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Categories: Biology: Microbiology, Space: Structures and Features

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Scientists have designed the first synthetic protein-based motor which harnesses biological reactions to fuel and propel itself. 'Imagine if a Roomba could be powered only by the dirt it picks up,' says one of the authors of the study. The motor uses the digestive enzyme trypsin to cut the peptides and convert them into the energy it needs to propel itself.

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Up to only a few inches in length, with a lemon-hued belly, the foothill yellow-legged frog may seem unassuming. But its range once stretched from central Oregon to Baja California. In 2023, it was listed under the federal Endangered Species Act. Its rapidly decreasing range is due in part to a fungal pathogen called Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis, or Bd, that has devastated amphibians around the world.

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Smarter crop farming that combats weeds, insect pests and plant diseases by integrating modern technologies like AI-based monitoring, robotics, and next-generation biotechnology with healthy and resilient agricultural ecosystems.

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Sight loss in certain inherited eye diseases may be caused by gut bacteria, and is potentially treatable by antimicrobials, finds a new study in mice.

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When a star like our Sun reaches the end of its life, it can ingest the surrounding planets and asteroids that were born with it. Now, researchers have found a unique signature of this process for the first time -- a scar imprinted on the surface of a white dwarf star.

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Warmer soils harbor a greater diversity of active microbes, according to a new study. The study represents a significant shift in our understanding of how microbial activity in the soil influences the global carbon cycle and possible feedback mechanisms on the climate. Until now, scientists have assumed that higher soil temperatures accelerate the growth of microbes, thus increasing the release of carbon into the atmosphere. However, this increased release of carbon is actually caused by the activation of previously dormant bacteria.

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To ensure that plants flower at the right time of year, they possess an internal clock, which enables them to measure the amount of daylight during a day. Biologists now describe that the mutation of a specific gene makes the flowering time of barley almost entirely independent of day length. This mutation can be useful for breeding varieties adapted to altered climatic conditions with relatively mild winters and hot, dry summers.

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A new technique for electro-spinning sponges has allowed scientists to directly produce 3D scaffolds -- on which skin grafts could be grown from the patient's own skin.

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Scientists have discovered that bacteria can pair up their defense systems to create a formidable force, greater than the sum of its parts, to fight off attack from phage viruses. Understanding how bacteria react to this type of virus is a big step in combating antimicrobial resistance.

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A chemical compound essential to all living things has been synthesized in a lab in conditions that could have occurred on early Earth, suggesting it played a role at the outset of life.

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Researchers have uncovered a key link between the spread of antibiotic resistance genes and the evolution of resistance to new drugs in certain pathogens. Bacteria exposed to higher levels of antibiotics often harbor multiple identical copies of protective antibiotic resistance genes which are linked to 'jumping genes' that can move from strain to strain. Duplicate genes provide a mechanism for resistance to spread and enable evolving resistance to new drugs.

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NASA's James Webb Space Telescope has found the best evidence yet for emission from a neutron star at the site of a recently observed supernova. The supernova, known as SN 1987A, was a core-collapse supernova, meaning the compacted remains at its core formed either a neutron star or a black hole. Evidence for such a compact object has long been sought, and while indirect evidence for the presence of a neutron star has previously been found, this is the first time that the effects of high-energy emission from the probable young neutron star have been detected.

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Mice that received fecal implants from donors that had their ovaries removed gained more fat mass and had greater expression of liver genes associated with inflammation, Type 2 diabetes, fatty liver disease and atherosclerosis. The findings may shed light on the greater incidence of metabolic dysfunction in postmenopausal women.

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Luke Skywalker's childhood might have been slightly less harsh if he'd grown up on a more temperate Tatooine -- like the ones identified in a new study. According to the study's authors, there are more climate-friendly planets in binary star systems -- in other words, those with two suns -- than previously known. And, they say, it may be a sign that, at least in some ways, the universe leans in the direction of orderly alignment rather than chaotic misalignment.

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Researchers have discovered that damage to the cell membrane promotes cellular senescence, or cell aging.

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Astronomers have characterized a bright quasar, finding it to be not only the brightest of its kind, but also the most luminous object ever observed. Quasars are the bright cores of distant galaxies and they are powered by supermassive black holes. The black hole in this record-breaking quasar is growing in mass by the equivalent of one Sun per day, making it the fastest-growing black hole to date.

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A professor has demonstrated a connection between viral damage to the gut and premature biological aging.

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About a decade ago, researchers began to observe a recurring challenge in their research: Some of the compounds they were developing to harness energy from bacteria were instead killing the microbes. Not good if the objective of the project was to harness the metabolism of living bacteria to produce electricity.

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To learn about the first organisms on our planet, researchers have to analyze the rocks of the early Earth. These can only be found in a few places on the surface of the Earth. The Pilbara Craton in Western Australia is one of these rare sites: there are rocks there that are around 3.5 billion years old containing traces of the microorganisms that lived at that time. A research team has now found new clues about the formation and composition of this ancient biomass, providing insights into the earliest ecosystems on Earth.

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Scientists discovered antibodies that protect against a host of lethal snake venoms.