Scientists have pinpointed a genetic cause for virgin birth for the first time, and once switched on the ability is passed down through generations of females. For the first time, scientists have managed to induce virgin birth in an animal that usually reproduces sexually: the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster. Once induced in this fruit fly, this ability is passed on through the generations: the offspring can reproduce either sexually if there are males around, or by virgin birth if there aren’t. For most animals, reproduction is sexual - it involves a female’s egg being fertilised by a male’s sperm. ...

Neurons are the cells that constitute neural circuits and use chemicals and electricity to receive and send messages that allow the body to do everything, including thinking, sensing, moving, and more. Neurons have a long fiber called an axon that sends information to the subsequent neurons. Information from axons is received by branch-like structures that fan out from the cell body, called dendrites. Dendritic refinement is an important part of early postnatal brain development during which dendrites are tailored to make specific connections with appropriate axons. In a recently published paper, researchers present evidence showing how a mechanism within the neurons of a rodent involving ...

Kyoto, Japan -- Having control over how a dish is cooked is always a good idea. Taking a hint from the kitchen, scientists appear to have discovered a way to produce a true structure of the rare but naturally-occurring anti-HIV compound Lancilactone C from start to finish. Its non-cytotoxicity in mammals could make this triterpenoid an ideal candidate for treating AIDS if its biological activity were clear -- and if only it were abundant in nature. Now, a research group at Kyoto University has succeeded in ...

The research group of YANG Liangbao at the Institute of Health and Medical Technology, Hefei Institutes of Physical Science (HFIPS), Chinese Academy of Science (CAS) has recently developed a surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERMS) method to automatically capture target molecules in AgNP/MoS2 nano-pockets, which enables highly sensitive and long-duration dynamic detection of some chemical reaction processes. The results were published in Analytical Chemistry and selected as the front cover. Surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) is a kind of molecular spectroscopy with fast, highly sensitive, ...

Now that the world has experienced its hottest day in history, it is more urgent than ever for natural and social scientists to work together to address the climate crisis and keep global temperature increases below 2°C. To this end, an international group of esteemed researchers recently published an innovative research paper that highlights the importance of integrating knowledge from natural and social sciences to inform about effective climate change policies and practice. They argue that the concept of tipping points can serve as a bridge ...

Recently, Prof. JIANG Changlong and his research team at the Institute of Solid State Physics, Hefei Institutes of Physical Science (HFIPS) of Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), developed and synthesized two highly effective ratiometric fluorescence nanoprobes. These nanoprobes, when combined with the color recognition capabilities of smartphones, enabled the visual and quantitative detection of pesticides in food and environmental water. The research has been published in Chemical Engineering Journal and ACS Sustainable Chemistry & Engineering. Carbamate compounds ...

Scientists have found a way to use nanotechnology to create a 3D ‘scaffold’ to grow cells from the retina –paving the way for potential new ways of treating a common cause of blindness.    Researchers, led by Professor Barbara Pierscionek from Anglia Ruskin University (ARU), have been working on a way to successfully grow retinal pigment epithelial (RPE) cells  that stay healthy and viable for up to 150 days. RPE cells sit just outside the neural part of the retina and, when damaged, can cause vision to deteriorate.    It ...

This review is written by Dr. Weixing Song from the Department of Chemistry, Capital Normal University. The paper reviewed the toughness and conductive network of existing hydrogel sensors. It emphasized the development status of various hydrogel sensors and highlighted strategies to enhance their mechanical and electrical performance. The findings are valuable for designing components and structures of high-performance wearable hydrogel sensors. The increasing demand for healthcare IoT devices drives the development of wearable electronics. Electronic skins possess softness, stretchability, and self-healing ...

New Alzheimer’s research from UVA Health suggests that enhanced light sensitivity may contribute to “sundowning” – the worsening of symptoms late in the day – and spur sleep disruptions thought to contribute to the disease’s progression.  The new insights into the disruptions of the biological clock seen in Alzheimer’s could have important potential both for the development of treatments and for symptom management, the researchers say. For example, caregivers often struggle with the erratic sleep patterns caused by Alzheimer’s ...

Introduced in 2004, high-entropy alloys (HEAs) are alloys composed of multiple principal elements in nearly equiatomic proportions. Their unique chemical composition results in a high degree of chemical disorder, i.e. entropy, and produces remarkable properties such as high strength, ductility, and strong wear-and-tear resistance even at high temperatures. Scientists have dedicated a significant amount of attention to developing novel HEAs to help improve the performance of various electrocatalyst materials. Because they are made up of differing constituent elements, HEAs' atomic-level surface designs can be complex. But unravelling this complexity is crucial, since the surface ...

San Diego, CA - The NEC Society and Cincinnati Children’s have teamed up to present the NEC Symposium, the only conference in North America dedicated to understanding and preventing necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC). NEC is a devastating intestinal disease that affects medically fragile infants in their first weeks and months of life. Every year in the United States, thousands of babies are diagnosed with NEC and at least one baby dies from NEC every day. The NEC Symposium will transform the NEC Research ...

North Carolina State University researchers recently found that a program designed to get Girl Scouts involved in citizen science – programs where members of the public can participate in real scientific research – not only taught girls about the process of science, but also motivated them to tackle scientific or environmental problems in their communities. The findings demonstrate the impacts citizen science projects can have on their participants and offer lessons for other organizations on how to structure STEM-focused learning opportunities using citizen science. “We’ve found that after participating ...

