Lifeboat Foundation: Safeguarding Humanity
Toggle light / dark theme

Blog – Page 2

Get the latest international news and world events from around the world.

Log in for authorized contributors

Roles of lysosomal small-molecule transporters in metabolism and signaling

Small-molecule transporters of the lysosomal membrane export lysosomal catabolites for reuse in cell metabolism.

These transporters often show substrate promiscuity and, conversely, a given metabolite is often exported through distinct transport routes and sometimes in different states (e.g., single amino acids versus dipeptides).

Some lysosomal transporters import metabolites into the lumen. The combination of importers and exporters can create small-molecule shuttles across the lysosomal membrane, which regulate the lumen state.

Some lysosomal transporters participate in intracellular signaling cascades. sciencenewshighlights ScienceMission https://sciencemission.com/lysosomal-small-molecule-transporters

Lysosomes degrade damaged or unwanted cell/tissue components and recycle their building blocks through small-molecule transporters of the lysosomal membrane. They also act as signaling hubs that sense and signal internal cues, such as amino acids, to coordinate cell responses. Recently, the activity of several lysosomal metabolite transporters has been elucidated, bringing new insights into lysosomal functions. Cell biological and structural studies of lysosomal transporters have also highlighted their roles in recruiting signaling complexes to lysosomes and delineated how their substrates gate such hybrid transporter/receptor, or ‘transceptor’, function.

Quobly Toolbox Explores Quantum Phase Estimation Pipeline With Tensor Networks

An international collaboration between a French quantum startup and a major Taiwanese electronics manufacturer has yielded a new open-source tool for exploring a critical area of quantum computing. Quobly and Taiwan’s Hon Hai Research Institute, the R&D arm of Foxconn, jointly released a numerical toolbox dedicated to the Quantum Phase Estimation (QPE) algorithm, described as a cornerstone of fault-tolerant quantum computing with major applications in quantum chemistry and materials science. While QPE’s theoretical benefits are understood, simulating its practical resource needs has proven difficult; the toolbox aims to bridge this gap by allowing researchers to explore implementations and their implications. The tool focuses on practical, interpretable numerical experiments, enabling full circuit executions for up to 20 qubits and circuits ranging from 1,000 to 100,000 gates on standard laptops.

Quantum Phase Estimation Toolbox for Molecular Systems

While the theoretical underpinnings of QPE are well established, simulating its practical demands has proven a significant hurdle, limiting exploration beyond simplified models. The toolbox addresses this gap by offering a platform for practical, interpretable numerical experiments, allowing scientists to investigate QPE implementations without requiring access to full-scale quantum hardware, which is currently unavailable. Built upon advanced tensor network techniques and the open-source quimb library, the toolbox facilitates the preparation of initial states using DMRG and matrix product states, and allows encoding of molecular Hamiltonians into quantum circuits through methods like trotterization and qubitization. Researchers can directly compare standard QPE with the single-ancilla Robust Phase Estimation (RPE) method, analyzing circuit depth, gate counts, and potential error sources.

A fresh approach to peppermint: 250 new variants could boost flavor and fight disease

The genomics of peppermint are not as fresh as their flavor but scientists from the University of California, Davis, have found a way to breathe new genetic variation into the species. The findings, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, could help the mint industry develop new varieties of peppermint and provide a roadmap for improving clonal crops more generally.

Similar to strawberries, potatoes and many fruit trees, peppermint plants (Mentha × piperita) are reproduced asexually by a process called clonal propagation. In the case of peppermint, this means that their genomes have remained unaltered for more than 200 years. This lack of genetic variation leaves them susceptible to disease and means that properties such as yield and flavor have remained stagnant.

UC Davis plant biologists used radiation to induce mutations in the leading peppermint clone grown in the United States, resulting in more than 250 new and genetically distinct variants. Altogether, they introduced 1,406 large genetic mutations, which can now be used to identify key genes for breeding or selecting new and superior peppermint varieties.

Webb discovers one of the universe’s first galaxies

Scientists have discovered a galaxy as it was 13 billion years ago, 800 million years after the Big Bang. It contains possible evidence of the universe’s first stars and is one of the most chemically primitive galaxies observed to date.

The first stars and galaxies are difficult to see because they are so far away and their light is extremely faint. But thanks to the James Webb Space Telescope, we don’t have to remain in the dark about them. This $10 billion observatory was launched in 2021 and can peer back in time to when the first galaxies and stars were forming.

In a paper published in the journal Nature, a team of scientists led by Kimihiko Nakajima, an astronomer at Kanazawa University, Japan, describes how they used the telescope to study a part of the deep universe and discovered a faint galaxy called LAP1-B. “LAP1-B establishes a ‘fossil in the making,’ a direct high-redshift progenitor of the ancient ultra-faint dwarf galaxies observed in the local universe,” they wrote.

