Biology
Seabird family tree predicts which species accumulate plastic better than diet, global analysis finds
What seabirds eat might seem like a good starting point for identifying species that tend to accumulate plastic in their digestive systems. Yet a recent global analysis suggests t…
New long‑clawed British dinosaur is the first of its kind in Europe
The fossilized skull of a new species of mysterious meat-eating dinosaur from the Isle of Wight has been rediscovered in the collections of the Natural History Museum after over 1…
Surveying the genetic battlefield to uncover the rules of rapid evolution
The Malik Lab thrives on competition. But for HHMI investigator Harmit Malik and his team at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center, it's the genomes—not the people—that are in conflic…
Habitat explains Finnish animal distributions better than climate, study finds
Researchers at the University of Helsinki wanted to understand which is the dominant factor for species occurrence and abundance: the climate or habitat-related variables, such as…
Glowing plants reveal immune responses around infection sites via two colors
Researchers at the MRC Laboratory of Medical Sciences (LMS) have developed a new way to make glowing biological reporters more accurate, allowing scientists to track gene activity…
Bacteria reinvent their weapons through selection, chance and gene swapping
Many of the most potent antibiotics originate from bacteria. A large proportion belong to a class of compounds known as nonribosomal peptides (NRP). They are produced by large bac…
New marker panel and free web tool help track stem cells as they develop
How can the identity of pluripotent stem cells be determined more reliably during their differentiation? Researchers from the IUF—Leibniz Research Institute for Environmental Medi…
Can we stop antibiotic resistance from ruining promising drugs before they reach patients?
What if we could predict early in drug development which antibiotics bacteria are most likely to become resistant to? In a review published in Nature Reviews Microbiology, researc…
Scientists uncover the molecular pillars that shape our cells' powerpacks
Mitochondria are the tiny powerpacks that supply most of the energy our cells need. Their ability to generate this energy relies on a distinctive architecture: two membranes, one …
Mechanism behind PARP1-mediated DNA repair characterized, offering insight into targeted cancer therapy
When DNA is damaged, cellular processes respond and repair the DNA. Inhibiting DNA damage repair can be therapeutically beneficial in cancers with genetic vulnerabilities related …
Rare fossils reveal what ancient Denisovans may have looked like
Whenever anything is written about the Denisovans, the word "mysterious" is almost guaranteed to appear. That is because we just don't know a lot about this extinct human group th…
From sea anemone to human fertility: A new research organism for understanding meiosis
Every egg cell and sperm cell depends on meiosis, a tightly choreographed process in which chromosomes find their partners, exchange genetic material and then divide. When meiosis…
An ancient virus in chimpanzee DNA switches off a gene that is active in humans
Humans and chimpanzees share almost all their genes. Despite this, our brains have developed in different ways. Researchers at Lund University in Sweden have now shown that a vira…
Marine heat waves suppress nutrient use, reproductive flexibility in humpback whales
A new study led by University of Hawai'i (UH) at Mānoa researchers reveals how extreme ocean warming disrupts whale metabolism, nutrition and reproductive success and what the dev…
Open-source workflow makes spatial proteomics easier to use
Fabian Coscia and his team have published in Nature Methods an open-source workflow that makes Deep Visual Proteomics easier to use, adapt and scale. OpenDVP enables scientists to…
How autumn changes animal sexual behavior—including that of humans
In the Northern Hemisphere, days are getting shorter and temperatures are dropping—autumn has arrived. A common sign that winter is coming is trees losing their leaves. But did yo…
DNA programs a cell-free material to build its own motors and move
Researchers have created a material that manufactures the proteins responsible for cell movement, without needing intact living cells. By embedding cell-free gene expression into …
Mapping the cell: International research team investigates the endoplasmic reticulum
Human cells contain billions of molecules. To prevent complete chaos, these molecules and the reactions between them are organized within structures known as organelles. One of th…
How to speak whale: AI uses eight to ten click sequences to predict sperm whales' feeding dives
Arriving on the Caribbean island of Dominica for the first time "feels a little bit like stepping into Jurassic Park," said Giovanni Petri, a professor in the Network Science Inst…
From 'gentle' and 'graceful' to the 'cane toad of the sky': How Australia turned on the common myna
The common myna is sometimes referred to as "Australia's most hated bird." Originally from South and Central Asia, the introduced species from the starling family is abundant, rau…
A quick squeeze helps CRISPR turn skin cells into neurons more efficiently
Human cells hold about two meters (6.6 feet) of DNA, folded and compacted to fit inside a nucleus. That packing is essential for life, but it creates a problem for scientists. Som…
Time to tap into agriculture's hidden genetic potential
Modern agriculture's selective breeding of crops for particular requirements may now be a roadblock to further gains, prompting a trio of senior University of Queensland plant sci…
Study finds lower rates of overweight among vegan-fed cats
A large-scale survey has found cats fed vegan diets had lower rates of obesity and related health problems than those fed conventional meat-based diets.
The world's most expensive spice could provide a lifeline to Colorado farmers
Alexander the Great, king of the ancient Greek kingdom of Macedon, reportedly bathed in saffron to heal his battle wounds. Doctors once prescribed this rare plant as a treatment f…