For a tiny hunter of the microbial world that relies on extending its neck up to 30 times its body length to release its deadly attack, intricate origami-like cellular geometry is key. This geometry enables the rapid hyperextensibility of the neck-like protrusion, for single-celled predator Lacrymaria olor, a new study reports. The findings not only explain L. olor’s extreme shape-shifting ability but also hold potential for inspiring innovations in soft-matter engineering or the design of robotic systems. Single-celled protists are well known for their ability to perform dynamic morphological changes in ...

In a Policy Forum, R. Scott Kemp and colleagues argue that promoting new nuclear reactor technologies using high-assay low-enriched uranium (HALEU) threatens the international system of controls that has prevented nuclear weapons proliferation for over 30 years. “Governments and others promoting the use of HALEU have not carefully considered the potential proliferation and terrorism risks that the wide adoption of this fuel creates,” write Kemp et al. The authors warn that if HALEU becomes a standard reactor ...

James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) observations have revealed abundant hydrocarbons in the protoplanetary disk surrounding a young, very-low-mass star – findings that provide novel insights into the chemical environment from which many terrestrial planets, in particular, are born. Planets form in disks of gas and dust that orbit young stars. Observations show that terrestrial planets form more efficiently than gas giant planets around very-low-mass stars (VLMSs) – those with less than 0.3 solar masses. Although the chemical compositions of the inner disk regions around higher mass stars ...

Heat production in fat tissue, a trait also known as adipose tissue thermogenesis, evolved over two stages in mammals, fully developing in eutherian mammals after the group’s evolutionary divergence from marsupials, according to a new study. The results could provide insights that inform future therapies related to metabolism and obesity. Many organisms produce heat internally to regulate body temperature. It is thought that the evolution of the ability to maintain high body temperatures provided ...

“There are some things in life you can watch and then never unwatch,” said Manu Prakash, associate professor of bioengineering at Stanford University, calling up a video of his latest fascination, the single-cell organism Lacrymaria olor, a free-living protist he stumbled upon playing with his paper Foldscope. “It’s … just … it’s mesmerizing.” “From the minute Manu showed it to me, I have just been transfixed by this cell,” said Eliott Flaum, a graduate student ...

Planets form in disks of gas and dust, orbiting young stars. The MIRI Mid-INfrared Disk Survey (MINDS), led by Thomas Henning from the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy (MPIA) in Heidelberg, Germany, aims to establish a representative disk sample. By exploring their chemistry and physical properties with MIRI (Mid-Infrared Instrument) on board the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), the collaboration links those disks to the properties of planets potentially forming there. In a new study, a team of researchers ...

From the outside, most T cells look the same: small and spherical. Now, a team of researchers led by Berend Snijder from the Institute of Molecular Systems Biology at ETH Zurich has taken a closer look inside these cells using advanced techniques. Their findings show that the subcellular spatial organisation of cytotoxic T cells – which Snijder refers to as their cellular architecture – has a major influence on their fate. Characteristics that determine a cell’s fate When cells with nuclear invaginations encounter a pathogen, they turn into powerful effector cells that rapidly proliferate and kill the pathogen. Their fellow ...

CHAPEL HILL, North Carolina – Researchers at UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center and colleagues have established the most comprehensive molecular portrait of the workings of KRAS, a key cancer-causing gene or "oncogene," and how its activities impact pancreatic cancer outcomes. Their findings could help to better inform treatment options for pancreatic cancer, which is the third leading cause of all cancer deaths in the United States. The research was published as two separate articles in Science. “Because ...

Researchers at the Ningbo Institute of Materials Technology and Engineering (NIMTE) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, in collaboration with research groups from the University of Electronic Science and Technology of China and Fudan University, have developed a fatigue-free ferroelectric material based on sliding ferroelectricity. The study was published in Science. Ferroelectric materials have switchable spontaneous polarization that can be reversed by an external electric field, which have been widely applied to non-volatile memory, sensing, and ...

