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49 articles from PhysOrg

Window to another world: Life is bubbling up to seafloor with petroleum from deep below

The COVID-19 pandemic is a stark reminder that we move through a world shaped by unseen life. Bacteria, viruses, and other microscopic organisms regulate the Earth's vital functions and resources, from the air we breathe to all our food and most of our energy sources. An estimated one-third of the Earth's microbes are literally hidden, buried in sediments deep below the ocean floor. Now,...

Sustainable structural material for plastic substitute

Plastic gives us a lightweight, strong and inexpensive material to use, but it has also caused the plastic apocalypse. Much of the unrecycled plastic waste ends up in the ocean, Earth's last sink. Broken down by waves, sunlight and marine animals, a single plastic bag can become 1.75 million microplastic fragments. Those microplastics might finally end up in our bodies through the fish we eat or...

Rubies on sapphire: Recipe for making crystals in flux

Crystals can be made artificially but a lot of energy is used to melt the ingredients together, and this can make them expensive. This problem can be overcome by using appropriate solvents. Called the flux method, crystals are grown in a crucible that contains solvents that allow the crystal to form with less energy because dissolution will happen more easily. Imagine having table salt and wanting...

DNA damage and faulty repair jointly cause mutations

Researchers at EMBL's European Bioinformatics Institute (EMBL-EBI), the University of Dundee and the Wellcome Sanger Institute analysed over 2700 genomes from C. elegans worms in order to better understand the causes of mutations. Their findings, published today in Nature Communications, characterise how DNA mutations result from the combined action of DNA damage and inaccurate DNA repair...

Looking for dark matter with the Universe's coldest material

Scientists have been able to observe the universe and determine that about 80% of the its mass appears to be "dark matter," which exerts a gravitational pull but does not interact with light, and thus can't be seen with telescopes. Our current understanding of cosmology and nuclear physics suggests that dark matter could be made of axions, hypothetical particles with unusual symmetry properties.

Boosting levels of good fats with an experimental drug that acts on two newly characterized genes

Salk and Scripps Research Institute scientists, along with collaborators at the pharmaceutical company Lundbeck, identified two genes that can regulate levels of healthy fats, called FAHFAs, in mice. The team found that the loss of the two genes led to higher-than-normal levels of the beneficial FAHFAs, while blocking the genes' activity with an experimental drug also increased FAHFA levels.

Why offering businesses immunity from coronavirus liability is a bad idea

Governors around the country are attempting to restart the economy by easing restrictions put in place to prevent the spread of COVID-19. The prospect of returning to "normal" amid a pandemic has businesses lobbying Congress to grant them sweeping immunity from civil liability for failure to adequately protect workers and customers from infection.

Red light for stress: A color-changing organic crystal

Researchers at the Institute of Industrial Science, part of The University of Tokyo, and Yokohama City University have introduced novel color-changing organic crystals that spontaneously return to their original shape and hue after being stressed, a property they call superelastochromism. These materials can be used to make sensors for shear forces to monitor locations susceptible to damage.

Risky business: Courtship movements put katydids in danger

Reproduction can be risky. In the case of katydids, some hunting bats eavesdrop on male mating calls to locate the insects, but little is known about the risk to mates as they move toward each other. A recent study by scientists at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (STRI) and collaborating institutions explores the hunting behavior of a Neotropical bat, asking whether prey movement adds...

Researchers identify the binding model of Congo Red dye to amyloid fibrils

The aggregation of proteins in amyloid structure, a process described in mammals and fungus and bacteria, is implied in about 36 human diseases, including Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease and type 2 diabetes. Most of the amyloid fibres are known for their ability to bind Congo-red, regarded a specific marker of amyloid structures. This adds a great value to the compound Congo-Red, since it...

A nose for trouble: Fruit flies can detect predators by smell

A study published this week in Scientific Reports by researchers from Macquarie University Applied BioSciences reveals that Queensland Fruit Fly (Q-fly) can detect the presence of potential predators by smell. Incredibly, the study also found that Q-fly modify their behavior based upon this detection, adopting predator-specific responses.