176 articles from THURSDAY 9.6.2022

Bioarchaeological evidence of very early Islamic burials in the Levant

A new study combining archaeological, historical and bioarchaeological data provides new insights into the early Islamic period in modern-day Syria. The research team was planning to focus on a much older time period but came across what they believe to be remains of early Muslims in the Syrian countryside. Their results were published in Communications Biology.

Researchers use CRISPR technology to create map tying every human gene to its function

The Human Genome Project was an ambitious initiative to sequence every piece of human DNA. The project drew together collaborators from research institutions around the world, including Whitehead Institute, and was finally completed in 2003. Now, over two decades later, Whitehead Institute Member Jonathan Weissman and colleagues have gone beyond the sequence to present the first comprehensive...

Pre-historic Wallacea: A melting pot of human genetic ancestries

The Wallacean islands have always been separated from Asia and Oceania by deep-sea waters. Yet, these tropical islands were a corridor for modern humans migrating into the Pleistocene Australia-New Guinea landmass (Sahul) and have been home to modern human groups for at least 47,000 years. The archaeological record attests a major cultural transition across Wallacea that started around 3,500 years...

Are we born with a moral compass?

For millennia, philosophers have pondered the question of whether humans are inherently good. But now, researchers from Japan have found that young infants can make and act on moral judgments, shedding light on the origin of morality.

Genetic clues to how dogs became man's best friends

Two mutations in the melanocortin 2 receptor gene—which is involved in the production of the stress hormone cortisol—may have played a role in the domestication of dogs by allowing them to develop social cognitive skills in order to interact and communicate with humans. The findings are published in Scientific Reports.

NASA to Launch 6 Small Satellites to Monitor, Study Tropical Cyclones

Portal origin URL: NASA to Launch 6 Small Satellites to Monitor, Study Tropical CyclonesPortal origin nid: 480437Published: Thursday, June 9, 2022 - 11:00Featured (stick to top of list): noPortal text teaser: This month, NASA is launching the first two of six small satellites to study the formation and development of tropical cyclones almost every hour – about four to...

NASA’s NuSTAR Mission Celebrates 10 Years Studying the X-Ray Universe

Portal origin URL: NASA’s NuSTAR Mission Celebrates 10 Years Studying the X-Ray UniversePortal origin nid: 480593Published: Thursday, June 9, 2022 - 10:57Featured (stick to top of list): noPortal text teaser: After a decade of observing some of the hottest, densest, and most energetic regions in our universe, this small but powerful space telescope still has more to...

New species of alga named for poet Amanda Gorman

In 2020, a group of researchers in Fay-Wei Li's lab at the Boyce Thompson Institute (BTI) had done what many scientists dream of doing: They discovered a new species. But as they discussed what to name this green alga from Central New York State, nothing seemed quite right.

Multi-scale imaging confirms protein's role in neuronal structure, dynamics

Protein structures are typically determined by studying them in their purified form, outside the busy inner workings of the cell, and because of this, their biological relevance is often called into question. In a new study by Penn State College of Medicine researchers, the long-observed protein structure cofilactin, a form of the filamentous protein actin that contains numerous connections to...

Light-induced changes in shape power a pump in a marine bacterium

RIKEN biochemists have discovered how a miniscule pump in a marine microbe shuttles negative ions into the cell by changing shape when activated by light. As well as providing insights into how these ion pumps work, the findings will be useful for improving light-based tools for brain research.

How cells navigate in messy environments

Your cells need to get around. For example, immune cells must roam around your body to locate sites of infection, and neurons must migrate to specific positions in the brain during development. But cells do not have eyes to see where they are going. Instead, like a dog sniffing out the source of some delicious smells, a cell figures out how to get to some target by detecting chemicals in its...

Maintaining the right niche for blood cell development

In your home, storing books on a bookshelf, tools in a tool box, and a broom in a broom cupboard makes it easy to access these items whenever you need them. Within the body, hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) reside in their own specialized "spots" in the bone marrow known as HSC niches. Recently, researchers in Japan have identified genes that play a key role within these niches.

Air lasing: A new tool for atmospheric detection

Ultrafast laser technologies provide new strategies for remote sensing of atmospheric pollutants and hazardous biochemical agents due to their unique advantages of high peak power, short pulse duration and broad spectral coverage.

Conservation science still rests on how animals can benefit humans

The accelerating loss of other species around the globe is so extensive that many experts now refer to it as the sixth mass extinction. It's driven in large part by an unprecedented loss of vital ecosystems such as forests and wetlands, the result of social and economic systems that are focused on constant growth.