Science news

• "Einstein Would Be Beaming"--Scientists React to Gravitational Waves Discovery

  11-02-2016 23:45 via rss.sciam.com
  
  Physicists at gatherings around the world exulted at the news that a long-sought prediction of general relativity had finally been found
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• "Einstein Would Be Beaming": Scientists React to Gravitational Waves

  11-02-2016 23:45 via rss.sciam.com
  
  Physicists at gatherings around the world exulted at the news that a long-sought prediction of general relativity had finally been found
  -- Read more on ScientificAmerican.com
  
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• South Korea cuts off power, water into Kaesong zone in North Korea

  11-02-2016 23:44
  South Korea has cut off the supply of power and water into the Kaesong industrial zone run jointly with North Korea, it said on Friday, hours after the North kicked out the South's workers and froze the assets of companies operating there. South Korea said on Wednesday that it was suspending the operation of the industrial zone as punishment for the North's rocket launch on Sunday and last month's nuclear test. The North called the move "a declaration of war." The 280 South Koreans who had remai
  
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• California gas leak 'temporarily' under control: company

  11-02-2016 23:27
  
  The company responsible for a massive methane leak outside Los Angeles that was first detected in October said Thursday it was "temporarily" under control, and that it was working to permanently seal the well.
  
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• Officials in Hawaii create nursery for fast-growing coral

  11-02-2016 23:20
  
  HONOLULU (AP) — Most of Hawaii's species of coral is unlike other coral around the world in that it grows very slowly, making restoration projects for endangered reefs in the state difficult.
  
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• Epic Gravitational Wave Detection: How Scientists Did It

  11-02-2016 22:52
  
  To spot gravitational waves directly for the first time ever, scientists had to measure a distance change 1,000 times smaller than the width of a proton. Researchers with the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) announced today (Feb. 11) that they had made history's first direct detection of gravitational waves, enigmatic ripples in space-time whose existence was first predicted 100 years ago by Albert Einstein's famous theory of general relativity. The gravitational waves
  
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• Einstein's gravitational waves detected in landmark discovery

  11-02-2016 22:37
  By Will Dunham and Scott Malone WASHINGTON/CAMBRIDGE, Mass. (Reuters) - Scientists for the first time have detected gravitational waves, ripples in space and time hypothesised by Albert Einstein a century ago, in a landmark discovery announced on Thursday that opens a new window for studying the cosmos. The researchers said they identified gravitational waves coming from two distant black holes - extraordinarily dense objects whose existence also was foreseen by Einstein - that orbited one anoth
  
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• Gravitational waves reveal new type of black hole

  11-02-2016 22:08 via cbc.ca
  
  The first gravitational waves ever detected have already revealed things no one has seen before. Canadian scientists involved in the discovery share details about a new type of black hole and more.
  
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• ‘Gravity waves’ is an OK way to refer to gravitational radiation

  11-02-2016 21:54
  
  There’s not lexicographical basis for complaints that ‘gravity wave’ is incorrect usage for gravitational waves.
  
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• [Working Life] Science in the shadows

  11-02-2016 21:47
  Author: Andrew Scott
  
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• [This Week in Science] Warming making bigger CO2 swings

  11-02-2016 21:47
  Author: H. Jesse Smith
  
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• [This Week in Science] The SAGA of removing nucleosomal ubiquitin

  11-02-2016 21:47
  Author: Guy Riddihough
  
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• [This Week in Science] The legacy of human-Neandertal interbreeding

  11-02-2016 21:47
  Author: Laura M. Zahn
  
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• [This Week in Science] T cells target peptide combos

  11-02-2016 21:47
  Author: Kristen L. Mueller
  
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• [This Week in Science] Stacking to prolong valley lifetime

  11-02-2016 21:47
  Author: Jelena Stajic
  
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• [This Week in Science] Spatial control of cellular enzymes

  11-02-2016 21:47
  Author: Valda Vinson
  
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• [This Week in Science] Quantitative analysis of epigenetic memory

  11-02-2016 21:47
  Author: L. Bryan Ray
  
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• [This Week in Science] Parasitic DNAs help and hinder evolution

