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Blog – Page 31

Researchers found for the first time evidence that even microquasars containing a low-mass star are efficient particle accelerators, which leads to a significant impact on the interpretation of the abundance of gamma rays in the universe.

Our home planet is bombarded with particles from outer space all the time. And while we are mostly familiar with the rocky meteorites originating from within our solar system that create fascinating shooting stars in the night sky, it’s the smallest particles that help scientists to understand the nature of the universe. Subatomic particles such as electrons or protons arriving from interstellar space and beyond are one of the fastest particles known in the universe and known as cosmic rays.

The origins and the acceleration mechanisms of the most energetic of these cosmic particles remains one of the biggest mysteries in astrophysics. Fast-moving matter outflows (or “jets”) launched from black holes would be an ideal site for particle acceleration, but the details on how and under which conditions acceleration processes can occur are unclear. The most powerful jets inside our Galaxy occur in microquasars: systems composed by a stellar-mass black hole and a “normal” star. The pair orbit each other, and, once they are close enough, the black hole starts to slowly swallow its companion. As a consequence of this, jets are launched from the region close to the black hole.

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It’s a breakthrough in cancer treatment, and UChicago Medicine is one of the first hospitals to offer it.

It’s not just one treatment, but can eventually become a whole new way to treat cancer.

Alla Pinzour has been fighting skin cancer for around 15 years—but not anymore.

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A recent study by Dr. Albert Jambon and his colleagues, published in the Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports, revealed the presence of meteoric iron in Early Iron Age ornaments in Poland.

According to Dr. Jambon, the study was prompted by the desire to know the origin of smelting. “The point of my research is to find out who, when, and where the iron smelting was discovered. To that end, we need to analyze archaeological irons and check whether they are meteoritic or smelted.”

To do this, two Early Iron Age cemeteries and their iron artifacts, Częstochowa-Raków and Częstochowa-Mirów, both located in southern Poland, were analyzed.

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Cells have surface receptors called integrins that bind to repetitive domains present on the extracellular matrix (ECM) surrounding the cells, allowing them to grow and spread. A new study from the Department of Bioengineering (BE), Indian Institute of Science (IISc) and collaborators shows that tweaking the spacing between these binding domains on the ECM can boost the efficiency of ultrasound treatment applied to kill cancer cells.

“In a normal tissue, the spacing on the ECM is around 50–70 nanometers (nm), but in the , severe choking occurs due to excessive ECM secretion, which may reduce the binding spacing to below 50 nm,” explains Ajay Tijore, Assistant Professor in BE and corresponding author of a related study published in Nano Letters. “We found more being killed when the binding spacing is increased to around 50–70 nm.”

Low-frequency ultrasound waves (39 kHz) can disrupt the and trigger cell death in cancer cells. It is a relatively low-cost and non-invasive approach. Unlike normal cells, cancer cells do not have repair mechanisms that help them withstand the exerted by ultrasound waves.

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Mammoth Biosciences researchers have developed NanoCas, an ultracompact CRISPR nuclease, demonstrating its ability to perform gene editing in non-liver tissues, including skeletal muscle, using a single adeno-associated virus (AAV) vector. Experiments in non-human primates (NHPs) resulted in editing efficiencies exceeding 30% in muscle tissues.

CRISPR gene editing has revolutionized genetics, but delivery challenges have restricted its clinical applications primarily to ex vivo and liver-directed therapies. Conventional CRISPR nucleases, including Cas9 and Cas12a, exceed the packaging limits of a single AAV vector, necessitating dual-AAV strategies that reduce efficiency.

Smaller CRISPR systems such as Cas12i and CasX have been identified, but they remain too large or exhibit low editing efficiency. Existing compact systems like Cas14 and IscB have not demonstrated robust efficacy in large animal models.

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In 1978, parvovirus—then common to cats—started infecting dogs in Europe. The virus spread quickly around the globe, killing hundreds of thousands of dogs, mostly puppies—until a team of Cornell researchers led by the late Leland “Skip” Carmichael developed a vaccine, the derivatives of which are still used today.

“It was really at the time a worldwide relief, a miracle,” said Colin Parrish, interim director of the Baker Institute for Animal Health, who joined Carmichael’s lab as a graduate student in 1980 and is now senior author of a new study that continues to advance our understandings of the virus and how the vaccine works.

The paper, published Feb. 14 in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, shows how host antibodies bind to parvovirus and neutralize it. The findings shed light on fundamental interactions between viruses and their hosts, and open new doors for improving current vaccines and treatments for infected animals.

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A group of psychologists and economists at Jaume I University, in Spain, has found evidence that women are more generous than men. In their study published in the open-access journal PLOS ONE, Iván Barreda-Tarrazona, Ainhoa Jaramillo-Gutiérrez, Marina Pavan, and Gerardo Sabater-Grande conducted experiments with volunteers playing “the Dictator Game.”

Prior research has suggested that men and women are nearly equal regarding financial generosity. But the team noted that virtually all such studies have involved small numbers of volunteer participants. In this new work, the group attempted to learn more about gender-based generosity by recruiting 1,161 volunteers to play the Dictator Game, and used the results to measure generosity.

The Dictator Game is a type of ultimatum game developed by psychologists to determine if people act solely out of . Players are given a certain amount of money and are asked if they would like to share some or all of it with a second, anonymous player. The second player is at the mercy of the first; they will receive only the amount offered by the first player.

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