120 articles from MONDAY 6.12.2021

Study reveals how bacterial pathogen adapts to nutritional stress

In order to cause disease, the human pathogen Staphylococcus aureus must adapt to the changing host environment. Many of these adaptations are mediated through two-component signal transduction systems (TCSs) that coordinate gene expression in response to environmental stimuli. In a new study reported in the Journal of Bacteriology, researchers at Illinois provide insight into the signal...

How two scientists are balancing the planet's natural carbon budget

A pair of researchers at the University of Massachusetts Amherst recently published the results of a study that is the first to take a process-based modeling approach to understand how much CO2 rivers and streams contribute to the atmosphere. The team focused on the East River watershed in Colorado's Rocky Mountains, and found that their new approach is far more accurate than traditional...

Discovering new drugs, inspired by Darwinian theory

The body must constantly defend itself against bacteria and viruses. It generates millions of different antibodies, which are selected to recognize the enemy and trigger the best possible immune response. Scientists use these antibodies for therapeutic purposes to target proteins and disrupt their harmful effects. However, identifying small molecules that will form the basis of drugs is a long and...

Endangered whale gives birth while entangled in fishing rope

Scientists spotted an endangered right whale dragging a length of fishing rope caught in its mouth as it swam with a newborn calf off the Georgia coast, a rare confirmation of a birth by an entangled whale that experts determined they can't safely attempt to help.

CRISPRing the microbiome is just around the corner

To date, CRISPR enzymes have been used to edit the genomes of one type of cell at a time: They cut, delete or add genes to a specific kind of cell within a tissue or organ, for example, or to one kind of microbe growing in a test tube.

The tipping point for legislative polarization

A predictive model of a polarized group, similar to the current U.S. Senate, demonstrates that when an outside threat—like war or a pandemic—fails to unite the group, the divide may be irreversible through democratic means. Published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences as part of a Dynamics of Political Polarization Special Feature, the model identifies such atypical...

Iron integral to the development of life on Earth and the possibility of life on other planets

Iron is an essential nutrient that almost all life requires to grow and thrive. Iron's importance goes all the way back to the formation of the planet Earth, where the amount of iron in the Earth's rocky mantle was 'set' by the conditions under which the planet formed and went on to have major ramifications for how life developed. Now, scientists at the University of Oxford have uncovered the...

Persistent gender bias found in scientific research and related course materials: A long-term linguistic analysis

Two companion research articles published in the current issue of Language point to persistent gender bias in both peer-reviewed journal articles and course materials used in the field of linguistics. The first study examined undergraduate textbooks commonly used for linguistics courses taught in English. The second study examined over 1,000 research articles published in top linguistics journals...

Viagra could be used to treat Alzheimer’s disease, study finds

US scientists say users of sildenafil – the generic name for Viagra – are 69% less likely to develop the form of dementia than non-usersViagra could be a useful treatment against Alzheimer’s disease, according to a US study.Alzheimer’s disease, the most common form of age-related dementia, affects hundreds of millions of people worldwide. Despite mounting numbers of cases, however, there...

Fiber lasers poised to advance lab's development of practical laser-plasma accelerators

The next phase in the development of laser-plasma particle accelerators (LPAs)—potentially game-changing tools for research and practical applications—is underway at the Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab). A new approach to high-power lasers—combining the pulses from many fast-acting but lower-energy optical fiber lasers—will energize these...