Curated News: PNAS

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Just beyond the northwest edge of the vast Greenland Ice Sheet, Northwestern University researchers have discovered lake mud that beat tough odds by surviving the last ice age. The mud, and remains of common flies nestled within it, record two interglacial periods in northwest Greenland. Although researchers have long known these two periods — the early Holocene and Last Interglacial — experienced warming in the Arctic due to changes in the Earth’s orbit, the mix of fly species preserved from these times shows that Greenland was even warmer than previously thought.

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The early Earth might have been habitable much earlier than thought, according to new research from a group led by University of Chicago scientists.

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A new study that reconstructs the deep history of our planet’s relationship to the moon shows that 1.4 billion years ago, a day on Earth lasted just over 18 hours. This is at least in part because the moon was closer and changed the way the Earth spun around its axis.

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A Bowling Green State University microbiology team played an important role in a scientific discovery about alcohol benefitting fungus farming in beetles. The beetle research, headed by an entomologist Christopher Ranger of USDA-ARS, discovered that alcohol, specifically ethanol, is important for the beetles’ food production, and part of the logic for their attraction to alcohol.

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sDuring embryonic development genetic cascades control gene activity and cell differentiation. In a new publication of the journal PNAS, the team of Ulrich Technau of the Department of Molecular Evolution and Development at the University of Vienna reported that besides the genetic program, also mechanical cues can contribute to the regulation of gene expression during development.

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A new study looking at proteins in the blood over the 24-hour-cycle found 30 that vary depending on what time it is, and more than 100 that are disrupted by a simulated night shift

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Sweet potatoes may seem as American as Thanksgiving, but scientists have long debated whether their plant family originated in the Old or New World. New research by an Indiana University paleobotanist suggests it originated in Asia, and much earlier than previously known.

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A team of Cornell University engineers and nutritionists with funding from the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering, part of NIH, have designed and tested a small, portable diagnostic system that can be used in the field to test blood for vitamin A and iron deficiencies.

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Scientists have used a powerful X-ray laser at the Department of Energy’s SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory to heat water from room temperature to 100,000 degrees Celsius in less than a tenth of a picosecond, or millionth of a millionth of a second.

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By using an inexpensive, already mass produced, simple solvent called cresol, Northwestern University's Jiaxing Huang has discovered a way to make disperse carbon nanotubes at unprecedentedly high concentrations without the need for additives or harsh chemical reactions to modify the nanotubes.

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A recently identified pig virus can readily find its way into laboratory-cultured cells of people and other species, a discovery that raises concerns about the potential for outbreaks that threaten human and animal health.

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A new protein analysis tool developed at the University at Buffalo could increase the quality and accuracy of medical diagnosis and quicken the pace of pharmaceutical development.

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New research from the Keck School of Medicine of USC reveals how traumatic noise damages hearing and identifies a potential way to preserve it

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Every 405,000 years, gravitational tugs from Jupiter and Venus slightly elongate Earth’s orbit, an amazingly consistent pattern that has influenced our planet’s climate for at least 215 million years and allows scientists to more precisely date geological events like the spread of dinosaurs, according to a Rutgers-led study. The findings are published online today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

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For the first time, UNC School of Medicine scientists led by Nobel laureate Aziz Sancar analyzed whole-genome DNA repair in an animal over 24 hours to find which genes were repaired, where exactly, and when, laying the groundwork for a more precise use of anti-cancer drugs.

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After decades of progress in cleaning up air quality, U.S. improvements for two key air pollutants have slowed significantly in recent years, new research concludes. The unexpected finding indicates that it may be more difficult than previously realized for the nation to achieve its goal of decreased ozone pollution, scientists said.

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New research led by investigators at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine and University Hospitals Cleveland Medical Center suggests that the location of immune cells in the body determines whether they help or harm the development of heart disease. The study supports the view that the immune system directly impacts heart failure—still the leading cause of death for men and women in the United States.

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Men who were raised in the country with pets have more stress-resilient immune systems than those raised pet-free in the city, according to a new study released this week in the journal PNAS

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A new approach developed by Iowa State University scientists could allow plant breeders and farmers to diagnose soybean stresses – such as iron deficiency, disease or herbicide injury – by using a smartphone. The technology may have uses in unmanned aerial vehicles and ground robots as well. The researchers describe their approach in a recently published article in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

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Scientists identified light-induced electrical activity as the brain mechanism controlling chemical code switching related to stress. While studying neurotransmitter switching in rats, they found that specific neurons were responsible, with implications for imbalances underlying mental illness.

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To better understand the near-term commercial potential for capturing and storing atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2), researchers from Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory have mapped out how CO2 might be captured from existing U.S. ethanol biorefineries and permanently stored (or sequestered) underground.

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By using network analysis to search for communities of marine life in the fossil records of the Paleobiology Database, the team, including researchers at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, was able to quantify the ecological impacts of major events like mass extinctions and may help us anticipate the consequences of a “sixth mass extinction.”

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New research documents how chemicals and a certain gene activate an enzyme to increase the risk and severity of RA and bone destruction.

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UC San Diego biologists have created the world’s first gene drive system—a mechanism for manipulating genetic inheritance—in Drosophila suzukii, an agricultural pest that has invaded much of the United States and caused millions of dollars in damage to high-value berry and other fruit crops.

