Science news

• Small molecule inhibitor prevents or impedes tooth cavities in a preclinical model

  10-08-2017 23:33
  Researchers have created a small molecule that prevents or impedes tooth cavities in a preclinical model. The inhibitor blocks the function of a key virulence enzyme in an oral bacterium, a molecular sabotage that is akin to throwing a monkey wrench into machinery to jam the gears.
  
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• Novel stem cell-derived model created of inflammatory neurological disorder

  10-08-2017 23:33
  An international team of scientists, has created a human stem cell-based model of a rare, but devastating, inherited neurological autoimmune condition called Aicardi-Goutieres Syndrome (AGS). In doing so, the team was able to identify unusual and surprising underlying genetic mechanisms that drive AGS and test strategies to inhibit the condition using existing drugs.
  
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• A metabolic pathway that feeds liver cancer

  10-08-2017 23:33
  A little-studied gene may explain how some liver cancer cells obtain the nutrition they need to proliferate, according to new research.
  
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• Atrial fibrillation risk rises with decreasing kidney function

  10-08-2017 23:32
  A new study indicates that individuals with kidney disease have a higher risk of developing atrial fibrillation, or an irregular heartbeat.
  
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• A look at the North Korean missiles that could hit Guam

  10-08-2017 22:11 via cbc.ca
  Analysts believe North Korea has several missiles in its arsenal capable of reaching the Pacific island, which Pyongyang has regularly threatened because of its U.S. military bases.
  
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• Climate change is shifting when Europe’s rivers flood

  10-08-2017 20:28
  
  Data spanning 50 years shows that today, floods come days, weeks, even months earlier in some areas and later in others.
  
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• Watch out YouTube? Facebook launches Watch video section

  10-08-2017 20:20 via cbc.ca
  Facebook has started rolling out a new section dedicated to live and recorded video.
  
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• Origins of DNA folding suggested in archaea

  10-08-2017 20:17
  Proteins in archaea bend strands of DNA in a way that's similar in eukaryotes, new research reveals. That similarity hints at the evolutionary origin of the elaborate folding that eukaryotic cells use to cram their genome into a nucleus.
  
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• New kinds of brain cells revealed

  10-08-2017 20:17
  Scientists analyzed methylation patterns of neurons to find new subtypes.
  
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• First mutant ants shed light on evolution of social behavior

  10-08-2017 20:17
  Scientists disrupted a gene essential for sensing pheromones, resulting in severe deficiencies in the ants' social behaviors and their ability to survive within a colony.
  
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• Do You Hear What I Hear? Auditory Hallucinations Yield Clues to Perception

  10-08-2017 20:05 via rss.sciam.com
  Psychics and psychosis sufferers alike hold beliefs that may predispose them to hearing voices
  -- Read more on ScientificAmerican.com
  
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• The first look at how archaea package their DNA reveals they’re a lot like us

  10-08-2017 20:00
  
  Archaea microbes spool their DNA much like plants and animals do.
  
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• Gene-Editing Success Brings Pig-to-Human Transplants Closer to Reality

  10-08-2017 20:00 via rss.sciam.com
  CRISPR has enabled researchers to inactivate viruses in donor animals that may sicken humans
  -- Read more on ScientificAmerican.com
  
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• Gene editing creates virus-free piglets

  10-08-2017 20:00
  
  Pigs engineered to lack infectious viruses may one day produce transplant organs.
  
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• Two areas for familiar face recognition in the primate brain

  10-08-2017 19:28
  Familiarity alters face recognition: Familiar faces are recognized more accurately than unfamiliar ones and under difficult viewing conditions when unfamiliar face recognition fails. The neural basis for this fundamental difference remains unknown. Using whole-brain functional magnetic resonance imaging, we found that personally familiar faces engage the macaque face-processing network more than unfamiliar faces. Familiar faces also recruited two hitherto unknown face areas at anatomically conse
  
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• The dual frontier: Patented inventions and prior scientific advance

  10-08-2017 19:28
  The extent to which scientific advances support marketplace inventions is largely unknown. We study 4.8 million U.S. patents and 32 million research articles to determine the minimum citation distance between patented inventions and prior scientific advances. We find that most cited research articles (80%) link forward to a future patent. Similarly, most patents (61%) link backward to a prior research article. Linked papers and patents typically stand 2 to 4 degrees distant from the other domain
  
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• Structure of histone-based chromatin in Archaea

  10-08-2017 19:28
  Small basic proteins present in most Archaea share a common ancestor with the eukaryotic core histones. We report the crystal structure of an archaeal histone-DNA complex. DNA wraps around an extended polymer, formed by archaeal histone homodimers, in a quasi-continuous superhelix with the same geometry as DNA in the eukaryotic nucleosome. Substitutions of a conserved glycine at the interface of adjacent protein layers destabilize archaeal chromatin, reduce growth rate, and impair transcription
  
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• Single-cell methylomes identify neuronal subtypes and regulatory elements in mammalian cortex

  10-08-2017 19:28
  The mammalian brain contains diverse neuronal types, yet we lack single-cell epigenomic assays that are able to identify and characterize them. DNA methylation is a stable epigenetic mark that distinguishes cell types and marks regulatory elements. We generated >6000 methylomes from single neuronal nuclei and used them to identify 16 mouse and 21 human neuronal subpopulations in the frontal cortex. CG and non-CG methylation exhibited cell type–specific distributions, and we identified r
  
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• Response to Comment on "Permanent human occupation of the central Tibetan Plateau in the early Holocene"

  10-08-2017 19:28
  We show that Zhang and Li’s sedimentological model for the Chusang travertine neglects the three-dimensional information from multiple outcrops and that their optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) age of about 20,000 years for the human imprints is untenable. We highlight the robustness of our chronology and explore reasons why Zhang and Li’s OSL age is a gross overestimation of the real depositional age of the imprinted travertine.
  
