114 articles from MONDAY 16.5.2022

Seeing through the fog: Pinpointing young stars and their protoplanetary disks

Imagine walking through a dense, hazy fog in the middle of the night, seeing patches of light from cars and towns shimmering in the distance. It's nearly impossible to tell if the lights are deep in the fog or beyond it. Astronomers trying to find young stars face a similar problem: the light from stars they're hunting is shimmering through great big regions of hazy gas and dust in space, called...

New method melds data to make a 3-D map of cells' activities

Just as it's hard to understand a conversation without knowing its context, it can be difficult for biologists to grasp the significance of gene expression without knowing a cell's environment. To solve that problem, researchers at Princeton Engineering have developed a method to elucidate a cell's surroundings so that biologists can make more meaning of gene expression information.

Unraveling the genetic keys to improve canola crop yield

An international team of researchers, including one from The University of Western Australia (UWA), has successfully unraveled the genomes of 418 unique samples of rapeseed from across the globe to identify traits that breeders can use to improve crop yield.

New theory promises to reshape how we think about polymer superstructures

Polymer scientists recently announced that they have solved a longstanding mystery surrounding a nanoscale structure, formed by collections of molecules, called a double-gyroid. This shape is one of the most desirable for materials scientists, and has a wide range of applications; but, until now, a predictable understanding of how these shapes form has eluded researchers.

Shaping the future of light through reconfigurable metasurfaces

The technological advancement of optical lenses has long been a significant marker of human scientific achievement. Eyeglasses, telescopes, cameras, and microscopes have all literally and figuratively allowed us to see the world in a new light. Lenses are also a fundamental component of manufacturing nanoelectronics by the semiconductor industry.

New theory promises to reshape how we think about polymer superstructures

Polymer scientists at the University of Massachusetts Amherst recently announced in the journal Nature Communications that they have solved a longstanding mystery surrounding a nanoscale structure, formed by collections of molecules, called a double-gyroid. This shape is one of the most desirable for materials scientists, and has a wide range of applications; but until now, a predictable...

New trait-based approach to global change ecology moves from description to prediction

It's not enough to understand what the effects of climate change are. Society needs ways to get ahead of these changes, to predict them before they actually happen. And when it comes to conservation, the approach scientists use to study species in the wild could be critical to these predictions, according to a recent research review led by biologist Stephanie Green and published in Proceedings of...

Study sheds new light on the mechanism of individual cell memory, using yeast as a model

Whi3 is a mnemon (Whi3mnem), or in other words, a protein that stores information in individual cells by forming stable super-assemblies. This memory state is then inherited by only one individual daughter cell at mitosis (individual memory). For example, when facing an uncommitted mating partner, budding yeast cells coalesce the G1/S inhibitor Whi3 into a dominant mnemon super-assembly that...

'Homo sapiens is too arrogant: Call us Homo faber, the toolmaker'

We need to dispel the arrogant and misguided idea that modern humans are superior to earlier human species. It is thanks in part to all our predecessors such as Neanderthals that we are who we are today. This is according to Marie Soressi, Professor of Hominin Diversity Archaeology.