Curated News: Nature (journal)

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18-Jan-2015 9:00 PM EST
Two Lakes Beneath the Ice in Greenland, Gone Within Weeks
Ohio State University

Researchers discovered craters left behind when two sub-glacial lakes in Greenland drained away--an indication that the natural plumbing system beneath the ice sheet is overflowing with meltwater.

20-Jan-2015 5:00 AM EST
Self-Assembled Nanotextures Create Antireflective Surface on Silicon Solar Cells
Brookhaven National Laboratory

Scientists at Brookhaven National Laboratory show that etching a nanoscale texture onto silicon creates an antireflective surface that works as well as state-of-the-art thin-film multilayer antireflective coatings for solar cells.

20-Jan-2015 2:00 PM EST
Mutated ATRX Gene Linked to Brain and Pancreatic Neuroendocrine Tumors is Potential Biomarker for Rare Adrenal Tumors Too
Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania

For the first time, researchers at Penn Medicine have found that a mutation in the ATRX gene may serve as a much-needed biomarker for the pheochromocytomas and paragangliomas that become malignant. These rare neuroendocrine tumors are typically benign, but when they go rogue, they become very aggressive.

19-Jan-2015 11:00 AM EST
Found: ‘Fight or Flight’ Response Control Center for the Heart
Johns Hopkins Medicine

An animal study led by Johns Hopkins investigators has uncovered what controls the ability of healthy hearts to speed up in response to circumstances ranging from fear to a jog around the block.

19-Jan-2015 5:00 AM EST
Predators, Parasites, Pests and the Paradox of Biological Control
University of Michigan

When a bird swoops down and grabs a caterpillar devouring your backyard garden, you might view it as a clear victory for natural pest control.

Released: 19-Jan-2015 12:00 PM EST
Researchers Open ‘Pandora’s Box’ of Potential Cancer Biomarkers
Michigan Medicine - University of Michigan

Researchers at the University of Michigan Comprehensive Cancer Center analyzed the global landscape of a portion of the genome that has not been previously well-explored. This analysis opens the door to discovery of thousands of potential new cancer biomarkers.

Released: 19-Jan-2015 11:00 AM EST
Researchers Discover How Brain Recognizes Danger
Stony Brook University

Our existence depends on a bit of evolutionary genius aptly nicknamed “fight or flight.” But where in our brain does the alarm first go off, and what other parts of the brain are mobilized to express fear and remember to avoid danger in the future?

16-Jan-2015 2:00 PM EST
New High-Speed 3D Microscope—Scape—Gives Deeper View of Living Things
Columbia University School of Engineering and Applied Science

Columbia Engineering professor Elizabeth Hillman has developed SCAPE, a new microscope that images living things in 3D at very high speeds. Her approach uses a simple, single-objective imaging geometry that requires no sample mounting or translation, making it possible to image freely moving living samples. SCAPE’s ability to perform real-time 3D imaging at cellular resolution in behaving organisms could be transformative for biomedical and neuroscience research. (Study published on Nature Photonics's website 1/19/2015.)

Released: 16-Jan-2015 5:00 PM EST
Study Shows How Planetary Building Blocks Evolved From Porous to Hard Objects
University of Chicago

Thinking small has enabled an international team of scientists to gain new insight into the evolution of planetary building blocks in the early solar system.

Released: 15-Jan-2015 4:00 PM EST
Wheat Yield to Decline as Temperatures Increase
University of Florida

GAINESVILLE, Fla. --- For every degree Celsius that the temperature increases, the world stands to lose 6 percent of its wheat crop, according to a new global study led by a University of Florida scientist. That’s one fourth of the annual global wheat trade, which reached 147 million tons in 2013.

Released: 15-Jan-2015 12:00 PM EST
Tumor Suppressor Protein Plays Key Role in Maintaining Immune Balance
St. Jude Children's Research Hospital

St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital scientists have discovered that a protein widely known for suppressing tumor formation also helps prevent autoimmune diseases and other problems by putting the brakes on the immune response. The research was published recently online ahead of print in the scientific journal Nature Immunology.

   
Released: 14-Jan-2015 2:00 PM EST
Chemical Dial Controls Attraction Between Water-Repelling Molecules
University of Wisconsin–Madison

A group of University of Wisconsin–Madison researchers has provided new insights on hydrophobic interactions within complex systems. In a study published today in the journal Nature, the researchers show how the nearby presence of polar (water-attracted, or hydrophilic) substances can change the way the nonpolar hydrophobic groups want to stick to each other.

13-Jan-2015 11:00 AM EST
Researchers Discover New “Trick” Steroids Use To Suppress Inflammation
Georgia State University

A new “trick” steroids use to suppress inflammation, which could be used to make new anti-inflammatory drugs without the harmful side effects of steroids, has been discovered by researchers at Georgia State University.