  11-02-2016 21:47
  Author: Guy Riddihough
  
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• [This Week in Science] Neuroendocrine cells as air sensors

  11-02-2016 21:47
  Author: Beverly A. Purnell
  
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• [This Week in Science] Long-term partners uncoupled

  11-02-2016 21:47
  Author: Nicholas S. Wigginton
  
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• [This Week in Science] Improving plant disease responses

  11-02-2016 21:47
  Author: Pamela J. Hines
  
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• [This Week in Science] How stars grow

  11-02-2016 21:47
  Author: Kip Hodges
  
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• [This Week in Science] Helping cancer cells exit blood vessels

  11-02-2016 21:47
  Author: Nancy R. Gough
  
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• [This Week in Science] Genetic programming for self-renewal

  11-02-2016 21:47
  Author: Kristen L. Mueller
  
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• [This Week in Science] Flexible power for flexible electronics

  11-02-2016 21:47
  Author: Marc S. Lavine
  
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• [This Week in Science] Finding the organelles' ancestors

  11-02-2016 21:47
  Author: Julia Fahrenkamp-Uppenbrink
  
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• [This Week in Science] Copper's light touch forges C-N bonds

  11-02-2016 21:47
  Author: Jake Yeston
  
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• [This Week in Science] Controlling supplies for DNA and RNA synthesis

  11-02-2016 21:47
  Author: L. Bryan Ray
  
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• [This Week in Science] By land or by sea

  11-02-2016 21:47
  Author: H. Jesse Smith
  
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• [This Week in Science] Bringing atopic dermatitis up to scratch

  11-02-2016 21:47
  Author: Angela Colmone
  
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• [This Week in Science] An unconventional route to protection

  11-02-2016 21:47
  Author: Kristen L. Mueller
  
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• [Review] Retrotransposons as regulators of gene expression

  11-02-2016 21:47
  Transposable elements (TEs) are both a boon and a bane to eukaryotic organisms, depending on where they integrate into the genome and how their sequences function once integrated. We focus on two types of TEs: long interspersed elements (LINEs) and short interspersed elements (SINEs). LINEs and SINEs are retrotransposons; that is, they transpose via an RNA intermediate. We discuss how LINEs and SINEs have expanded in eukaryotic genomes and contribute to genome evolution. An emerging body of evid
  
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• [Research Article] Lineage-specific enhancers activate self-renewal genes in macrophages and embryonic stem cells

  11-02-2016 21:47
  Differentiated macrophages can self-renew in tissues and expand long term in culture, but the gene regulatory mechanisms that accomplish self-renewal in the differentiated state have remained unknown. Here we show that in mice, the transcription factors MafB and c-Maf repress a macrophage-specific enhancer repertoire associated with a gene network that controls self-renewal. Single-cell analysis revealed that, in vivo, proliferating resident macrophages can access this network by transient down-
  
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• [Report] Valley-polarized exciton dynamics in a 2D semiconductor heterostructure

  11-02-2016 21:47
  Heterostructures comprising different monolayer semiconductors provide an attractive setting for fundamental science and device technologies, such as in the emerging field of valleytronics. We realized valley-specific interlayer excitons in monolayer WSe2-MoSe2 vertical heterostructures. We created interlayer exciton spin-valley polarization by means of circularly polarized optical pumping and determined a valley lifetime of 40 nanoseconds. This long-lived polarization enables the visualization
  
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• [Report] Using decoys to expand the recognition specificity of a plant disease resistance protein

  11-02-2016 21:47
  Maintaining high crop yields in an environmentally sustainable manner requires the development of disease-resistant crop varieties. We describe a method to engineer disease resistance in plants by means of an endogenous disease resistance gene from Arabidopsis thaliana named RPS5, which encodes a nucleotide-binding leucine-rich repeat (NLR) protein. RPS5 is normally activated when a second host protein, PBS1, is cleaved by the pathogen-secreted protease AvrPphB. We show that the AvrPphB cleavage
  
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• [Report] The phenotypic legacy of admixture between modern humans and Neandertals

