278 articles from THURSDAY 15.7.2021

Winner who paid $30m for space flight with Bezos won’t go due to ‘scheduling conflicts’

Anonymous person will be replaced by 18-year-old recent high school graduate on New Shepard spacecraftThe anonymous winner of a ticket to join billionaire Jeff Bezos in space next week will no longer board the New Shepard spacecraft due to “scheduling conflicts”, Bezos’s Blue Origin company announced on Thursday.The winner, who paid $29.7m to join one of the world’s richest men in space,...

US to end large, old-growth timber sales in Alaska forest

The Biden administration said Thursday that it is ending large-scale, old-growth timber sales in the country's largest national forest—the Tongass National Forest in Alaska—and will focus on forest restoration, recreation and other noncommercial uses.

Study: Incarcerated people placed in solitary confinement differ significantly from others in prison population

Concern has grown about prison systems' use of extended solitary confinement as a way to manage violent and disruptive incarcerated people. A new study identified groups that are more likely to be placed in extended solitary management (ESM). The study found that individuals sent to ESM differed considerably from the rest of the prison population in terms of mental health, education, language,...

Death disruptor: how an Australian funnel-web spider may help human hearts

University of Queensland researchers are investigating if protein in venom of Fraser Island spider can stop cardiac cells dyingA protein in the venom of a deadly Australian funnel-web spider may be able to reduce cardiac damage from heart attacks and extend the life of donor hearts used in transplants, according to new research.Venom from the Fraser Island funnel-web, named for the south-east...

Newly discovered role for CTP in ensuring faithful cell division in bacteria

To grow and multiply efficiently, bacteria must coordinate cell division with chromosome segregation. Key to this process is a protein called Nucleoid Occlusion Factor or Noc. A small and abundant molecule called Cytidine Triphosphate (CTP) is key to the functions of Noc. CTP binding enables Noc to 'spread' on DNA to form a large protein complex. CTP also 'switches on' the membrane-binding ability...

A genome of photosynthetic animals decoded

Some sea slugs take up chloroplasts from the algae that they consume into their cells. These chloroplasts retain their ability to perform photosynthetic activity within the animal cells for several months, and thus provide them with photosynthesis-derived nutrition. Researchers have published the genome of the sea slug, Plakobranchus ocellatus.

Red blood cell 'traffic' contributes to changes in brain oxygenation

Adequate blood flow supplies the brain with oxygen and nutrients, but the oxygenation tends to fluctuate in a distinct, consistent manner. The root of this varied activity, though, is poorly understood. Now, researchers have identified one cause of the fluctuations: inherent randomness in the flow rate of red blood cells through tiny blood vessels called capillaries.

Accurate protein structure prediction now accessible to all

Protein design researchers have created a freely available method, RoseTTAFold, to provide access to highly accurate protein structure prediction. Scientists around the world are using it to build protein models to accelerate their research. The tool uses deep learning to quickly predict protein structures based on limited information, thereby compressing the time for what would have taken years...

Extraordinary carbon emissions from El Nino-induced biomass burning estimated

In 2015, massive biomass burning events occurred in Equatorial Asia which released a large amount of carbon into the atmosphere, whose signals were captured by in-situ high-precision measurements onboard commercial passenger aircraft and a cargo ship. A simulation-based analysis with those observations estimated the fire-induced carbon emissions to be 273 Tg C for September - October 2015.

Professional development opportunities do not delay doctorate training or publications

Ph.D.-trained scientists are essential contributors to the workforce in diverse employment sectors that include academia, industry, government, and non-profit organizations. Therefore, best practices for training the future biomedical workforce are of national concern. To complement coursework and laboratory research training, many institutions—including UNC-Chapel Hill—now offer professional...

Sperm migration in the genital tract: Computer simulations identify factors for success

A research team at the Humboldt University Berlin and the Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research (Leibniz-IZW) developed an agent-based computer model to simulate the journey of sperm cells through the female genital tract. Key factors for a successful transit could be identified without the use of animal experiments and were published in the scientific journal PLoS Computational Biology.

Huge study supporting ivermectin as Covid treatment withdrawn over ethical concerns

The preprint endorsing ivermectin as a coronavirus therapy has been widely cited, but independent researchers find glaring discrepancies in the dataThe efficacy of a drug being promoted by rightwing figures worldwide for treating Covid-19 is in serious doubt after a major study suggesting the treatment is effective against the virus was withdrawn due to “ethical concerns”.The preprint study on...

Emotion, cooperation and locomotion crucial from an early age

What are the fundamental skills that young children need to develop at the start of school for future academic success? While a large body of research shows strong links between cognitive skills (attention, memory, etc.) and academic skills on the one hand, and emotional skills on the other, in students from primary school to university, few studies have explored these links in children aged 3 to...

Unlocking efficient light-energy conversion with stable coordination nanosheets

Two-dimensional 'nanosheets' made of bonds between metal atoms and organic molecules are attractive candidates for photoelectric conversion, but get corroded easily. In a new study, scientists from Japan and Taiwan present a new nanosheet design using iron and benzene hexathiol that exhibits record stability to air exposure for 60 days, signaling the commercial optoelectronic applications of these...

Researchers find new protein conducting piRNA expression

PIWI-interacting RNAs (piRNAs), a class of conserved non-coding small RNAs, are essential for sex determination, defense against viruses, maintaining genome integrity of diverse animal species. However, many piRNA clusters reside within or close to the heterochromatin, a transcriptional silencing loci. How piRNAs are transcribed remains unknown.

Emotion, cooperation and locomotion crucial from an early age

What are the fundamental skills that young children need to develop at the start of school for future academic success? Researchers examined the links between emotion knowledge, cooperation, locomotor activity and numerical skills in 706 pupils aged 3 to 6. The results show that emotion knowledge, cooperative social behavior and locomotor activity are interrelated and associated with numerical...