9-Jan-2015 11:00 AM EST
Solar Cell Polymers with Multiplied Electrical Output
Brookhaven National Laboratory

A team from Brookhaven Lab and Columbia University has paired up photovoltaic polymers that produce two units of electricity per unit of light instead of the usual one on a single molecular polymer chain. Having the two charges on the same molecule means the light-absorbing, energy-producing materials work efficiently when dissolved in liquids, which opens the way for a wide range of industrial scale manufacturing processes, including “printing” solar-energy-producing material like ink.

9-Jan-2015 1:00 PM EST
TSRI Scientists Discover Possible New Target for Treating Brain Inflammation
Scripps Research Institute

A team led by scientists at The Scripps Research Institute has identified an enzyme that produces a class of inflammatory lipid molecules in the brain. Abnormally high levels of these molecules appear to cause a rare inherited neurodegenerative disorder.

Released: 12-Jan-2015 11:00 AM EST
Researchers Uncover More Clues to How Drug Reverses Obesity, Diabetes, Fatty Liver Disease
University of Michigan

Researchers at the University of Michigan have identified how a promising drug in clinical trials for the treatment of obesity and related metabolic disorders improves the metabolism of sugar by generating a new signal between fat cells and the liver.

8-Jan-2015 9:00 PM EST
From the Bottom Up: Manipulating Nanoribbons at the Molecular Level
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory

Researchers at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and the University of California, Berkeley, have developed a new precision approach for synthesizing graphene nanoribbons from pre-designed molecular building blocks. Using this process the researchers have built nanoribbons that have enhanced properties—such as position-dependent, tunable bandgaps—that are potentially very useful for next-generation electronic circuitry.

Released: 8-Jan-2015 11:00 AM EST
Emissions-Free Cars Get Closer
University of Delaware

Hydrogen fuel cells -- possibly the best option for emission-free vehicles -- require costly platinum. Nickel and other metals work but aren't nearly as efficient. Findings published in Nature Communications this week help pin down the basic mechanisms of the fuel-cell reaction on platinum, which will help researchers create alternative electrocatalysts.

7-Jan-2015 5:00 AM EST
Beer and Bread Yeast-Eating Bacteria Aid Human Health
Michigan Medicine - University of Michigan

Learning how good bacteria in the gut feast on complex carbohydrates could end your break up with bread.

5-Jan-2015 4:15 PM EST
Awakening Cells’ Killer Instinct: Scientists Train Immune System to Spot and Destroy Cure-Defying Mutant HIV
Johns Hopkins Medicine

Luring dormant HIV out of hiding and destroying its last cure-defying holdouts has become the holy grail of HIV eradication, but several recent attempts to do so have failed. Now the findings of a Johns Hopkins-led study reveal why that is and offer a strategy that could form a blueprint for a therapeutic vaccine to eradicate lingering virus from the body.

Released: 7-Jan-2015 1:00 PM EST
Researchers Make New Discoveries In Key Pathway For Neurological Diseases
Georgia State University

A new intermediate step and unexpected enzymatic activity in a metabolic pathway in the body, which could lead to new drug design for psychiatric and neurodegenerative diseases, has been discovered by researchers at Georgia State University.

Released: 6-Jan-2015 11:00 AM EST
'Iron Sun' Is Not a Rock Band, but a Key to How Stars Transmit Energy
Sandia National Laboratories

Creating the conditions of the sun, researchers for the first time have been able to experimentally revise figures used by theorists to define iron's key role in passing sunlight from the sun's core to its radiative surface.

Released: 5-Jan-2015 10:00 AM EST
Epigenomics Analysis Reveals Surprising New Clues to Insulin Resistance
Beth Israel Lahey Health

In studying the cellular structure and function of insulin, a research team led by investigators at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) has uncovered previously unknown steps in the development of insulin resistance, a hallmark of type 2 diabetes.

Released: 5-Jan-2015 9:25 AM EST
New Technology Focuses Diffuse Light Inside Living Tissue
Washington University in St. Louis

New research from the School of Engineering & Applied Science at Washington University in St. Louis reveals for the first time a new technique that focuses diffuse light inside a dynamic scattering medium containing living tissue.

Released: 4-Jan-2015 3:00 PM EST
Scientists Tap Tree Genomes to Discover Adaptation Strategies
Virginia Tech

A team of scientists has sequenced whole genomes from 544 unrelated trees of the same species. An August 2014 study identified gene sequences from Populus trichocarpa, to understand how trees adapt to different climates.

