Curated News: Nature (journal)

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A study published in today's Nature gives estimates of sea levels rising twice what previous studies have warned. The rapid melting of Antarctic's Ice Sheet could raise the sea level as much as three feet by the end of this century. The newer model suggests that sea levels could rise as much as 13 meters by 2500 should the Antarctic Ice Shelf, roughly the size of Mexico, continue to melt.

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An international team of astronomers, led by the University of Cambridge, has obtained the most detailed 'fingerprint' of a rocky planet outside our solar system to date, and found a planet of two halves: one that is almost completely molten, and the other which is almost completely solid.

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Cerebral cavernous malformations (CCMs) are clusters of dilated, thin-walled blood vessels in the brain that can cause stroke and seizures, yet exactly how they form is somewhat of a mystery. Now, researchers have discovered the molecular mechanism that underlies this common cerebrovascular disease.

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Scientists have captured the first high-resolution 3-D images from individual double-helix DNA segments attached to gold nanoparticles, which could aid in the use of DNA segments for nanoscale drug-delivery systems, markers for biological research, and components for electronic devices.

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Knowing that there is a small chance of getting a painful electric shock can lead to significantly more stress than knowing that you will definitely be shocked.

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Knowing that there is a small chance of getting a painful electric shock can lead to significantly more stress than knowing that you will definitely be shocked.

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The earliest instrumental records of Earth’s climate, as measured by thermometers and other tools, start in the 1850s. To look further back in time, scientists investigate air bubbles trapped in ice cores, which expands the window to less than a million years. But to study Earth’s history over tens to hundreds of millions of years, researchers examine the chemical and biological signatures of deep sea sediment archives.

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A study led by researchers from the Cancer Science Institute of Singapore (CSI Singapore) at the National University of Singapore (NUS) has uncovered a new clue that may help fight acute myeloid leukaemia (AML), the most common form of cancer of the blood and bone marrow, and an aggressive type of cancer. The findings open a new door to treating the disease more effectively.

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In the paper, SLU scientist Alessandro Vindigni, Ph.D., details several coping strategies cells use when they face replication stress: the cellular version of choosing yoga, meditation or a trip to the movies after a stressful event.

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Chemists have identified the complex chemical structure of the protein that stacks together to form fibrils in the brains of Parkinson's disease patients. Armed with this knowledge, researchers can identify specific targets for diagnosis and treatment.

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A team led by scientists at The Scripps Research Institute and the Salk Institute for Biological Studies has discovered two enzymes that appear to play a role in metabolism and inflammation—and might someday be targeted with drugs to treat type 2 diabetes and inflammatory disorders.

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The formation of a distinct pattern of sea surface temperatures in the middle of the North Pacific Ocean can predict an increased chance of summertime heat waves in the eastern half of the United States up to 50 days in advance.

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Writing in Nature Medicine, researchers at University of California, San Diego School of Medicine and Veterans Affairs San Diego Healthcare System, with colleagues in Japan and Wisconsin, report that they have successfully directed stem cell-derived neurons to regenerate lost tissue in damaged corticospinal tracts of rats, resulting in functional benefit.

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UT Southwestern Medical Center researchers have discovered a mutation that causes a rare systemic disorder known as X-linked reticulate pigmentary disorder (XLPDR) and, significantly, the unexpected cellular mechanism by which the mutation causes the disease.

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Scientists at Argonne National Laboratory have discovered a way to use a microscopic, swirling flow to rapidly clear a circle of tiny bacteria or swimming robots.

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As reported by the journal Nature in its latest issue, researchers from Empa, the Max Planck Institute in Mainz and the Technical University of Dresden have for the first time succeeded in producing graphene nanoribbons with perfect zigzag edges from molecules. Electrons on these zigzag edges exhibit different (and coupled) rotational directions ("spin"). This could make graphene nanoribbons the material of choice for electronics of the future, so-called spintronics.

