128 articles from MONDAY 26.9.2022

What keeps plant roots growing toward gravity? Study identifies four genes

What happens belowground in a corn field is easy to overlook, but corn root architecture can play an important role in water and nutrient acquisition, affecting drought tolerance, water use efficiency, and sustainability. If breeders could encourage corn roots to grow down at a steeper angle, the crop could potentially access important resources deeper in the soil.

New study shows transmission of epigenetic memory across multiple generations

Without altering the genetic code in the DNA, epigenetic modifications can change how genes are expressed, affecting an organism's health and development. The once radical idea that such changes in gene expression can be inherited now has a growing body of evidence behind it, but the mechanisms involved remain poorly understood.

Discovery of the largest natural carbon onions on Earth

Recently, a study led by Dr. Yilin Chen, Prof. Yong Qin, Dr. Jiuqing Li, Associate Prof. Zhuangfu Li, Tianyu Yang (China University of Mining and Technology) and Dr. Ergang Lian (Tongji University) was published in Science China Earth Sciences. The research team identified natural carbon onions (onion-like fullerenes) in intrusion-affected coal samples collected from Permian coal-bearing strata in...

Examining the role of α-ketoglutaric acid (AKG) and its receptor OXGR1 in male sperm maturation

Infertility is a global public health problem caused by genetic defects, lifestyle, nutrition, and factors affecting the local metabolism and microenvironment of the reproductive system. Sperm from the testis must enter the epididymis to undergo a series of structural, biochemical and functional changes before they can gain maturity and become capable of fertilization. The influence of the...

Fermi's ground-breaking figure: How the radial wave function transformed physics

One way to better understand an atom is to shoot a particle at it and infer the atom's properties based on how the particle bounces off it. In the mid-1930s, the physicist Enrico Fermi showed that one measurable number—the scattering length—illuminated everything that could be known about an electron scattering off an atom, or a neutron scattering off a nucleus.

Audio Postcard: Real-time farming

This episode, we’re doing something a little bit different. Join us as we take a trip to a Californian vineyard to learn about how it’s deploying sensors and other forms of AI. We meet:  Dirk Heuvel, vice president of vineyard operations, McManis Family Vineyards Credits: This episode was produced by Jennifer Strong with help from Anthony Green and Emma Cillekens. It was...

Impact of sea-level fluctuations on redox-sensitive trace-element enrichment patterns in marine sediments

A recent study, published in Science China Earth Sciences, was led by Dr. Junwen Peng (Bureau of Economic Geology, Jackson School of Geosciences, The University of Texas at Austin). Based on thousands of high-resolution elemental composition datasets, Dr. Junwen Peng found that the overall variation ranges of RSTE (especially Mo and U) concentrations largely overlap among sediments deposited from...

Correcting peers is key in small-group learning

Collaborative group work is increasingly prioritized across higher education, particularly in the life sciences and STEM-related fields. But how students communicate within these smaller groups is key to their success.

Measuring the temperature inside cells

Organelles inside cells constantly serve specific functions in the same way that individual departments handle certain tasks in an organization. Cellular processes alter the amount of heat organelles generate, but it is not easy to monitor these changes in cells, which are too small to see with the naked eye. Recently, however, a joint research team from Korea and Japan has found a way to...

Can’t get tune out of your head? Try this | Letter

Pianist Susan Tomes passes on advice that she received from a psychotherapist to chase away dreaded earworms Tim Harrison asks for tips on how to get rid of certain music playing on an endless loop in his brain (Letters, 25 September). I once developed a bad case of music-looping after recording an album of jolly 1920s syncopated piano music. The resulting sleeplessness got so bad that I consulted...

Why Nasa is crashing a spacecraft into an asteroid – and how to watch it

The Dart mission’s ‘planetary defense’ experiment hopes to test whether an Armageddon-style impact could be avertedAn unprecedented and long-awaited deep-space venture will take place almost 7m miles from Earth on Monday night when a Nasa spacecraft will be deliberately crashed into an asteroid in an attempt to show humanity can avert an Armageddon-style impact to Earth.Here’s what’s...

Nasa to crash spacecraft into asteroid in planetary defense test

Experiment aims to determine if intentionally crashing spacecraft into an asteroid is an effective way to change its courseA multimillion-dollar spacecraft will collide head-on with an asteroid the size of a football stadium in an unprecedented full-scale planetary defense test by the US space agency Nasa on Monday evening.The 570kg (1257lb) spacecraft named Dart – short for Double Asteroid...