Released: 23-Dec-2014 11:00 AM EST
SLU Researcher Discovers a Way to Control Internal Clocks
Saint Louis University Medical Center

Researchers hypothesize that targeting components of the mammalian clock with small molecules like REV-ERB drugs may lead to new treatments for sleep disorders and anxiety disorders. It also is possible that REV-ERB drugs may be leveraged to help in the treatment of addiction.

Released: 22-Dec-2014 12:00 PM EST
Piezoelectricity in a 2D Semiconductor
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory

A door has been opened to low-power off/on switches in micro-electro-mechanical systems (MEMS) and nanoelectronic devices, as well as ultrasensitive bio-sensors, with the first observation of piezoelectricity in a free standing two-dimensional semiconductor by a team of researchers with Berkeley Lab.

18-Dec-2014 3:00 PM EST
Diverse Autism Mutations Lead to Different Disease Outcomes
Columbia University Irving Medical Center

People with autism have a wide range of symptoms, with no two people sharing the exact type and severity of behaviors. Now a large-scale analysis of hundreds of patients and nearly 1000 genes has started to uncover how diversity among traits can be traced to differences in patients’ genetic mutations.

19-Dec-2014 10:30 AM EST
Coral Reveals Long-Term Link Between Pacific Winds, Global Climate
National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR)

New research indicates that shifts in Pacific trade winds played a key role in twentieth century climate variation and are likely again influencing global temperatures. The study, led by NCAR and the University of Arizona, uses a novel method of analyzing coral chemistry to reveal winds from a century ago.

19-Dec-2014 10:50 AM EST
Scripps Research Institute Scientists Uncover New, Fundamental Mechanism for How Resveratrol Provides Health Benefits
Scripps Research Institute

Scientists at The Scripps Research Institute have found that resveratrol, the red-wine ingredient once touted as an elixir of youth, powerfully activates an evolutionarily ancient stress response in human cells. The finding should dispel much of and controversy about how resveratrol really works.

19-Dec-2014 10:00 AM EST
Researchers Discover New Genetic Anomalies in Lung Cancer
Michigan Medicine - University of Michigan

By analyzing the DNA and RNA of lung cancers, researchers at the University of Michigan Comprehensive Cancer Center found that patients whose tumors contained a large number of gene fusions had worse outcomes than patients with fewer gene fusions. In addition, the researchers identified several new genetic anomalies that occur in lung cancer, including in patients with a history of smoking.

Released: 19-Dec-2014 1:00 PM EST
First Direct Evidence that a Mysterious Phase of Matter Competes with High-Temperature Superconductivity
SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory

Scientists have found the first direct evidence that a mysterious phase of matter known as the "pseudogap" competes with high-temperature superconductivity, robbing it of electrons that otherwise might pair up to carry current through a material with 100 percent efficiency.

Released: 18-Dec-2014 1:00 PM EST
Physicists Characterize Electronic, Magnetic Structure in Transition Metal Oxides
University of Arkansas, Fayetteville

An international team of scientists, led by physicists at the University of Arkansas, has characterized the electronic and magnetic structure in artificially synthesized materials called transition metal oxides.

Released: 18-Dec-2014 11:30 AM EST
Stunning Zinc Fireworks When Egg Meets Sperm
Argonne National Laboratory

First images of molecular fireworks that pinpoint the origin of the zinc sparks. Zinc flux plays a central role in regulating the biochemical processes that ensure a healthy egg-to-embryo transition, and this new unprecedented quantitative information should be useful in improving in vitro fertilization methods.

Released: 18-Dec-2014 11:00 AM EST
Team Develops ‘Cool’ New Method for Probing How Molecules Fold
Scripps Research Institute

Collaborating scientists from The Scripps Research Institute and the University of California San Diego have developed a powerful new system for studying how proteins and other biological molecules form and lose their natural folded structures.

Released: 18-Dec-2014 10:00 AM EST
Crown Ethers Flatten in Graphene for Strong, Specific Binding
Oak Ridge National Laboratory

A team led by the Oak Ridge National Laboratory has discovered a way to dramatically increase the selectivity and binding strength of crown ethers by incorporating them within a rigid framework of graphene. Strong, specific electrostatic binding of crown ethers may advance sensors, chemical separations, nuclear-waste cleanup, extraction of metals from ores, purification and recycling of rare-earth elements, water purification, biotechnology, energy production in durable lithium-ion batteries, catalysis, medicine and data storage.

16-Dec-2014 12:00 PM EST
Peer-Reviewed Report: Clearing Tropical Rainforests Distorts Earth’s Wind and Water Systems, Packs Climate Wallop Beyond Carbon
ClimateFocus

A new study released today presents powerful evidence that clearing trees not only spews carbon into the atmosphere, but also triggers major shifts in rainfall and increased temperatures worldwide that are just as potent as those caused by current carbon pollution. Further, the study finds that future agricultural productivity across the globe is at risk from deforestation-induced warming and altered rainfall patterns.

