Summary: YTHDF2 is a key protein that assists in creating healthy blood cells by regulating the body’s inflammatory response.
Source: University of Edinburgh
The study is the first to reveal a protein that has a crucial role in protecting the blood’s stem cells, which continually produce all blood and immune cells needed in the body, from premature aging.
A cryptographic master tool called indistinguishability obfuscation has for years seemed too good to be true. Three researchers have figured out that it can work.
On Jupiter’s icy moon Europa, powerful eruptions may spew into space, raising questions among hopeful astrobiologists on Earth: What would blast out from miles-high plumes? Could they contain signs of extraterrestrial life? And where in Europa would they originate? A new explanation now points to a source closer to the frozen surface than might be expected.
Rather than originating from deep within Europa’s oceans, some eruptions may originate from water pockets embedded in the icy shell itself, according to new evidence from researchers at Stanford University, the University of Arizona, the University of Texas and NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
Using images collected by the NASA spacecraft Galileo, the researchers developed a model to explain how a combination of freezing and pressurization could lead to a cryovolcanic eruption, or a burst of water. The results, published Nov. 10 in Geophysical Research Letters, have implications for the habitability of Europa’s underlying ocean—and may explain eruptions on other icy bodies in the solar system.
The ocean is home to more than 700,000 miles of submarine cables that carry the internet worldwide. This crucial infrastructure is at the center of a development race between the big tech companies amidst geopolitical rivalries between the world’s most powerful nations. CNBC’s Tom Chitty explains.
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A unique type of modular self-reconfiguring robotic system has been unveiled. The term is a mouthful, but it basically refers to a robotic enterprise that can construct itself out of modules that connect to one another to achieve a certain task.
There has been great interest in such machines, also referred to as MSRRs, in recent years. One recent project called simply Space Engine can construct its own physical space environment to meet living, work and recreational needs. It accomplishes those tasks by generating its own kinetic forces to move and shape such spaces. It does this through adding and removing electromagnets to shift and construct modules into optimum room shapes.
MSRRs nevertheless face some constraints. They require gender-opposite components, which is limiting in some circumstances, and the modules must coordinate trajectories to efficiently connect components during self-assembly operations. Those tasks are time consuming and the success rates for connections between modules haven’t consistently been high.
In arguing against nuclear war, Dr. Tsipis said he came « to believe that reason must prevail. »
A curious boy who gazed at the stars from his mountainside Greek village and wondered how the universe came to be, Kosta Tsipis was only 11 when news arrived that the first atomic weapon had been dropped on Hiroshima, Japan.
“After the bomb went off, I sent away for a book because I wanted to understand it,” he told the Globe in 1987.
That moment set him on a course toward studying nuclear physics and becoming a prominent voice for disarmament during the Cold War arms race.
Rank in social hierarchy is a condition not solely claimed by humans. In the animal kingdom, male peacocks exhibit brightly colored plumes to illustrate dominance, and underwater, male fish show pops of bright colors to do the same. Despite the links identified between social status, physiology and behavior, the molecular basis of social status has not been known, until now.
“We discovered that two paralogous androgen receptor genes control social status in African cichlid fish,” reports Beau Alward in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Alward is an assistant professor of psychology at the University of Houston with a joint appointment in biology and biochemistry. Paralogs are duplicate genes; androgens are hormones like testosterone necessary for male sexual development.
“Testosterone binds to androgen receptors to exert its effects. What we found through genome editing is that the two genes encoding these receptors are required for different aspects of social status,” said Alward. “This type of coordination of social status may be fundamental across species that rely on social information to optimally guide physiology and behavior.”
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Sources cited in this episode include the following:
The November 3rd, 2020 Globe and Mail post, “Broadcasting bill targets online streaming services” at https://www.theglobeandmail.com/politics/article-ottawa-says…lion-from/
The November 3rd, 2020 TVOntario post, “The pandemic is killing government transparency” at https://www.tvo.org/article/the-pandemic-is-killing-government-transparency.
The November 2nd, 2020 Ottawa Citizen Defence Watch post, “Canadian Military wants to establish new organization to use propaganda, other techniques to influence Canadians” at https://ottawacitizen.com/news/national/defence-watch/canadi…-canadians.
The November 3rd, 2020 Science and Enterprise post, “Venture Rounds, IPOs, Mergers Vanish in Election Week” at https://sciencebusiness.technewslit.com/?p=40235#:~:text=3%20Nov.,2020.&text=According%20to%20technology%20investment%20research,so%20far%20this%20entire%20week.
A genetic disposition that plays a role in the development of the heart in the embryo also appears to play a key role in the human immune system. This is shown by a recent study led by the University of Bonn (Germany). When the gene is not active enough, the immune defense system undergoes characteristic changes, causing it to lose its effectiveness. Doctors speak of an aging immune system, as a similar effect can often be observed in older people. In the medium term, the results may contribute to reduce these age-related losses. The study is published in the journal Nature Immunology.
The gene with the cryptic abbreviation CRELD1 has so far been a mystery to science. It was known to play an important role in the development of the heart in the embryo. However, CRELD1 remains active after birth: Studies show that it is regularly produced in practically all cells of the body. For what purpose, however, was previously completely unknown.
The Bonn researchers used a novel approach to answer this question. Nowadays, scientific studies with human participants often include so-called transcriptome analyses. By these means, one can determine which genes are active to what extent in the respective test subjects. Researchers are also increasingly making the data they obtain available to colleagues, who can then use it to work on completely different matters. “And this is exactly what we did in our study,” says Dr. Anna Aschenbrenner from the LIMES Institute at the University of Bonn and member of the ImmunoSensation² Cluster of Excellence.
