Researchers have discovered a mechanism steering the evolution of multicellular life. They identified how altered protein folding drives multicellular evolution.
Researchers develop artificial building blocks of life
For the first time, scientists have developed artificial nucleotides, the building blocks of DNA, with several additional properties in the laboratory.
Good news for coral reef restoration efforts: Study finds ‘full recovery’ of reef growth within four years
While the majority of the world's reefs are now under threat or even damaged potentially beyond repair, a new study offers some encouraging news: efforts to restore coral reefs not only increase coral cover, but they can also bring back important ecosystem functions, and surprisingly fast.
Interstellar signal linked to aliens was actually just a truck
Sound waves thought to be from a 2014 meteor fireball north of Papua New Guinea were almost certainly vibrations from a truck rumbling along a nearby road, new research shows. The findings raise doubts that materials pulled last year from the ocean are alien materials from that meteor, as was...
Bee-2-Bee influencing: Bees master complex tasks through social interaction
Bumblebees successfully learned a two-step puzzle box task through social observation. This task was too complex for individual bees to learn on their own. Observing trained demonstrator bees performing the first unrewarded step was crucial for successful social learning. Individual bees failed to solve the puzzle without previous demonstration, despite...
Nanodevices can produce energy from evaporating tap or seawater
Researchers have discovered that nanoscale devices harnessing the hydroelectric effect can harvest electricity from the evaporation of fluids with higher ion concentrations than purified water, revealing a vast untapped energy potential.
Children surpass a year of HIV remission after treatment pause
Four children have remained free of detectable HIV for more than one year after their antiretroviral therapy (ART) was paused to see if they could achieve HIV remission, according to new research. The children, who acquired HIV before birth, were enrolled in a clinical trial in which an ART regimen...
Genetic mutation in a quarter of all Labradors hard-wires them for obesity
New research finds around a quarter of Labrador retriever dogs face a double-whammy of feeling hungry all the time and burning fewer calories due to a genetic mutation.
Decoding the language of epigenetic modifications
Epigenetic changes play important roles in cancer, metabolic and aging-related diseases, but also during loss of resilience as they cause the genetic material to be incorrectly interpreted in affected cells. A major study now provides important new insights into how complex epigenetic modification signatures regulate the genome. This study will...
Synthetic gene helps explain the mysteries of transcription across species
'Random DNA' is naturally active in the one-celled fungi yeast, while such DNA is turned off as its natural state in mammalian cells, despite their having a common ancestor a billion years ago and the same basic molecular machinery, a new study finds.