Released: 17-Dec-2014 3:00 PM EST
Switching to Spintronics
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory

Berkeley Lab researchers used an electric field to reverse the magnetization direction in a multiferroic spintronic device at room temperature, a demonstration that points a new way towards spintronics and smaller, faster and cheaper methods of storing and processing data.

15-Dec-2014 12:00 PM EST
Scientists Open New Frontier of Vast Chemical ‘Space’
Scripps Research Institute

Chemists at The Scripps Research Institute have invented a powerful and extraordinarily robust method for joining complex organic molecules that can be used to make pharmaceuticals, fabrics, dyes, plastics and other materials previously inaccessible to chemists.

16-Dec-2014 12:00 PM EST
Multiple Allergic Reactions Traced to Single Protein
Johns Hopkins Medicine

Johns Hopkins and University of Alberta researchers have identified a single protein as the root of painful and dangerous allergic reactions to a range of medications and other substances. If a new drug can be found that targets the problematic protein, they say, it could help smooth treatment for patients with conditions ranging from prostate cancer to diabetes to HIV.

Released: 16-Dec-2014 11:00 AM EST
Carbon-Trapping 'Sponges' Can Cut Greenhouse Gases
Cornell University

In the fight against global warming, carbon capture – chemically trapping carbon dioxide before it releases into the atmosphere – is gaining momentum, but standard methods are plagued by toxicity, corrosiveness and inefficiency. Using a bag of chemistry tricks, Cornell materials scientists have invented low-toxicity, highly effective carbon-trapping “sponges” that could lead to increased use of the technology.

15-Dec-2014 4:00 PM EST
New Technology Directly Reprograms Skin Fibroblasts For a New Role
Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania

Researchers have discovered a way to repurpose fibroblasts into functional melanocytes, the body's pigment-producing cells. The technique has immediate and important implications for developing new cell-based treatments for skin diseases such as vitiligo, as well as new screening strategies for melanoma.

9-Dec-2014 11:00 PM EST
Past Global Warming Similar to Today's
University of Utah

The rate at which carbon emissions warmed Earth’s climate almost 56 million years ago resembles modern, human-caused global warming much more than previously believed, but involved two pulses of carbon to the atmosphere, University of Utah researchers and their colleagues found.

12-Dec-2014 4:10 PM EST
Molecular “Hats” Allow in vivo Activation of Disguised Signaling Peptides
Georgia Institute of Technology

When someone you know is wearing an unfamiliar hat, you might not recognize them. Georgia Institute of Technology researchers are using just such a disguise to sneak biomaterials containing peptide signaling molecules into living animals.

12-Dec-2014 11:00 AM EST
Joslin Discovery May Hold Clues to Treatments That Slow Aging and Prevent Age-Related Chronic Disease
Joslin Diabetes Center

In a study published today by Nature, researchers at Joslin Diabetes Center used a microscopic worm (C. elegans) to identify a new path that could lead to drugs to slow aging and the chronic diseases that often accompany it—and might even lead to better cosmetics.

Released: 15-Dec-2014 8:00 AM EST
Signaling Mechanism Could Be Target for Survival, Growth of Tumor Cells in Brain Cancer
UT Southwestern Medical Center

UT Southwestern Medical Center neurology researchers have identified an important cell signaling mechanism that plays an important role in brain cancer and may provide a new therapeutic target.

   
Released: 10-Dec-2014 1:00 PM EST
Breakthrough Solves Centuries-Old Animal Evolution Mystery
American Technion Society

Researchers have developed a method for spying on the activity of every gene within a cell at once. The breakthrough allows them to determine the order in which the three layers of cells in animal embryos evolved. Other applications include cancer research.

10-Dec-2014 10:00 AM EST
Dragonflies on the Hunt Display Complex Choreography
Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI)

Researchers at HHMI's Janelia Research Campus have used motion-capture technology to reveal new insight into the sophisticated information processing and acrobatic skills of dragonflies on the hunt.

10-Dec-2014 10:00 AM EST
Dragonflies on the Hunt Display Complex Choreography
Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI)

Researchers at HHMI's Janelia Research Campus have used motion-capture technology to reveal new insight into the sophisticated information processing and acrobatic skills of dragonflies on the hunt.

Released: 10-Dec-2014 5:00 AM EST
Brain Inflammation a Hallmark of Autism, Large-Scale Analysis Shows
Johns Hopkins Medicine

While many different combinations of genetic traits can cause autism, brains affected by autism share a pattern of ramped-up immune responses, an analysis of data from autopsied human brains reveals. The study, a collaborative effort between Johns Hopkins and the University of Alabama at Birmingham, included data from 72 autism and control brains.



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