Yuan et al. report a high-quality chromosome-scale genome of the hexaploid halophyte Sesuvium portulacastrum. Comparative genomics and transcriptomics provide insights into its salt-adaptation evolution and identify the key salt-tolerant gene SpHAK3, offering genetic resources for improving crop tolerance.
The researchers also discovered a tiny antibody, called a nanobody, which mimics NPC1 at the receptor-binding site and can slip past a protective cap on Marburg’s entry protein, bind to it and block its attachment to the receptor. In lab tests, this nanobody prevented Marburg virus from entering cells. ScienceMission sciencenewshighlights.
In a new study published in Nature the researchers found that the Marburg virus (MBV), one of the world’s deadliest pathogens with an average 73% fatality rate, is unusually efficient at getting inside human cells. They also showed that the virus’s entry protein contains structural features that explain this efficiency and point to a strategy for blocking infection.
The researchers designed a tightly controlled system that enables a fair comparison of the entry proteins of Marburg and its relative Ebola. The team further found that the two viruses share the same human receptor. The authors determined structures of MBV glycoprotein (GP) in three states: unbound; bound to its endosomal receptor NPC1; and complexed with a neutralizing nanobody.
Marburg’s entry protein binds this receptor in a distinct orientation and with higher affinity, then changes shape in ways that help the virus enter cells. The authors show that the glycan cap shields the receptor-binding site from NPC1 but only partially from the nanobody, enabling limited immune evasion. After glycan cap cleavage, NPC1 binds to MBV GP in a distinct orientation compared with EBOV GP, providing an additional anchor and enhancing receptor affinity. NPC1 engagement also induces substantial conformational changes in MBV GP, probably facilitating membrane fusion. Using this approach, they showed that Marburg’s entry protein can drive viral entry into human cells up to 300 times more efficiently than Ebola’s.
All right, let’s go.
Number 10. Methuselah’s Star.
In 2000, a team of astronomers led by Howard Bond at Penn State University pointed the Hubble Space Telescope at a faint star in the constellation Libra and made a discovery that should have been impossible. The star, designated HD 140,283 and later nicknamed Methuselah, appeared to be 14.5 billion years old. The universe itself is only 13.8 billion years old. A star older than the cosmos that contains it shouldn’t exist. Yet there it was, burning quietly just 190 light years from Earth, defying the most fundamental timeline in all of physics.
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What if gravity is not fundamental but emerges from quantum entanglement? In this episode, physicist Ted Jacobson reveals how Einstein’s equations can be derived from thermodynamic principles of the quantum vacuum, reshaping our understanding of space, time, and gravity itself.
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How do we evolve/survive?
At just 10 years old, Jo Nagai conducted an experiment that would surprise scientists around the world.
By raising and training swallowtail caterpillars at home, Jo demonstrated that butterflies can retain memories formed during their larval stage, even after undergoing complete metamorphosis. But what he discovered next was even more unexpected: those learned responses appeared to persist to the next generation.
This video explores Jo’s experiment, the scientific ideas behind it, and the simple question that started it all.
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Gravitational waves are ripples in spacetime produced by violent cosmic events, such as the merging of black holes. So far, direct detections have relied on measuring tiny distance changes over kilometer-scale instruments. In a new theoretical study published in Physical Review Letters, researchers at Stockholm University, Nordita, and the University of Tübingen propose an unconventional approach: tracking how gravitational waves reshape the light emitted by atoms. The work describes a possible detection route, but an experimental demonstration remains for the future.
When atoms are excited, they naturally relax by emitting light at a characteristic frequency—a quantum process known as spontaneous emission. This happens through their interaction with the quantum electromagnetic field.
“Gravitational waves modulate the quantum field, which in turn affects spontaneous emission,” said Jerzy Paczos, a Ph.D. student at Stockholm University. “This modulation can shift the frequencies of emitted photons compared with the no-wave case.”
Recent technological advances facilitate the reconstruction of complete brain connectomes in small organisms and partial connectomes in mammals, involving the mapping of the network of neurons and synaptic connections. Accurate cell typing of these connectomes aids in interpreting circuit functions and comparing brain organization across species.
Traditionally, cell typing relied on manual morphological classification by experts—a slow process that required detailed anatomical information. However, morphology can be deceptive or inadequate in many brain regions, especially in circuits with repeated cell types, where neurons can share very similar morphology despite differing in connectivity.
A team of international researchers have developed a breakthrough way to observe what is happening inside electronic chips while they are operating—without touching them, taking them apart, or switching them off. The new technique uses terahertz waves, a safe and non-ionizing form of electromagnetic radiation, to detect tiny movements of electrical charge inside fully packaged semiconductor devices. For the first time, this allows scientists and engineers to monitor electronic components as they function in the real world.
The study, published in the IEEE Journal of Microwaves, involves researchers from Adelaide University in Australia, US technology company Virginia Diodes Inc, the Hasso Plattner Institute and the University of Potsdam, Germany.
Adelaide University Group Leader of the Terahertz Engineering Laboratory (TEL), Professor Withawat Withayachumnankul, said that semiconductors underpin almost every modern technology, from smartphones and medical devices to vehicles, power grids and defense systems.