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53 articles from PhysOrg

Researchers find how cells move while avoiding adhesion

Cell velocity, or how fast a cell moves, is known to depend on how sticky the surface is beneath it, but the precise mechanisms of this relationship have remained elusive for decades. Now, researchers from the Max Delbrück Center for Molecular Medicine in the Helmholtz Association (MDC) and Ludwig Maximilians Universität München (LMU) have figured out the precise mechanics and developed a...

Latch, load and release: Elastic motion makes click beetles click, study finds

Click beetles can propel themselves more than 20 body lengths into the air, and they do so without using their legs. While the jump's motion has been studied in depth, the physical mechanisms that enable the beetles' signature clicking maneuver have not. A new study examines the forces behind this super-fast energy release and provides guidelines for studying extreme motion, energy storage and...

Synthesis of potent antibiotic follows unusual chemical pathway

Images of a protein involved in creating a potent antibiotic reveal the unusual first steps of the antibiotic's synthesis. The improved understanding of the chemistry behind this process, detailed in a new study led by Penn State chemists, could allow researchers to adapt this and similar compounds for use in human medicine.

A 'super-puff' planet like no other

The core mass of the giant exoplanet WASP-107b is much lower than what was thought necessary to build up the immense gas envelope surrounding giant planets like Jupiter and Saturn, astronomers at Université de Montréal have found.

A new archaeology for the Anthropocene era

Indiana Jones and Lara Croft have a lot to answer for. Public perceptions of archaeology are often thoroughly outdated, and these characterisations do little to help. Archaeology as practiced today bears virtually no resemblance to the tomb raiding portrayed in movies and video games. Indeed, it bears little resemblance to even more scholarly depictions of the discipline in the entertainment...

New computational tool reliably differentiates between cancer and normal cells from single-cell RNA-sequencing data

In an effort to address a major challenge when analyzing large single-cell RNA-sequencing datasets, researchers from The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center have developed a new computational technique to accurately differentiate between data from cancer cells and the variety of normal cells found within tumor samples. The work was published today in Nature Biotechnology.

New mathematical model: How dangerous bacteria form colonies

It can be observed every time you take a shower: Small droplets of water join together to form larger and larger drops—until they are so heavy that they run down the wall. Scientists call this daily-life phenomenon coalescence—which surprisingly also provides the key to understanding how bacteria form colonies. Researchers at the Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg (FAU), the...

Majority of managers reluctant to hire applicants with mental health problems

A new Tranzo survey of 670 executives in all Dutch sectors shows that a majority (64%) is reluctant to hire applicants with mental health problems (MHP). In addition, one in three managers would not quickly hire an employee who has ever had MHP, even if those problems are no longer an issue. The publication by Kim Janssens et al. will soon be published in Occupational & Environmental Medicine...

The long-range transport of deconfined magnetic hedgehogs

Spintronics is an emerging area of research that aims to develop devices that transmit, process and store information leveraging the intrinsic angular momentum of electrons, known as spin. A key objective of spintronics studies is to identify strategies to use magnetic insulators to achieve the transport of signals over long distances.

Scientists produce the first in-vitro embryos from vitrified African lion oocytes

A team of scientists from the Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research (Leibniz-IZW) inGermany, Givskud Zoo–Zootopia in Denmark and the University of Milan in Italy succeeded in producing the very first African lionin-vitroembryos after the vitrification of immature oocytes. For this specific method of cryopreservation, oocytes are collected directly after an animal is castrated or...

Swamp eel: Blood-red subterranean dweller is newest fish genus discovered

Together with a group of international colleagues, Senckenberg scientist Ralf Britz described a new fish genus. The blind fishes, which are members of the swamp eel family, live in subterranean waters in Southern India and show a red coloration. Moreover, the team assigned three additional species to the new genus. The study was recently published in the scientific journal Ichthyological...

Researchers find inhibitors effective against a coronavirus enzyme

While the first vaccines have been developed against the pathogen SARS-CoV-2, studies are still underway to identify effective drugs for treating coronavirus infections. Scientists in Gießen, Mainz, and Würzburg in Germany involved in a fundamental research project have now identified potential starting points that could contribute to the development of drugs able to combat the pathogen...