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Ancient lunar ice indicates the moon's axis slowly shifted by 125 miles, or 6 degrees, over 1 billion years. Earth's moon now a member of solar system's exclusive 'true polar wander' club, which includes just a handful of other planetary bodies

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A method to rotate single particles, cells or organisms using acoustic waves in a microfluidic device will allow researchers to take three dimensional images with only a cell phone. Acoustic waves can move and position biological specimens along the x, y and z axes, but for the first time researchers at Penn State have used them to gently and safely rotate samples, a crucial capability in single-cell analysis, drug discovery and organism studies.

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In a landmark feat of chemical synthesis, scientists at The Scripps Research Institute have developed a 19-step process for making the naturally occurring compound phorbol in the laboratory, in quantities that are useful for pharmaceutical research.

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Evidence is mounting that a gene called PTCHD1 helps the brain sort between important sights and sounds — and distractions.

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Immunotherapy is currently revolutionizing cancer treatment and, according to Axel Hoos, M.D., Ph.D., has the potential to improve patient outcomes significantly in the future. Dr. Hoos leads one of the Cancer Research Institute’s (CRI) programs—the Cancer Immunotherapy Consortium (CIC)—that played an important role in enabling early immunotherapy trials to succeed. In a paper published in Nature Reviews last week, he laid out the current immunotherapy development paradigm, as well as his strategic vision to optimize the implementation of next generation immunotherapies.

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A method using acoustic waves in a microfluidic device to rotate single particles, cells or organisms will allow researchers to take three dimensional images with only a cell phone.

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UWM paleontologist Stephen Dornbos is on an international research team that has found fossilized multicellular marine algae, or seaweed, dating back more than 555 million years, ranking among the oldest examples of multicellular life on Earth.

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Materials scientists and physicists at Lehigh University have demonstrated a new method of making single crystals that could enable a wider range of materials to be used in microelectronics, solar energy devices and other high-technology applications.

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Australian scientists have uncovered the important role of specialist bacteria in the formation and movement of platinum and related metals in surface environments.

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Researchers found a metabolite in the gut microbiome could impact outcomes after bone marrow transplant. Butyrate was significantly reduced in the intestinal tract of experimental mice that received bone marrow transplant. When the researchers increased butyrate in these mouse models, they saw a decrease in the incidence and severity of graft vs. host disease.

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A study has identified nerve cells and a region of the brain behind this innate fear response. With a new technique that uses specially-engineered viruses to uncover the nerve pathway involved, a research team led by Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center biologist and Nobel Prize-winner Dr. Linda Buck has pinpointed a tiny area of the mouse brain responsible for this scent-induced reaction.

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A UCLA-led study has for the first time shown that microRNAs, specifically the microRNA known as miR-34, can sit silently in an inactive state in a cell waiting for a signal to turn it on. The discovery turns on its head the long-held notion that a microRNA when made is always already activated and ready to work, and shows for the first time that microRNAs can be controlled in a way similar to proteins, waiting for stress signals to turn them on.

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A Washington University in St. Louis engineer has found a new way to control chemical oscillation that could help regulate biorhythms involving the heart, brain and circadian cycles.

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The Tully Monster, an oddly configured sea creature with teeth at the end of a narrow, trunk-like extension of its head and eyes that perch on either side of a long, rigid bar, has finally been identified. A Yale-led team of paleontologists has determined that the 300-million-year-old animal — which grew to only a foot long — was a vertebrate, with gills and a stiffened rod (or notochord) that supported its body. It is part of the same lineage as the modern lamprey.

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The Tully Monster, an oddly configured sea creature with teeth at the end of a narrow, trunk-like extension of its head and eyes that perch on either side of a long, rigid bar, has finally been identified. A Yale-led team of paleontologists has determined that the 300-million-year-old animal — which grew to only a foot long — was a vertebrate, with gills and a stiffened rod (or notochord) that supported its body. It is part of the same lineage as the modern lamprey.

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Plants speed up their respiratory metabolism as temperatures rise, leading to a long-held concern that as climate warms the elevated carbon release from a ramped-up metabolism could flip global forests from a long-term carbon sink to a carbon source, further accelerating climate change.