Around 100 million years ago, a remarkable evolutionary shift allowed placental mammals to diversify and conquer many cold regions of our planet. New research from Stockholm University shows that the typical mammalian heater organ, brown fat, evolved exclusively in modern placental mammals. In collaboration with the Helmholtz Munich and the Natural History Museum Berlin in Germany, and the University of East Anglia in the U.K., the Stockholm research team demonstrated that marsupials, our distant relatives, possess a not fully evolved form of brown fat. They discovered that the pivotal heat-producing protein called ...

The role that Epstein-Barr Virus (EBV) plays in the development of multiple sclerosis (MS) may be caused a higher level of cross-reactivity, where the body’s immune system binds to the wrong target, than previously thought.   In a new study published in PLOS Pathogens, researchers looked at blood samples from people with multiple sclerosis, as well as healthy people infected with EBV and people recovering from glandular fever caused by recent EBV infection. The study investigated how the immune system deals with EBV infection as part of worldwide efforts to understand how this common virus can lead to the development of multiple ...

The annual killifish lives in regions with extreme drought. A research group at the University of Basel now reports in “Science” that the early embryogenesis of killifish diverges from that of other species. Unlike other fish, their body structure is not predetermined from the outset. This could enable the species to survive dry periods unscathed. The turquoise killifish inhabits areas characterized by extreme conditions. The species, native to Africa, can survive prolonged periods of drought ...

Researchers at the University of Michigan and Brown University have developed a new computational method to analyze complex tissue data that could transform our current understanding of diseases and how we treat them.    Integrative and Reference-Informed tissue Segmentation, or IRIS, is a novel machine learning and artificial intelligence method that gives biomedical researchers the ability to view more precise information about tissue development, disease pathology and tumor organization.   The findings are published ...

NEW YORK, NY--An injectable emulsion containing two omega-3 fatty acids found in fish oil markedly reduced brain damage in newborn rodents after a disruption in the flow of oxygen to the brain near birth, a study by researchers at Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons has found.  Brain injury due to insufficient oxygen is a severe complication of labor and delivery that occurs in one to three out of every 1,000 live births in the United States. Among babies who survive, the condition can lead to cerebral palsy, cognitive disability, epilepsy, pulmonary hypertension, and neurodevelopmental conditions.  “Hypoxic ...

Calcium oxide is a cheap, chalky chemical compound commonly used in the manufacturing of cement, plaster, paper, and steel. But the material may soon have a more high-tech application. UChicago Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering researchers and their collaborator in Sweden have used theoretical and computational approaches to discover how tiny, lone atoms of bismuth embedded within solid calcium oxide can act as qubits — the building blocks of quantum computers and quantum communication devices. These qubits are described today in Nature Communications. “This system has even better properties than we expected,” said Giulia Galli, Liew Family Professor ...

TAMPA, Fla. (June 6, 2024) — In a groundbreaking advance that could revolutionize bladder cancer treatment, a novel combination of cretostimogene grenadenorepvec and pembrolizumab has shown remarkable efficacy in patients with Bacillus Calmette-Guérin (BCG)-unresponsive non-muscle invasive bladder cancer. Results from the phase 2 CORE-001 trial, published today in Nature Medicine, reveal a significant improvement in complete response rates and long-term disease control, offering new hope for patients with this challenging condition who face limited treatment options. The trial included patients with BCG-unresponsive carcinoma in situ of the bladder, a condition that is notoriously ...

The molecules that make up the matter around us are in constant motion. What if we could harness that energy and put it to use? Over 150 years ago Maxwell theorized that if molecules’ motion could be measured accurately, this information could be used to power an engine. Until recently this was a thought experiment, but technological breakthroughs have made it possible to build working information engines in the lab. With funding from the Foundational Questions Institute, SFU Physics professors John Bechhoefer and David Sivak teamed up to build an information engine and test its limits. Their work has greatly advanced ...

