140 articles from WEDNESDAY 5.1.2022

Heat conduction is important for droplet dynamics

For driving in the rain, it's preferable that the raindrops roll or bounce off the windshield instead of coating it or even freezing. A team of engineers in the McKelvey School of Engineering at Washington University in St. Louis has found that conduction of heat plays a larger role than previously thought in the dynamics of droplets on smooth surfaces that repel water.

New research sheds light on the division of labor among genetic switches

The cells of female mammals have a dosage problem, because they have twice as many X chromosomes as are needed in the body. Consequently, one of them is randomly selected and switched off already during early embryonic development. The Xist gene awakens and produces hundreds of RNA molecules, encasing one X chromosome and making it shrink into a small lump.