Researchers create the first high-resolution molecular atlas of the fruit fly brain, revealing how lineage and birth order define neuronal identity.
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Plastic Responses to Single and Combined Environmental Stresses in a Highly Chemodiverse Aromatic Plant Species
đ±Plants face various environmental stresses, to which they respond in different ways. Due to climate change, it is expected that plants will encounter increased phases of drought and changes in herbivory.
đThis study thus aimed to evaluate the intra-individual variation in responses, that is phenotypic plasticity, to single and combined stresses, including drought and insect herbivory. Authors used plants of the aromatic species Tanacetum vulgare, which are characterized by distinct terpenoid chemotypes and metabolic fingerprints shaped by maternal origin. Clones were exposed to no stress, drought, herbivory, or a combination of both.
âïžThe impacts of these treatments were determined in terms of aboveground biomass as well as emission rates or concentrations, richness, and functional Hill diversity (FHD) of volatile organic compounds (VOCs), stored leaf and root terpenoids, and leaf metabolic fingerprints.
đDrought resulted in lower plant aboveground biomass, VOC richness, and VOC FHD. Herbivory had no effect on biomass, but increased the VOC emission rates and richness, also in combination with drought. The treatment significantly affected the phenotypic plasticity of the aboveground biomass and VOC emission.
đThese findings highlight the importance of studying intra-individual variation in plant responses to different stresses and their combinations to fully comprehend the finely tuned chemodiversity.
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PFAS thermal treatment approaches and enhancement
Thermal treatment approaches can remediate solids contaminated by per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), but are energy-intensive and create products of incomplete destruction. This Review discusses these approaches and the use of additives to lower reaction temperatures and drive complete destruction of PFAS.
Neuronal VIP shapes intestinal stem cell activity and mucosal immunity
Intestinal homeostasis and regeneration rely on intestinal stem cells (ISCs). Li et al. identified neuronal vasoactive intestinal peptide (VIP) as a brake on ISCs through VIPR1 to limit regeneration. In Nature Immunology, Jakob et al. and Pirzgalska et al. further showed that VIP-VIPR1 signaling restrains secretory lineage expansion and balances immune responses.
Fluid simulation at unprecedented scale provides toolkit for fundamental physics and applied fluid engineering
What governs the speed at which raindrops fall, sediment settles in river estuaries, and matter is ejected during a supernova? These questions circle around one, deceitfully simple factor: the rate at which a fluid filled with particles mixes with a particle-free one. Raindrops travel from one layer of air to another; sediment falls from river to seawater, and ejecta travels from the exploding star through the surrounding dust cloud. The same principle dictates sediment mixing in rising smoke, dust storms, nuclear explosions, hydrocarbon refining, metal smelting, wastewater treatment, and more.
New simulations have now provided researchers and engineers with unprecedented access to these fundamental fluid mechanics. While plainly visible in everyday life, the phenomenon has eluded scientific scrutiny due to their complexity. For the first time, researchers have derived a general formulation of how layers of heavy particles mix and described the common characteristics of the phenomena.
Simone Tandurella, study first author and Ph.D. student in the Complex Fluids and Flows Unit at OIST, explains, âBoth the simulations and the model we obtain enable exciting research into a wide range of fundamental physics phenomena, as well as applied research in fluid engineering. They provide the basic puzzle pieces that can help us understand fluid-particle instabilities at large scales.â
Astronomers capture birth of a magnetar, confirming link to some of universeâs brightest exploding stars
Astronomers have for the first time seen the birth of a magnetarâa highly magnetized, spinning neutron starâand confirmed that itâs the power source behind some of the brightest exploding stars in the cosmos. The finding corroborates a theory proposed by a UC Berkeley physicist 16 years ago and establishes a new phenomenon in exploding stars: supernovae with a âchirpâ in their light curve that is caused by general relativity. A paper describing the phenomenon was published in the journal Nature.
Superluminous supernovaeâwhich can be 10 or more times brighter than run-of-the-mill supernovaeâhave puzzled astronomers since their discovery in the early 2000s. They were thought to result from the explosion of very massive stars, perhaps 25 times the mass of our sun, but they stayed bright much longer than would be expected when a starâs iron core collapses and its outer layers are subsequently blown off.
In 2010, Dan Kasen, now a UC Berkeley theoretical astrophysicist and professor of physics, was the first to propose that a magnetar was powering the long-lasting glow.
Nocturnal ants use lunar compass and sophisticated calculations to travel at night
Itâs well known that many animals, including migratory birds, butterflies, and even fish, use the sun for navigational purposes. Nocturnal animals are dealt a more difficult hand, however, as the moonâs path is far more variable. But a new study, published in Current Biology, has shown that nocturnal bull ants (Myrmecia midas) not only use the moon as a compass, but are also capable of accounting for speed variations in its movement.
Although there is a slight change every day, the sunâs path in the sky is much more stable than the moonâs. As most people know, the moon goes through monthly phases, varying dramatically in its placement in the sky throughout the month and being entirely absent from the night sky for a portion of time. Additional speed variations further complicate things. Because of this, it was unclear whether nocturnal animals could accurately predict the moonâs complex movement for navigation.
Some diurnal insects, like certain ants and bees, use time-compensated sun compasses that adjust for the sunâs daily movement. Past studies have shown that some nocturnal insects use lunar or polarized light cues, but did not show whether these were used for time-compensated lunar navigation.
Dolphin mass strandings in Patagonia linked to killer whales
In 2021 and 2023, hundreds of dolphins were stranded in shallow waters in San Antonio Bay in northern Patagonia. Some died, but many were returned safely to the sea. But what remained a mystery until now was how they ended up stuck on sandbanks in the first place. Now, a new study published in the journal Royal Society Open Science suggests that orcas may be to blame.
Mass strandings of common dolphins are rare and poorly understood in the southwestern Atlantic. Explanations for why they occur in other parts of the world include everything from disease and disorientation to human activities and being trapped by tides.
To discover what happened at San Antonio Bay, researchers from Argentina conducted necropsies (animal autopsies) on 38 dolphins from the 2021 event and gathered evidence from local community members. This included video footage from drones and tourist vessels uploaded to the eWHALE science platform, as well as interviews with fishermen and residents.
Scalable quantum batteries can charge faster than their classical counterparts
Over the past decades, energy engineers have developed increasingly advanced battery technologies that can store more energy, charge faster and maintain their performance for longer. In recent years, some researchers have also started exploring the potential of quantum batteries, devices that can store energy leveraging quantum mechanical effects.
To store energy, quantum batteries rely on qubits, quantum systems that can exist in two energy states simultaneously, leveraging a property known as superposition. While in principle these batteries could perform better than classical batteries, the realization of battery prototypes that exhibit this predicted quantum advantage has proved challenging.
Researchers at the Southern University and Technology in China (Sustech) and the Superior Council for Scientific Research (CSIC) in Spain recently realized a quantum energy storage device that was found to outperform a classical equivalent when operating under realistic conditions.