Using artificial intelligence technology to identify patterns of DNA fragments associated with lung cancer, researchers from the Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center and other institutions have developed and validated a liquid biopsy that may help identify lung cancer earlier. In a prospective study published June 3 in Cancer Discovery, the team demonstrated that artificial intelligence technology could identify people more likely to have lung cancer based on DNA fragment patterns in the blood. The study enrolled about 1,000 participants with and without cancer who met the criteria for traditional lung ...

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is the talk of the town, but far too often expediency has been the driver, not responsible innovation. The NYC Media Lab (NYCML) at NYU Tandon School of Engineering and Bertelsmann launched their 4th challenge this month, this time aimed at mentoring teams with projects that use AI to responsibly advance their fields.  The 2024 collaboration, The Ethical Matrix Challenge: Forging New AI Frontiers in Media, Communications, Education, and Healthcare, focuses on ethical AI and its power to have a real-world influence. The four selected teams have projects that can responsibly revolutionize the way ...

A substantial portion of young athletes are at risk of hypertension, according to a study presented at the American College of Cardiology’s Care of the Athletic Heart conference, taking place on June 6-8 in Washington. High blood pressure, also known as hypertension, occurs in 47% of adults in the U.S., according to CardioSmart.org. Over time, hypertension weakens the heart, blood vessels and kidneys, paving the way for potential stroke or heart attack. Often referred to as the “silent killer,” high blood pressure is a leading risk factor for heart disease and early death.  The 2017 ACC/American Heart Association Guideline for the Prevention, ...

While mpox cases have sharply declined since the 2022 global outbreak, they continue to occur in the U.S. among gay and bisexual men who have sex with men (GBMSM), according to a UCLA-led study from EMERGEncy ID NET, a multisite surveillance network funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Though no cases were found in women, children or the unhoused, vigilance and vaccination remain important, the researchers write. The findings will be published June 6 in the CDC’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. Mpox, formerly known as monkeypox, ...

How the Cell Cycle Orchestra Plays an Unexpected New Tune  UCSF scientists discover that multiciliated cells adapt the well-known process of cell division to make hundreds of cilia. The awe-inspiring process of cell division can turn a fertilized egg into a baby – or a cancerous cell into a malignant tumor. With so much at stake, nature keeps it tightly controlled in a process called the cell cycle that scientists thought they thoroughly understood.  But now it turns out there was more to know. Scientists ...

For every kilogram of matter that we can see — from the computer on your desk to distant stars and galaxies — there are 5 kilograms of invisible matter that suffuse our surroundings. This “dark matter” is a mysterious entity that evades all forms of direct observation yet makes its presence felt through its invisible pull on visible objects.  Fifty years ago, physicist Stephen Hawking offered one idea for what dark matter might be: a population of black holes, which might have formed very soon after the Big Bang. Such “primordial” black holes would not have been the goliaths that we detect today, but ...

El Centro Regional Medical Center (ECRMC), an affiliate of UC San Diego Health, today announced several financial and operational updates, demonstrating significant progress toward stabilizing and strengthening a critical health services asset in the Imperial Valley.  “Our goal is simple — to ensure that the people of El Centro and the broader Imperial Valley have long-term access to health care services,” said Pablo Velez, RN, PhD, chief executive officer, ECRMC. “Over the last year, the amazing team of dedicated physicians and staff at ECRMC have worked tirelessly in partnership with UC San Diego ...

Lugano, Switzerland, 6 June 2024 – The ESMO Gynaecological Cancers Congress 2024 will be held in Florence, Italy, between 20-22 June, hosting international experts who will present and discuss the latest developments in the biology, diagnosis and therapy of gynaecological tumours. The management of rare gynaecological malignancies will be among the key areas covered in the scientific programme, available online. The congress can be joined either in person or via the online platform.   Programme ...