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National Institutes of Health-funded scientists have developed a 3D micro-scaffold technology that promotes reprogramming of stem cells into neurons, and supports growth of neuronal connections capable of transmitting electrical signals. The injection of these networks of functioning human neural cells – compared to injecting individual cells -- dramatically improved their survival following transplantation into mouse brains. This #d technology could make transplantation of neurons a viable treatment for a broad range of human neurodegenerative disorders. The new research is supported by the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering (NIBIB), part of NIH.

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The world’s corals are dying, with tremendous effects on climate and ocean health – however, much about why coral dies is still unknown. Now, a team at the Weizmann Institute of Science has created a new experimental platform – a “coral on a chip” – that lets them grow coral in the lab to study the structures’ complicated lives at microscale resolution.

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Using optogenetics to study long-range communication across the brain, Dr. Ofer Yizhar and his Weizmann Institute of Science team temporarily silenced long-range axons so as to determine their role in the brain’s conversation. As mental and neurological diseases are thought to be related to disrupted long-range connectivity, the team’s findings could lead to better understanding and treatment of such disorders.

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1. 30 years of alternative fuel hype have failed to deliver sales; 2. Public attention has jumped from one alternative fuel to the next since the 1980s; 3. To decarbonize transportation, policymakers need better ways to assess technologies.

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Scientists from Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center show that PGC1 alpha works through the NAD "aging molecule" to guard against stress; research offers new therapeutic target for acute kidney injury, a widespread problem for hospitalized patients

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Scientists at Florida State University’s National High Magnetic Field Laboratory (MagLab) have demonstrated a way to improve the performance of the powerful building blocks of quantum computers by reducing interference from the environment.

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A new research paper published in Nature, advances the understanding of how greenhouse gases from forests, grasslands, and agriculture other than carbon dioxide play a role in climate change.

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A new research paper published in Nature, advances the understanding of how greenhouse gases from forests, grasslands, and agriculture other than carbon dioxide play a role in climate change.

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Johns Hopkins scientists report they have developed an antibody against a specific cellular gateway that suppresses lung tumor cell growth and breast cancer metastasis in transplanted tumor experiments in mice, according to a new study published in the February issue of Nature Communications.

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About half of children born with Jacobsen syndrome, a rare inherited disease, experience social and behavioral issues consistent with autism spectrum disorders. Researchers at University of California, San Diego School of Medicine and collaborators developed a mouse model of the disease that also exhibits autism-like social behaviors and used it to unravel the molecular mechanism that connects the genetic defects inherited in Jacobsen syndrome to effects on brain function.

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A new data sharing consortium is helping scientists more quickly share and benefit from findings in their field.

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Permafrost covers a considerable part of the Arctic; it’s been thawing in recent decades, releasing greenhouse gases. New research reveals that similarly ancient ice wedges that form the prevalent honeycomb pattern across the tundra appear to be melting rapidly across the Arctic.

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In experiments carried out partly at the Department of Energy’s SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, scientists have determined in atomic detail how a potential drug molecule fits into and blocks a channel in cell membranes that Ebola and related “filoviruses” need to infect victims’ cells.

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"Upside-down rivers" of warm ocean water threaten the stability of floating ice shelves in Antarctica, according to a new study led by researchers at the University of Colorado Boulder's National Snow and Ice Data Center published today in Nature Geoscience. The study highlights how parts of Antarctica's ice sheet may be weakening due to contact with warm ocean water.

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"Upside-down rivers" of warm ocean water threaten the stability of floating ice shelves in Antarctica, according to a new study led by researchers at the University of Colorado Boulder's National Snow and Ice Data Center published today in Nature Geoscience. The study highlights how parts of Antarctica's ice sheet may be weakening due to contact with warm ocean water.

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Rising temperatures worldwide are changing not only weather systems, but — just as importantly — the distribution of water around the globe, according to a study published today (March 14, 2016) in the journal, “Scientific Reports.”

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The need to non-invasively see and track cells in living persons is indisputable. Emerging treatments using stem cells and immune cells are poised to most benefit from cell tracking, which would visualize their behavior in the body after delivery. Clinicians require such data to speed these cell treatments to patients. Researchers at University of California, San Diego School of Medicine describe a new highly sensitive chemical probe that tags cells for detection by MRI.