- light pollution -- can suppress the production of melatonin in fish, even at very low light intensities, a finding established by researchers from the Leibniz-Institute of Freshwater Ecology and...

Study by researchers at Brazil's National Disaster Surveillance and Early Warning Center (CEMADEN) also shows a rise in the number of consecutive dry days, suggesting that extreme rainfall events are concentrated in shorter, more widely spaced periods.

The WEARE group at the University of Cordoba analyzed a case of aquifer recovery and concluded that supervision, governance and use of water for high value crops are some of the keys to guaranteeing sustainability of these reserves

Normal speech by individuals who are asymptomatic but infected with coronavirus may produce enough aerosolized particles to transmit the infection, according to aerosol scientists at UC Davis. Although it's not yet known how important this is to the spread of COVID-19, it underscores the need for strict social distancing measures -- and for virologists, epidemiologists and engineers who study...

An increased proportion of Indigenous American (IA) ancestry was associated with a greater incidence of HER2-positive breast cancer, according to a study published in Cancer Research, a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research.

A research team led by Prof. WANG Bo from the Nanjing Institute of Geology and Palaeontology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (NIGPAS) found that both lake and peat-forming forest ecosystems probably took as long as 10 million years to recover after the end-Permian mass extinction.

A larger thigh circumference may be associated with lower blood pressure and a reduced risk of heart disease in people with obesity, according to a study published in Endocrine Connections. In overweight and obese Chinese men and women, larger thigh circumferences were associated with lower blood pressure. These findings suggest that carrying more weight on the thighs may be a marker of better...

As Tropical Cyclone Irondro continues to move through the Southern Indian Ocean, NASA's Terra satellite saw the storm developing an eye as it continued to intensify.

NASA-NOAA's Suomi NPP satellite passed over the Southern Pacific Ocean and provided forecasters with a visible image of newly formed Tropical Cyclone Harold. Harold formed near the Solomon Islands and now threatens Vanuatu, which has already issued some warnings.

An article published in the Journal of Medicinal Chemistry shows a new family of molecules with high affinity to join imidazoline receptors, which are altered in the brain of those patients with neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's, Parkinson's and Huntington's. According to the preclinical study, the merge of these specific ligands to I2 receptors improves cognitive skills and some...