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39 articles from PhysOrg

Cellular energy audit reveals energy producers and consumers

Adenosine triphosphate, or ATP, is the cellular energy currency that is as valuable to the human body as the dollar is to the US economy. Too high or too low levels of ATP in some cell types have been linked to a variety of diseases. However, scientists have lacked an understanding of how cells regulate ATP levels on a broad scale and how cells' energy levels can be protected or restored in the...

Researchers dramatically downsize technology for fingerprinting drugs and other chemicals

As new infectious diseases emerge and spread, one of the best shots against novel pathogens is finding new medicines or vaccines. But before drugs can be used as potential cures, they have to be painstakingly screened for composition, safety and purity, among other things. Thus, there is an increasing demand for technologies that can characterize chemical compounds quickly and in real time.

Farmers' quick sale of poultry during outbreaks may increase deadly virus transmission

Small-scale poultry farmers in Vietnam tend to respond to viral outbreaks of highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) by rapidly selling their birds as a way to avoid financial loss, according to a new study by an international team of researchers. As these birds are commingled with other birds in markets and trading networks, this practice may increase the likelihood of widespread disease...

Fossil trees on Peru's Central Andean Plateau tell a tale of dramatic environmental change

On an expedition to the Central Andean Plateau, researchers from the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (STRI) and colleagues were astounded to find a huge fossil-tree buried in the cold, grassy plain. The plant fossil record from this high-altitude site in southern Peru contains dramatic reminders that the environment in the Andes mountains changed drastically during the past 10 million...

What did the katydids do when picking up bat sounds?

Ecosystems can be incredibly complex, with many interacting species. In many habitats, predators shape they behavior of prey and prey shape the behavior of predators. This paper provides a detailed look at the predator-prey relationship between bats and katydids, a group of insects related to crickets and grasshoppers.

Preventing infection, facilitating healing: New biomaterials from spider silk

New biomaterials developed at the University of Bayreuth eliminate risk of infection and facilitate healing processes. A research team led by Prof. Dr. Thomas Scheibel has succeeded in combining these material properties which are highly relevant to biomedicine. These nanostructured materials are based on spider silk proteins. They prevent colonization by bacteria and fungi, but at the same time...

How Neanderthals adjusted to climate change

Climate change occurring shortly before their disappearance triggered a complex change in the behavior of late Neanderthals in Europe: they developed more complex tools. This is the conclusion reached by a group of researchers from Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg (FAU) and Università degli Studi die Ferrara (UNIFE) on the basis of finds in the Sesselfelsgrotte cave in Lower...

Laser writing of nitrogen-doped silicon carbide for biological modulation

In materials science, conducting and semiconducting materials can be embedded in insulating polymeric substrates for useful biointerface applications. However, it is challenging to achieve the composite configuration directly using chemical processes. Laser-assisted synthesis is a fast and inexpensive technique used to prepare various materials but their applications in the construction of...

A review of ridge subduction, magmatism and metallogenesis

Generally speaking, 'ridge subduction' involves subduction of spreading oceanic ridges, aseismic ridges or oceanic plateaus and inactive arc ridges, and this common and important geological process has become one of the hot topics in current geological research globally. However, many issues concerning ridge subductions need to be further studied.

Failures of Germany's largest cliff coast sensed by seismometers

The ten km long, bright white coast of Germany's largest island, Rügen, is shaped by episodically occurring failures. These failures were typically assumed to happen due to strong rain storms. In a study carried out over more than two years, scientists of GFZ German Research Centre for Geosciences were able to draw a new and surprisingly detailed picture of coastal cliff failure activity. The...

A novel salvinia-like slippery surface

Superhydrophobic surfaces are widely used in many industrial settings, which mainly consist of rough solid protrusions that entrap air to minimize the liquid/solid area. The stability of the superhydrophobic state favors a relatively small spacing between protrusions. However, this in turn increases the lateral adhesion force that retards the mobility of drops. Thus, the simultaneous optimization...

Lab finds new levels of detail about key membrane proteins

Portland State University researchers used advanced electron microscopy to create a 3-D reconstruction of a membrane protein at an unprecedented level of resolution, setting the stage for the development of drugs that could target the protein more effectively to treat a variety of diseases.

International screening of the effects of a pathogenic fungus

The pathogenic fungus Candida auris, which first surfaced in 2009, is proving challenging to control. It is resistant to many fungicides and not easy to diagnose. Researchers from Radboud university medical center, Canisius-Wilhelmina Hospital (CWZ) and international colleagues have discovered that the human immune system recognizes the fungus well. The study has been able to pin-point the fungus'...

Growing demand for zero-deforestation cacao might not help Colombian forests

When Brazil refused soy grown on deforested land in the Amazon, the movement spread worldwide. Brazil's Soy Moratorium in 2006 became the first zero-deforestation agreement. And from cocoa in Ghana to palm oil in Indonesia, now companies would have to explain: Where was their product from? Did it contribute to deforestation?

Optical imaging enters sub-nanometer era

Prof. Dong Zhenchao and Prof. Hou Jianguo from the University of Science and Technology of China (USTC) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) have improved the spatial resolution from 8 nm to ~8 Å of photoluminescence imaging. This has realized sub-molecular resolution with single molecule photofluorescence imaging for the first time.