The cnidocytes -- or stinging cells -- that are characteristic of sea anemones, hydrae, corals and jellyfish, and make us careful of our feet while wading in the ocean, are also an excellent model for understanding the emergence of new cell types, according to new research.
Mind the gap: Space inside eggs steers first few steps of life
Imagine sitting at a meeting where the shape of the table and your place at it might impact how you get along with the other members. Cells also communicate with their nearest neighbors, and in embryos, nothing is left to chance in the 'seating plan' for the first few cells....
What we’re still learning about how trees grow
A new study finds that tree growth does not seem to be generally limited by photosynthesis but rather by cell growth. This suggests that we need to rethink the way we forecast forest growth in a changing climate, and that forests in the future may not be able to absorb...
A first: Scientists grow plants in soil from the Moon
Scientists have, for the first time, grown plants in soil from the Moon. They used soil collected during the Apollo 11, 12 and 17 missions. In their experiment, the researchers wanted to know if plants would grow in lunar soil and, if so, how the plants would respond to the...
The genetic origins of the world’s first farmers clarified
The genetic origins of the first agriculturalists in the Neolithic period long seemed to lie in the Near East. A new study shows that the first farmers actually represented a mixture of Ice Age hunter-gatherer groups, spread from the Near East all the way to south-eastern Europe.
From cavefish to humans: Evolution of metabolism in cavefish may provide insight into treatments for a host of diseases such as diabetes, heart disease, and stroke
New research examines how cavefish, surface-dwelling river fish that flooded into underground cave systems over 100,000 years ago, developed unique metabolic adaptations to survive in nutrient-scarce environments. The study created a genome-wide map of liver tissue for two independent colonies of cavefish along with river fish to understand how cavefish...
Sugar aversion hampers cockroach coupling
How does a cockroach's aversion to sugar turn into an aversion to mating? Researchers discover the mechanism behind this behavior.
Sweet discovery could drive down inflammation, cancers and viruses
Researchers have identified a new enzyme involved in controlling cell death, in findings that could lead to better treatment options for a range of inflammatory conditions, cancers and viruses.
New research could provide earlier warning of tsunamis
A new method of detecting mega earthquakes, which picks up on the gravity waves they generate by using deep-learning models, can estimate earthquake magnitude in real time and provide earlier warning of tsunamis.
Novel supramolecular CRISPR-Cas9 carrier enables more efficient genome editing
CRISPR-Cas9 is considered a revolutionary gene editing tool, but its applications are limited by a lack of methods by which it can be safely and efficiently delivered into cells. Recently, a research team has constructed a highly flexible CRISPR-Cas9 carrier using aminated polyrotaxane (PRX) that can not only bind with...