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New research from experts in history, computer science and cognitive science shines fresh light on the French Revolution, showing how rhetorical and institutional innovations won acceptance for the ideas that built the French republic's foundation and inspired future democracies.

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UNC School of Medicine scientists led by Nikolay Dokholyan add to evidence that small aggregates of SOD1 protein are the brain-cell killing culprits in ALS, but the formation of larger, more visible, and fibril-like aggregates of the same protein may protect brain cells.

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Researchers at the University of Notre Dame focused on an enzyme in gram-negative bacterium Pseudomonas aeruginosa, a pathogen that causes pneumonia and sepsis.

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Many of the “forensic science” methods commonly used in criminal cases and portrayed in popular police TV dramas have never been scientifically validated and may lead to unjust verdicts, according to an editorial in this week’s Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

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In a mouse study, a drug that has helped millions of people around the world manage their diabetes might also help people ready to kick their nicotine habits.

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Earth has had moderate temperatures throughout its early history, and neutral seawater acidity. This means other rocky planets could likely also maintain this equilibrium and allow life to evolve.

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One way to fight diseases including HIV infection and autoimmune disorders could involve changing how a naturally occurring enzyme called SAMHD1 works to influence the immune system, new research suggests.

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Columbia Engineering researchers have found that vegetation plays a dominant role in Earth’s water cycle, that plants will regulate and dominate the increasing stress placed on continental water resources in the future. “This could be a real game-changer for understanding changes in continental water stress going into the future,” says Prof. Pierre Gentine. In this paper, he demonstrates vegetation’s key role in responding to rising CO2 levels and shows how plants will regulate future dryness.

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Research suggests the common cold thrives in cooler temperatures. One recent study from Yale University found a seven-degree drop in ambient temperature can mess with your body’s ability to stop cold viruses from proliferating.

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A new analysis indicates that if the land used to support animal-based diets were instead used for food crops, it would add enough food to feed a further 350 million people – more than the entire population of the U.S.

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Northwestern University researchers have discovered a new approach for creating important new catalysts to aid in clean energy conversion and storage. The method also has the potential to impact the discovery of new optical and data storage materials and catalysts for higher efficiency processing of petroleum products at lower cost. The researchers created a catalyst that is seven times more active than state-of-the-art commercial platinum by combining theory, a new tool for synthesizing nanoparticles and more than one metallic element.

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Research led by the University of Southampton is helping governments in low-income countries strengthen their capacity to build and use population maps, to plan for the future and respond to emergencies.

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Understanding strontium titanate’s odd behavior will aid efforts to develop materials that conduct electricity with 100 percent efficiency at higher temperatures.

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In a striking new finding, researchers at the UC Davis MIND Institute found that typically-developing children gain more neurons in a region of the brain that governs social and emotional behavior, the amygdala, as they become adults. This phenomenon does not happen in people with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Instead, children with ASD have too many neurons early on and then appear to lose those neurons as they become adults. The findings were published today in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).

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Supercomputer simulations predict how E. coli adapts to environmental stresses.

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An international research team including Krishna Veeramah, PhD, Assistant Professor in the Department of Ecology and Evolution at Stony Brook University, has performed the first genomic analysis of populations that lived on the former territory of the Roman Empire from around 500 AD.

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Research from a collaborative team at Washington University in St. Louis tested a 3-D method that could lead to new diagnostic tools that will precisely measure the third-trimester growth and folding patterns of a baby’s brain. Their findings might help to sound an early alarm on developmental disorders in preemies that could affect them later in life.

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LIVERMORE, Calif. — Sandia National Laboratories researchers have identified key chemical mechanisms for the first time that add to the fundamental knowledge of combustion chemistry and might lead to cleaner combustion in engines.Sandia researcher Nils Hansen and former postdoctoral appointee Kai Moshammer focused on low-temperature oxidation of hydrocarbons and other alternative fuels.

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Working with cells grown in the lab, Johns Hopkins researchers have identified a biochemical pathway that allows a structure within cells, called the Golgi apparatus, to combat stress caused by free radicals and oxidants. The research team showed that this pathway can be activated by a drug called monensin, which is commonly used as an antibiotic in animal feed.

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While it may be the era of supercomputers and “big data,” without smart methods to mine all that data, it’s only so much digital detritus. Now researchers at the Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) and UC Berkeley have come up with a novel machine learning method that enables scientists to derive insights from systems of previously intractable complexity in record time.

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A study published in the March 5 online edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) describes how the supercomputers at the San Diego Supercomputer Center at UC San Diego were used to simulate the merger of a G-protein “mimetic nanobody” to a G-protein-coupled receptor (GPCR), the largest and most diverse group of membrane receptors in animals, plants, fungi, and protozoa.

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In a study published today in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, a team led by atmospheric scientists Logan Mitchell and John Lin report that suburban sprawl increases CO2 emissions more than similar population growth in a developed urban core.

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Social amoebae evolve to fight with others but also to die for their kin.

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I can still remember that giddy feeling I had seven years ago, when I first read about the “zombie ant.” The story was gruesome and fascinating

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An international team of researchers has produced one of the most comprehensive evolutionary pictures to date by looking at one of the world's most iconic animal families - namely elephants, and their relatives mammoths and mastodons-spanning millions of years.

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A therapeutic target to preserve vision in glaucoma patients could have treatment ramifications for age-related neurodegenerative disorders like Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s, according to findings released today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).