  11-02-2016 21:47
  Many modern human genomes retain DNA inherited from interbreeding with archaic hominins, such as Neandertals, yet the influence of this admixture on human traits is largely unknown. We analyzed the contribution of common Neandertal variants to over 1000 electronic health record (EHR)–derived phenotypes in ~28,000 adults of European ancestry. We discovered and replicated associations of Neandertal alleles with neurological, psychiatric, immunological, and dermatological phenotypes. Neandertal a
  
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• [Report] Structural basis for histone H2B deubiquitination by the SAGA DUB module

  11-02-2016 21:47
  Monoubiquitinated histone H2B plays multiple roles in transcription activation. H2B is deubiquitinated by the Spt-Ada-Gcn5 acetyltransferase (SAGA) coactivator, which contains a four-protein subcomplex known as the deubiquitinating (DUB) module. The crystal structure of the Ubp8/Sgf11/Sus1/Sgf73 DUB module bound to a ubiquitinated nucleosome reveals that the DUB module primarily contacts H2A/H2B, with an arginine cluster on the Sgf11 zinc finger domain docking on the conserved H2A/H2B acidic pat
  
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• [Report] Spatial colocalization and functional link of purinosomes with mitochondria

  11-02-2016 21:47
  Purine biosynthetic enzymes organize into dynamic cellular bodies called purinosomes. Little is known about the spatiotemporal control of these structures. Using super-resolution microscopy, we demonstrated that purinosomes colocalized with mitochondria, and these results were supported by isolation of purinosome enzymes with mitochondria. Moreover, the number of purinosome-containing cells responded to dysregulation of mitochondrial function and metabolism. To explore the role of intracellular
  
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• [Report] Pulmonary neuroendocrine cells function as airway sensors to control lung immune response

  11-02-2016 21:47
  The lung is constantly exposed to environmental atmospheric cues. How it senses and responds to these cues is poorly defined. Here, we show that Roundabout receptor (Robo) genes are expressed in pulmonary neuroendocrine cells (PNECs), a rare, innervated epithelial population. Robo inactivation in mouse lung results in an inability of PNECs to cluster into sensory organoids and triggers increased neuropeptide production upon exposure to air. Excess neuropeptides lead to an increase in immune infi
  
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• [Report] Pathogenic CD4 T cells in type 1 diabetes recognize epitopes formed by peptide fusion

  11-02-2016 21:47
  T cell–mediated destruction of insulin-producing β cells in the pancreas causes type 1 diabetes (T1D). CD4 T cell responses play a central role in β cell destruction, but the identity of the epitopes recognized by pathogenic CD4 T cells remains unknown. We found that diabetes-inducing CD4 T cell clones isolated from nonobese diabetic mice recognize epitopes formed by covalent cross-linking of proinsulin peptides to other peptides present in β cell secretory granules. These hybrid insulin pe
  
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• [Report] On-chip and freestanding elastic carbon films for micro-supercapacitors

  11-02-2016 21:47
  Integration of electrochemical capacitors with silicon-based electronics is a major challenge, limiting energy storage on a chip. We describe a wafer-scale process for manufacturing strongly adhering carbide-derived carbon films and interdigitated micro-supercapacitors with embedded titanium carbide current collectors, fully compatible with current microfabrication and silicon-based device technology. Capacitance of those films reaches 410 farads per cubic centimeter/200 millifarads per square c
  
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• [Report] mTORC1 induces purine synthesis through control of the mitochondrial tetrahydrofolate cycle

  11-02-2016 21:47
  In response to growth signals, mechanistic target of rapamycin complex 1 (mTORC1) stimulates anabolic processes underlying cell growth. We found that mTORC1 increases metabolic flux through the de novo purine synthesis pathway in various mouse and human cells, thereby influencing the nucleotide pool available for nucleic acid synthesis. mTORC1 had transcriptional effects on multiple enzymes contributing to purine synthesis, with expression of the mitochondrial tetrahydrofolate (mTHF) cycle enzym
  
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• [Report] Enhanced seasonal CO2 exchange caused by amplified plant productivity in northern ecosystems

