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Portable sensors and artificial intelligence are helping researchers decode animal communication—and begin to talk back to nonhumans.

In recent years, organic chemicals containing boron (B) and silicon (Si) have found applications in various fields, including optoelectronics and pharmaceuticals. Moreover, they can also serve as building blocks for complex organic chemicals. As a result, scientists are actively looking for new ways to leverage these versatile chemical tools as well as produce more kinds of organosilicon and organoboron compounds.

One limitation of the synthesis methods currently available for these chemicals is that we cannot introduce multiple B-and Si-containing groups in aromatic nitrogen heterocycles, i.e., carbon rings in which one of the carbon atoms is replaced by a nitrogen atom. If we could produce and freely transform such molecules, it would unlock the synthesis of several compounds relevant in medicinal chemistry.

Fortunately, a research team including Assistant Professor Yuki Nagashima from Tokyo Institute of Technology (Tokyo Tech), Japan has found a straightforward way around this limitation. As explained in their most recent study published in Nature Communications, the team has developed a method that allows them to modify quinolines, small organic molecules with an aromatic nitrogen heterocycle, with B-, Si-, and carbon-containing groups simultaneously.

The study shows that our brains exist between chaos and stability—a finding that could be used to help tweak them either way.

Northwestern University researchers have made a significant breakthrough in the field of seismology, developing a new earthquake probability model that will help scientists better predict when the next big earthquake will occur on a fault. The model, which was recently published in the Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America, offers a more comprehensive and realistic approach than current models.

Seismologists have long assumed that big earthquakes on faults are relatively regular and that the next quake will occur after a similar amount of time as between the previous two. However, the earth doesn’t always follow this pattern, and earthquakes can sometimes come sooner or later than expected. This is where the new model comes in, as it considers the specific order and timing of previous earthquakes to forecast the next one.

The model also helps explain why earthquakes sometimes come in clusters – groups with relatively short times between them, separated by longer times without earthquakes. The research team, consisting of seismologists and statisticians, was led by Stein, a faculty associate of Northwestern’s Institute for Policy Research (IPR) and co-authored by Professor Bruce D. Spencer and recent Ph.D. graduates James S. Neely and Leah Salditch.

An excellent overview of the story of how the U.S. responded to the COVID-19 pandemic along with suggestions for ways to continue making strides in combatting SARS-CoV-2 as well as how we may prepare for future emerging pathogens. The article provides an interesting case study on mechanisms of large-scale human organization, examines ways that we have succeeded in managing so many moving pieces, and explores ways that we could do better in the future. #nih #health #medicine #government #biotechnology

Investment, collaboration, and coordination have been key.

Francis Collins [email protected], Stacey Adam, […], Christine Colvis, Elizabeth Desrosiers, […], Ruxandra Draghia-Akli, Anthony Fauci, Maria Freire, Gary Gibbons, Matthew Hall, […], Eric Hughes, Kathrin Jansen, Michael Kurilla, H. Clifford Lane, Douglas Lowy, Peter Marks, Joseph Menetski, William Pao, Eliseo Pérez-Stable, Lisa Purcell, Sarah Read, Joni Rutter, Michael Santos, Tara Schwetz, Jeffrey Shuren, Timothy Stenzel, Paul Stoffels, Lawrence Tabak, Karen Tountas, Bruce Tromberg, David Wholley, Janet Woodcock, and John Young +29 authors +27 authors +22 authors fewer Authors Info & Affiliations

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Chinese geneticist He Jiankui rocked the scientific world with his gene-edited baby experiments back in 2018, a highly controversial use of the technology that ended up sending him to a three-year stint in prison for illegal medical practices.

Now, just under a year after being released, He has some regrets about rushing into the experiments.

“I did it too quickly,” He told the South China Morning Post in a new interview.

I guess they’re John Wick fans.

The molecules kill some types of fungi “so efficiently that we named them after Keanu Reeves,” said the lead author of the study.

New work shows that histones, long treated as boring spools for DNA, sit at the center of the origin story of eukaryotes and continue to play important roles in evolution and disease.

Gabriel kreiman; harvard university, children’s hospital boston.