String theory is uniquely derived from basic assumptions about the universe, physicists show

If you could take an apple and break it into smaller and smaller parts, you would find molecules, then atoms, followed by subatomic particles like protons and the quarks and gluons that make them up. You might think you hit the bottom, but, according to string theorists, if you keep going to even smaller scales—about a billion billion times smaller than a proton—you will find more: tiny vibrating strings.

Developed in the 1960s, string theory proposes that everything in the universe is made from invisible strings. The theory arose as a possible solution to the problem of “quantum gravity,” the quest to align quantum mechanics, which describes our world at the smallest scales, with the general theory of relativity, which explains how our universe works on the largest scales (and includes gravity). Researchers have tried to reconcile the two theories—asking, for example, how gravity behaves in the quantum realm—but their equations go berserk, or in mathematical terms, go to infinity.

String theory is a mathematical solution that tames the unruly infinities. It purports that all particles, including the graviton—the hypothetical particle believed to convey the force of gravity—are generated by very small vibrating strings. The math behind string theory requires the strings to vibrate in at least 10 dimensions, rather than the four we live in (three for space and one for time), which is one of the reasons some scientists are not convinced that string theory is correct. But perhaps the biggest challenge for the theory is the ultrahigh energies required for testing it: Such an experiment would require a particle collider the size of a galaxy.

Engineered proteins store digital files with 30 times density at one-tenth cost

Massive volumes of digital data are generated every day from AI training, big data analytics and smart devices. As conventional hard drives and cloud storage are increasingly constrained by high costs, limited capacity, high power consumption and short lifespans, molecular data storage has emerged as a breakthrough storage alternative.

Researchers at The Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU) have pioneered a method that uses engineered proteins to store digital data and, for the first time, completed the full process from data storage to data retrieval in de novo designed unnatural proteins.

This demonstrates the potential of establishing a protein-based storage framework with sustainability, high storage capacity and high stability, offering a promising solution to the explosive AI-generated growth in data globally.

Researchers uncover chemical origins of the Perseus cluster of galaxies

An international team of researchers has developed new stellar and supernova models to explain the mysterious elemental abundance patterns left by billions of supernova explosions around the Perseus constellation, which have been difficult to explain with conventional theoretical models, reports three recent studies published in The Astrophysical Journal.

Deep within the Perseus constellation lies one of the most massive structures known to science: the Perseus Cluster. A titan of the cosmos, it anchors over a thousand galaxies within a sea of superheated gas known as the Intracluster Medium (ICM). This gas, glowing fiercely in X-rays, acts as a celestial ledger, recording the chemical “fingerprints” left behind by billions of supernova explosions over billions of years.

However, data from the HITOMI (Astro-H) space telescope revealed a profound mystery. Long-standing theoretical models by researchers need important corrections.

Silk made into strong plastic-like materials with 6G potential

Silk threads can be fused into transparent, plastic-like materials that twist terahertz frequencies of light, according to research led by Imperial College London, University of Michigan Engineering and Tufts University. The findings could enable components of 6G networks to be made from upcycled silk.

The new materials are also lightweight, yet stronger than many metal alloys and conventional plastics produced from fossil fuels. Their mechanical properties could make them useful in sports gear, shipping containers and certain kinds of packaging. In ballistics tests, the new materials were about as puncture-resistant as carbon-fiber-reinforced polymers, which are used in the bodies of airplanes and the chassis of automobiles. And, because the materials slowly degraded when implanted into mice, they could prove useful in temporary medical implants.

The researchers are particularly interested in the material’s ability to twist, or polarize, terahertz frequencies of light. The 6G band, which could transmit data up to hundreds of times faster than 5G networks and is particularly appealing for rural high-speed internet, extends into terahertz frequencies.

Prickly pear cacti show promise as the building materials of tomorrow

Researchers from the University of Bath’s Department of Mechanical Engineering have shown that agricultural waste from prickly pear cactus plants could be used as a low-cost, low-carbon reinforcement for construction materials, offering a more sustainable alternative to conventional composites. The research is published in the Journal of Natural Fibers.

Composite materials combine strong reinforcing fibers with a lightweight base material, known as a matrix. Widely used composites like carbon fiber, fiberglass or Kevlar rely on synthetic fibers and energy-intensive manufacturing processes. Their durability also makes them difficult to reuse or recycle at the end of their lifespan. Swapping synthetic fibers with natural alternatives offers a renewable and biodegradable solution.

Matt Hutchins, a researcher in the Department of Mechanical Engineering and lead author of the study, said, “Inside the flat cactus pads is a naturally occurring fiber network. These fibers form a honeycomb-like structure that helps the plant support its own weight and resists bending in strong winds. We’re exploring how to extract these structures and keep them intact, borrowing their natural properties to reinforce bio-based composites.”

/* */