  11-02-2016 21:47
  Atmospheric monitoring of high northern latitudes (above 40°N) has shown an enhanced seasonal cycle of carbon dioxide (CO2) since the 1960s, but the underlying mechanisms are not yet fully understood. The much stronger increase in high latitudes relative to low ones suggests that northern ecosystems are experiencing large changes in vegetation and carbon cycle dynamics. We found that the latitudinal gradient of the increasing CO2 amplitude is mainly driven by positive trends in photosynthetic c
  
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• [Report] Dynamics of epigenetic regulation at the single-cell level

  11-02-2016 21:47
  Chromatin regulators play a major role in establishing and maintaining gene expression states. Yet how they control gene expression in single cells, quantitatively and over time, remains unclear. We used time-lapse microscopy to analyze the dynamic effects of four silencers associated with diverse modifications: DNA methylation, histone deacetylation, and histone methylation. For all regulators, silencing and reactivation occurred in all-or-none events, enabling the regulators to modulate the fr
  
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• [Report] Broadly targeted CD8+ T cell responses restricted by major histocompatibility complex E

  11-02-2016 21:47
  Major histocompatibility complex E (MHC-E) is a highly conserved, ubiquitously expressed, nonclassical MHC class Ib molecule with limited polymorphism that is primarily involved in the regulation of natural killer (NK) cells. We found that vaccinating rhesus macaques with rhesus cytomegalovirus vectors in which genes Rh157.5 and Rh157.4 are deleted results in MHC-E–restricted presentation of highly varied peptide epitopes to CD8αβ+ T cells, at ~4 distinct epitopes per 100 amino acids in all
  
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• [Report] Asymmetric copper-catalyzed C-N cross-couplings induced by visible light

  11-02-2016 21:47
  Despite a well-developed and growing body of work in copper catalysis, the potential of copper to serve as a photocatalyst remains underexplored. Here we describe a photoinduced copper-catalyzed method for coupling readily available racemic tertiary alkyl chloride electrophiles with amines to generate fully substituted stereocenters with high enantioselectivity. The reaction proceeds at –40°C under excitation by a blue light-emitting diode and benefits from the use of a single, Earth-abundant
  
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• [Report] Artificial electron acceptors decouple archaeal methane oxidation from sulfate reduction

  11-02-2016 21:47
  The oxidation of methane with sulfate is an important microbial metabolism in the global carbon cycle. In marine methane seeps, this process is mediated by consortia of anaerobic methanotrophic archaea (ANME) that live in syntrophy with sulfate-reducing bacteria (SRB). The underlying interdependencies within this uncultured symbiotic partnership are poorly understood. We used a combination of rate measurements and single-cell stable isotope probing to demonstrate that ANME in deep-sea sediments
  
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• [Report] A decade of sea level rise slowed by climate-driven hydrology

  11-02-2016 21:47
  Climate-driven changes in land water storage and their contributions to sea level rise have been absent from Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change sea level budgets owing to observational challenges. Recent advances in satellite measurement of time-variable gravity combined with reconciled global glacier loss estimates enable a disaggregation of continental land mass changes and a quantification of this term. We found that between 2002 and 2014, climate variability resulted in an additional
  
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• [Policy Forum] Finding an ethical path forward for mitochondrial replacement

  11-02-2016 21:47
  Mitochondria are organelles found in nearly all cells in the human body and are best known for their role in regulating cellular energy balance (sometimes described as the “energy factory” of the cell). Mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) is the only source of DNA in human cells found outside of the nucleus. The mitochondrial genome contains 37 genes (as compared with the 20,000 to 30,000 found in the nuclear genome), but pathogenic mutations in mtDNA can lead to rare, serious diseases that tend to af
  
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• [Perspective] (TORC)ing up purine biosynthesis

  11-02-2016 21:47
  Proliferating cells must coordinate their metabolic activities to meet the bioenergetic and biosynthetic demands of anabolic growth. Rapidly growing cells—such as cancer cells—achieve this in part by rewiring their metabolic pathways to increase flux through specific biosynthetic pathways. A more complex issue is how metabolic enzymes are organized to ensure efficient processing of metabolic intermediates. On pages 728 and 733 of this issue, Ben-Sahra et al. (1) and French et al. (2), reveal
  
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