Study links FAM193B CCG repeat length to higher Alzheimer’s risk, especially in people of Chinese ancestry.
Get the latest international news and world events from around the world.
Targeted drug shrinks tumors in 3 out of 4 patients with advanced breast cancer
There may be a promising new treatment on the horizon for advanced breast cancer patients, according to developing research.
Scientists may have finally solved the mystery of the Moon’s two faces
Scientists may have solved a long-standing mystery about why the Moon’s two sides are so different, using samples collected from its farside for the first time. Their findings suggest that uneven heating from Earth’s gravitational pull drove enormous flows of ancient magma, creating the dramatically different lunar landscapes we see today.
Scientists investigating why the Moon’s two sides look so different have uncovered new evidence that could help explain this long-standing mystery. A research team led by Professor Hejiu Hui of Nanjing University analyzed lunar rocks collected by China’s Chang’e-6 (CE6) mission and found clues suggesting that enormous movements of molten rock shaped the Moon billions of years ago.
The researchers examined the chemical compositions of three types of lunar rock: anorthosites, Mg-suite rocks, and mare basalts. They compared these samples from the Moon’s far side with material collected from the near side during the Apollo and Chang’e-5 missions. Their findings suggest that the Moon’s striking differences emerged through large-scale heat-driven circulation within its ancient lunar magma ocean (LMO), after the Moon became tidally locked to Earth.
Scientists for the first time injected an AI-created virus into a human
Want to bookmark your favourite articles and stories to read or reference later? Start your Independent Membership today.
Odd and Even Effects Uncovered in Graphene
Experiments reveal a potentially useful odd–even dichotomy in the nonlinear Hall response of bilayer graphene.
Small molecular twists may strengthen nature’s magnetic compass
A collaborative research team led by Yasuhiro Kobori at Kobe University, together with researchers from Toho University, Saitama University, Nagoya Institute of Technology and the University of Freiburg, has identified a potential molecular mechanism that could enhance magnetic compass responses in cryptochrome, a blue-light-sensitive protein implicated in magnetoreception.
Using time-resolved electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) spectroscopy, the team identified structural rearrangements in light-induced intermediates and a contribution from chirality-induced spin selectivity (CISS). Their analysis suggests that chiral rotational motion of a tryptophan residue can influence electron-spin polarization and enhance the directional dependence of downstream chemical reactions.
Their findings are published in The Journal of Physical Chemistry Letters.
Electrical guardrails for charge carriers: A new approach to harness graphene for solar cells
Graphene is a single layer of carbon atoms in which electrons can move with high mobility, making it promising for high-speed electronic components. Yet it is not very efficient at converting light into electricity. While light absorbed by graphene does excite electrons, leaving behind positively charged carriers called ‘holes,’ the absorbed light energy cannot be harnessed effectively unless electrons and holes are separated and directed to different contacts.
Conventional solar cells use semiconductors such as silicon, whose bandgap plays a key role in converting light into electrical energy. Graphene does not have such a gap.
“That’s why we have to come up with a different mechanism,” says Ralf Schützhold, director of the HZDR Institute of Theoretical Physics. One option is to cut or fold the graphene to create tiny edges.
Evolutionary changes in key enzyme may help bacteria make proteins faster
Evolutionary changes in a key protein synthesis enzyme, isoleucyl-tRNA synthetase (IleRS), may help bacteria fine-tune how quickly proteins are made, report researchers from Institute of Science Tokyo, Japan; the University of Zagreb Faculty of Science, Croatia; and ETH Zürich, Switzerland.
Researchers traced the enzyme’s evolutionary history and identified three distinct IleRS clades. Their findings show that C-terminal remodeling, including repeated loss of a structural region called “INS,” may have helped refine enzyme activity and reaction speed.
The study is published in the journal Nature Communications.
Simplified ancestral enzyme makes ATP without amino acid needed for its usual reaction
Proteins perform essential functions in living organisms, from catalyzing biochemical reactions to supporting cellular energy metabolism. Their functions depend on their amino acid composition and three-dimensional structures. However, early proteins may have evolved when fewer amino acid types were available than those used by most modern proteins.
Understanding how proteins built from a more limited set of amino acids could perform essential biochemical reactions may therefore offer insights into the origins and evolution of life.
Cosmic microwave background offers evidence of gas flowing in galaxy clusters
The cosmic microwave background (CMB) is a faint glow in the universe dating back to roughly 380,000 years after the Big Bang, long before stars or galaxies emerged. Detecting this light and mapping its fluctuations provide valuable insights into the age and composition of the universe.
Researchers at Columbia University recently analyzed CMB data and gathered evidence of a CMB signal that could be produced by internal gas motions in galaxy clusters, large collections of galaxies that are held together by gravity. Their findings, published in Physical Review Letters, strengthen earlier clues of this gas motion and a phenomenon called the rotational kinematic Sunyaev-Zel’dovich (rkSZ) effect reported by other astronomers.
“This project began after a meeting with my Ph.D. adviser, J. Colin Hill, in which we discussed signals in the CMB that hadn’t yet been observed,” Samuel Goldstein, first author of the paper, told Phys.org. “One of these is the rkSZ effect. As CMB photons pass through a galaxy cluster, they scatter off its ionized gas, and if the gas is rotating, one side of the cluster appears slightly hotter and the other slightly colder.”