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Categories: Biology: Biochemistry, Chemistry: Biochemistry
Published Hand washing is important -- but is your sink clean?
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Handbasins are hotspots for dangerous microbes that can cause illnesses including pneumonia, Legionnaires' disease and wound infections, a new study warns. The environmental health study found handbasin biofilms contained a diverse range of pathogens including microbes typically found in water, and other pathogens not found in water.
Published Beige fat cells with a 'Sisyphus mechanism'
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source A new class of fat cells makes people healthier. The cells consume energy and produce heat through seemingly pointless biochemical reactions.
Published A belly full of jelly
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source For a long time, scientists assumed that jellies (commonly known as jellyfish) were a dead-end food source for predatory fish. However, a team has now discovered that fish in Greenland waters do indeed feed on jellyfish. In two of the analyzed species, they even made up the majority of the food. The results suggest that the role of jellyfish as prey in marine food webs should be reconsidered, especially in regards to the fact that they could be profiting from climate change and spreading farther and farther north.
Published Impact of 700 years of Inuvialuit subsistence hunting on beluga whales
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source An international team of researchers analyzed beluga whale bones retrieved from archaeological sites in the Mackenzie Delta, Northwest Territories, Canada, to shed light on the sustainability of centuries of Inuvialuit beluga whale subsistence harvests.
Published New mechanism of action kills cancer cells
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Conventional cancer drugs work by triggering apoptosis, that is programmed cell death, in tumor cells. However, tumor cells have the ability to develop strategies to escape apoptosis, rendering the drugs ineffective. A research team now describes a new mechanism of action that kills cancer cells through ferroptosis.
Published A method that paves the way for improved fuel cell vehicles
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source More efficient and longer-lasting fuel cells are essential for fuel cell-powered heavy-duty hydrogen vehicles to be an alternative to combustion fuelled counterparts. Researchers have developed an innovative method to study and understand how parts of fuel cells degrade over time. This is an important step towards the improved performance of fuel cells and them becoming commercially successful.
Published Exploring the structures of xenon-containing crystallites
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Noble gases have a reputation for being unreactive, inert elements, but more than 60 years ago Neil Bartlett demonstrated the first way to bond xenon. He created XePtF6, an orange-yellow solid. Because it's difficult to grow sufficiently large crystals that contain noble gases, some of their structures -- and therefore functions -- remain elusive. Now, researchers have successfully examined tiny crystallites of noble gas compounds. They report structures of multiple xenon compounds.
Published A ketogenic diet could improve the response to pancreatic cancer therapy
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Scientists have discovered a way to get rid of pancreatic cancer in mice by putting them on a high fat, or ketogenic, diet and giving them cancer therapy.
Published Decoding the world's largest animal genome
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Scientists have sequenced the largest genome of all animals, the lungfish genome. Their data help to explain how the fish-ancestors of today's land vertebrates were able to conquer land.
Published Researchers call for genetically diverse models to drive innovation in drug discovery
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Researchers unveiled an approach to drug discovery that could revolutionize how we understand and treat diseases. Their commentary explains the limitations of studies using traditional mouse models and proposes using genetically diverse mice and mouse and human cells to better predict human responses to drugs and diseases.
Published Newly discovered ability of comammox bacteria could help reduce nitrous oxide emissions in agriculture
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source An international research team has discovered that comammox bacteria, first identified by them in 2015, can grow using guanidine, a nitrogen-rich organic compound, as their sole energy and nitrogen source. This unique ability opens new avenues for targeted cultivation of these enigmatic microbes and could also provide a key to reducing agricultural nitrous oxide emissions.
Published Ecologists put an insect group on century-old map of biodiversity
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source The distribution of species around the globe is not a random process but an outcome resulting from several evolutionary mechanisms as well as past and current environmental limitations. As a result, since the mid-19th century, biologists have identified several main regions, called biogeographic realms, that depict these large ensembles of species around the world. These biogeographic realms represent one of the most fundamental descriptions of biodiversity on Earth and are commonly used in various fields of biology.
Published Exciting advance in stem cell therapy
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source A new technique for mechanically manipulating stem cells could lead to new stem cell treatments, which have yet to fulfill their therapeutic potential.
Published Halogen bonding for selective electrochemical separation, path to sustainable chemical processing demonstrated
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source A team has reported the first demonstration of selective electrochemical separation driven by halogen bonding. This was achieved by engineering a polymer that modulates the charge density on a halogen atom when electricity is applied. The polymer then attracts only certain targets -- such as halides, oxyanions, and even organic molecules -- from organic solutions, a feature that has important implications for pharmaceuticals and chemical synthesis processes.
Published Pit-building venom mixers
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Researchers show that the adaptation of antlions to their ecological niche has also changed their venom. They compared the venom system of antlion and closely related green lacewing larvae. Antlions produce a much more complex venom from three different venom glands than lacewing larvae do. All the venom proteins identified come from the insects themselves, not from symbiotic bacteria. Some of the toxins are new and appear to be unique to antlions. Waiting for their victims in pitfall traps in the sand, antlions can use their venom to immobilize larger prey. The venom therefore plays an important ecological role in adapting to their barren habitat.
Published Surprising insight into cancer comes from unique plant species that find different solutions to evolutionary challenges
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source A study has shown that different plant species tackle the same evolutionary hurdle in different ways, and the findings may give insight into aggressive forms of cancer.
Published Rewriting the evolutionary history of critical components of the nervous system
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source A new study has rewritten the conventionally understood evolutionary history of certain ion channels -- proteins critical for electrical signaling in the nervous system. The study shows that the Shaker family of ion channels were present in microscopic single cell organisms well before the common ancestor of all animals and thus before the origin of the nervous system.
Published Reduce, reuse, 're-fly-cle'
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Black soldier flies are now commercially used to consume organic waste -- but genetic modifications proposed by bioscientists could see the insects digesting a wider variety of refuse, while also creating raw ingredients for industry.
Published Breakthrough in nanotechnology: Viewing the invisible with advanced microscopy
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Scientists have made a groundbreaking discovery in the field of nanotechnology. They have developed a novel microscopy method that allows for the unprecedented visualization of nanostructures and their optical properties.
Published Starvation and adhesion drive formation of keratinocyte patterns in skin
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Cell-cell adhesion-induced patterning in keratinocytes can be explained by just starvation and strong adhesion researchers find.