Six structures exhibited by the rotating sodium ion pump were reconstructed in 3D using cryo-electron microscopy. This analysis revealed that (1) the rotor exhibits non-uniform rotation behavior due to partial structural interference with the stator component, and (2) the rotor interacts with one edge of the large ion transport ring causing it to rotate. The study showed a unique molecular mechanism of the rotary sodium ion pump.   The results will be published on July 28 in Communications Biology.   “In previous single-molecule imaging ...

Resilient corals, often referred to as ‘super corals’, have recently been seen as potential saviours in the face of climate change and its detrimental effects on coral reefs. Now, a team of scientists from the University of Technology Sydney (UTS) and the University of Haifa, Israel is working to better understand these corals in order to develop strategies to protect fragile ecosystems such as the Great Barrier Reef. UTS scientist Dr Emma Camp, co-lead researcher on the study recently published in the journal Nature Communications, says the findings have significant implications ...

Infants who nap a lot have smaller vocabularies and poorer cognitive skills – according to new research from the University of East Anglia. Parents the world over are prone to worry about their children getting either too little or too much sleep. But a new study published today reveals that some children are more efficient at consolidating information during sleep, so they nap less frequently. Meanwhile others, usually those with fewer words and poorer cognitive skills, need to nap more frequently. The research team say that reducing naps for these children will not improve brain development, ...

Though it’s just as likely to be worn while lounging on the couch as in the gym, a large driver of activewear’s popularity among women is its association with a dynamic lifestyle, positive wellbeing and overall good health.    However, two new Edith Cowan University (ECU) studies suggest online shopping for activewear may in fact be harmful to women’s body image.    Sales of “Athleisure” — a hybrid style of athletic clothing typically worn as everyday wear — have risen rapidly following ...

This soft robotic gripper is not only 3D printed in one print, it also doesn’t need any electronics to work.  The device was developed by a team of roboticists at the University of California San Diego, in collaboration with researchers at the BASF corporation, who detailed their work in a recent issue of Science Robotics.  The researchers wanted to design a soft gripper that would be ready to use right as it comes off the 3D printer, equipped with built in gravity and touch sensors. As a result, the gripper can pick up, hold, and release objects. No such gripper existed before this work.  “We ...

Opioids remain the most potent and effective pain relievers in medicine, but they’re also among the most addictive drugs that can halt a person’s ability to breathe during an overdose — which can be deadly. Researchers have been racing to develop safer pain reliever drugs that target a specific opioid receptor, called the kappa opioid receptor, that is only found in the central nervous system and not elsewhere in the body, like other opioid receptors. Previous research suggests that such drugs may not lead to addiction or death due to overdose, but ...

OVX836 demonstrated positive safety and immunogenicity data across three dose levels A notable signal of protection of 84% was observed against symptomatic influenza infection Lyon, France – July 28, 2023 – Osivax, a biopharmaceutical company developing vaccines to provide broad-spectrum protection against highly mutating infectious viruses, today announced that The Lancet Infectious Diseases published results from the company’s OVX836-003 study under the title, “Immunogenicity, safety and preliminary efficacy evaluation of OVX836, a nucleoprotein-based universal influenza A vaccine candidate: randomised, double-blind placebo-controlled, Phase 2a trial.” ...

A new Cochrane review finds that the use of physical restraints on care home residents can be reduced without increasing the risk of falls, when frontline care staff are empowered by supportive managers. Physical restraints are devices that restrict freedom of movement and are frequently used in residential care homes, such as nursing homes and assisted living facilities. Examples are bed rails or belts that prevent residents from getting out of bed unassisted. These restraints are ethically problematic as they are mostly ...

July 27, 2023 – How many stars would you give your plastic surgeon? An analysis of Yelp reviews identifies a wide range of surgeon-and practice-related factors that influence whether plastic surgery patients leave positive or negative reviews, reports the September issue of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery®, the official medical journal of the American Society of Plastic Surgeons (ASPS). The journal is published in the Lippincott portfolio by Wolters Kluwer. "Our study also identifies some sources ...

Researchers at the FAMU-FSU College of Engineering are improving the safety and performance of electric vehicles through a new design that protects their batteries. Their design uses tubes filled with paraffin wax, which is a type of phase change material, or PCM. These materials are commonly used to store and dissipate heat, making them useful for protecting a battery from overheating. The researchers’ new method uses PCM-filled tubes in another way, exploring their application as protection against ...

An industrial engineering researcher at The University of Texas at Arlington has earned a grant from the Department of Defense to purchase state-of-the-art hybrid additive-subtractive manufacturing equipment. The project will improve manufacturing capabilities at UTA for printing a wide range of metals and alloys. The grant recipient, Emma Yang, is an assistant professor in the Industrial, Manufacturing, and Systems Engineering Department and an expert in additive and sustainable manufacturing. END ...

In an increasingly diverse, multicultural world, adolescents struggle academically in multicultural environments if they don’t receive consistent and positive messages at school, home and among their peers about cultures that are not their own, a University of California, Davis, study suggests. In a survey of more than 700 teens at public schools in the Southwestern United States, researchers found that while these students attended ethnically diverse schools and reported learning about multiple ...

Susan G. Komen®, the world’s leading breast cancer organization, announced the fourth MBC-focused research grant supported through the Komen Metastatic Breast Cancer Collaborative Research Initiative (MBCCRI), a collaboration between Komen, Duke Cancer Institute and the University of North Carolina Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center, which pairs researchers from each of the organizations to work together and address significant gaps in our knowledge about MBC to advance patient care and improve patient outcomes.   In 2021, Komen’s MBCCRI awarded $1.5 million for three research projects focused on finding ...