289 articles from WEDNESDAY 25.11.2020

New insights into how the CRISPR immune system evolved

With new insights into how the genetic tool CRISPR—which allows direct editing of our genes—evolved and adapted, we are now one step closer to understanding the basis of the constant struggle for survival that takes place in nature. The results can be used in future biotechnologies.

Forming beliefs in a world of filter bubbles

Why do so many Republicans still believe that the recent US presidential election was fraudulent? Is it possible to reach coronavirus deniers with factual arguments? A study by researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Human Development and the University of Amsterdam provides insights into what it is that stops people from changing their minds.

Minimal waste production is a fundamental law for animal locomotion

Is there a unifying principle underpinning animal locomotion in its rich diversity? A thermodynamic analysis performed by a Skoltech professor and his French collaborators at Université Paris Diderot, Université Paris Saclay, and the Muséum national d'Histoire Naturelle, shows why and how waste minimization prevails on efficiency or power maximization when it comes to free locomotion...

A growth mindset of interest can spark innovative thinking

From climate change to the ongoing pandemic and beyond, the issues facing today's world are increasingly complex and dynamic. Yet solving problems like these—which interweave social, environmental, physical, and political factors—requires new approaches that extend beyond traditional ways of thinking. It requires people to draw upon and integrate seemingly disparate areas of knowledge, such as...

Transcultural literacies and meaning-making through fanfiction

Digital technology has made intercultural contacts a daily activity for many people in the world. As a result, the globalization of cultural flows and the various ways that people appropriate these cultural flows have become hot topics for investigation, and the prefix 'trans' can now be seen in terms like translocalities, transnational, translanguaging and transculturing, underlying the fluidity...

X-ray diffraction reveals details inside mummies without having to open them up

A trio of researchers from Northwestern University, Metropolitan State University of Denver and Argonne National Laboratory has found that using X-ray diffraction on mummies makes it possible to see inside the wrappings without opening them. In their paper published in Journal of the Royal Society Interface, S. Stock, M. Stock and J. Almer describe scanning an Egyptian mummy in two ways and what...

A microscope for everyone: Researchers develop open-source optical toolbox

Researchers have developed an optical toolbox to build microscopes for a few hundred euros that deliver high-resolution images comparable to commercial microscopes that cost up to a thousand times more. The 3D printed open-source modular system can be combined in the way the research question requires -- from the observation of living organisms in the incubator to a toolbox for education.

Ice sheets on the move: How north and south poles connect

Over the past 40,000 years, ice sheets thousands of kilometers apart have influenced one another through sea level changes, according to new research. New modelling of ice sheet changes during the most recent glacial cycle demonstrates, for the first time, that during this period, changes in the Antarctic ice sheet were driven by the melting ice sheets in the Northern Hemisphere.

Space travel can adversely impact energy production in a cell

Studies of both mice and humans who have traveled into space reveal that critical parts of a cell's energy production machinery, the mitochondria, can be made dysfunctional due to changes in gravity, radiation exposure and other factors. These findings are part of an extensive research effort across many scientific disciplines to look at the health effects of travel into space.

New insights into how the CRISPR immune system evolved

Although CRISPR-Cas has found many uses in biotechnology and medicine, it originates in nature, where it functions as a microbial immune system. Scientists shed new light on how CRISPR-Cas emerged early during the development of life on Earth, as well as how this immune system is constantly adapting to new challenges.

Phytoplankton disturbed by nanoparticles

Products derived from nanotechnology are efficient and highly sought-after, yet their effects on the environment are still poorly understood. A research team has investigated the effects of nanosilver, currently used in almost 450 products for its antibacterial properties, on the algae known as Poterioochromonas malhamensis. The results show that nanosilver disturb the alga's entire metabolism....

Basketball on the brain: Neuroscientists use sports to study surprise

Neuroscientists tracked the brains and pupils of self-described basketball fans as they watched March Madness games, to study how people process surprise -- an unexpected change of circumstances that shifts an anticipated outcome. They found that that shifts in the pattern of activity in high-level brain areas only happened at moments that contradicted the watchers' current beliefs about which...