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• Pavlovian conditioning-induced hallucinations result from overweighting of perceptual priors

  10-08-2017 19:28
  Some people hear voices that others do not, but only some of those people seek treatment. Using a Pavlovian learning task, we induced conditioned hallucinations in four groups of people who differed orthogonally in their voice-hearing and treatment-seeking statuses. People who hear voices were significantly more susceptible to the effect. Using functional neuroimaging and computational modeling of perception, we identified processes that differentiated voice-hearers from non–voice-hearers
  
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• Microbiota-activated PPAR-{gamma} signaling inhibits dysbiotic Enterobacteriaceae expansion

  10-08-2017 19:28
  Perturbation of the gut-associated microbial community may underlie many human illnesses, but the mechanisms that maintain homeostasis are poorly understood. We found that the depletion of butyrate-producing microbes by antibiotic treatment reduced epithelial signaling through the intracellular butyrate sensor peroxisome proliferator–activated receptor(PPAR-). Nitrate levels increased in the colonic lumen because epithelial expression of Nos2, the gene encoding inducible nitric oxide synth
  
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• Metal-catalyzed electrochemical diazidation of alkenes

  10-08-2017 19:28
  Vicinal diamines are a common structural motif in bioactive natural products, therapeutic agents, and molecular catalysts, motivating the continuing development of efficient, selective, and sustainable technologies for their preparation. We report an operationally simple and environmentally friendly protocol that converts alkenes and sodium azide—both readily available feedstocks—to 1,2-diazides. Powered by electricity and catalyzed by Earth-abundant manganese, this transformation pr
  
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• Genomic exploration of the diversity, ecology, and evolution of the archaeal domain of life

  10-08-2017 19:28
  About 40 years ago, Archaea were recognized as a major prokaryotic domain of life besides Bacteria. Recently, cultivation-independent sequencing methods have produced a wealth of genomic data for previously unidentified archaeal lineages, several of which appear to represent newly revealed branches in the tree of life. Analyses of some recently obtained genomes have uncovered previously unknown metabolic traits and provided insights into the evolution of archaea and their relationship to eukaryo
  
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• Eye patches: Protein assembly of index-gradient squid lenses

  10-08-2017 19:28
  A parabolic relationship between lens radius and refractive index allows spherical lenses to avoid spherical aberration. We show that in squid, patchy colloidal physics resulted from an evolutionary radiation of globular S-crystallin proteins. Small-angle x-ray scattering experiments on lens tissue show colloidal gels of S-crystallins at all radial positions. Sparse lens materials form via low-valence linkages between disordered loops protruding from the protein surface. The loops are polydisper
  
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• Comment on "Permanent human occupation of the central Tibetan Plateau in the early Holocene"

  10-08-2017 19:28
  Meyer et al. (Reports, 6 January 2017, p. 64) suggest a new chronology for permanent human occupation of Tibet based on their dating of the travertine and colluvium deposits that contain or are deposited near fossil human handprints and footprints. However, misinterpretations in both stratigraphic reconstruction and dating data may have caused the newly proposed age of these human imprints to have been seriously underestimated.
  
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• Changing climate shifts timing of European floods

  10-08-2017 19:28
  A warming climate is expected to have an impact on the magnitude and timing of river floods; however, no consistent large-scale climate change signal in observed flood magnitudes has been identified so far. We analyzed the timing of river floods in Europe over the past five decades, using a pan-European database from 4262 observational hydrometric stations, and found clear patterns of change in flood timing. Warmer temperatures have led to earlier spring snowmelt floods throughout northeastern E
  
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• A unified continental thickness from seismology and diamonds suggests a melt-defined plate

  10-08-2017 19:28
  Thick, rigid continents move over the weaker underlying mantle, although geophysical and geochemical constraints on the exact thickness and defining mechanism of the continental plates are widely discrepant. Xenoliths suggest a chemical continental lithosphere ~175 kilometers thick, whereas seismic tomography supports a much thicker root (>250 kilometers) and a gradual lithosphere-asthenosphere transition, consistent with a thermal definition. We modeled SS precursor waveforms from continenta
  
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• A cyclic oligonucleotide signaling pathway in type III CRISPR-Cas systems

  10-08-2017 19:28
  Type III CRISPR-Cas systems in prokaryotes provide immunity against invading nucleic acids through the coordinated degradation of transcriptionally active DNA and its transcripts by the Csm effector complex. The Cas10 subunit of the complex contains an HD nuclease domain that is responsible for DNA degradation and two Palm domains with elusive functions. In addition, Csm6, a ribonuclease that is not part of the complex, is also required to provide full immunity. We show here that target RNA bind
  
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• The Trump administration's weird science on climate change

  10-08-2017 17:49 via cbc.ca
  U.S. President Donald Trump and his cabinet often avoid talking about the science of climate change, but when pressed what they have said clashes with established mainstream science, data and peer-reviewed studies and reports.
  
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• China sends first 'unbreakable' quantum code from space

  10-08-2017 16:13 via cbc.ca
  China has sent an "unbreakable" code from a satellite to the Earth, marking the first time space-to-ground quantum key distribution technology has been realised, state media said on Thursday.
  
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• Great white sharks in Nova Scotia may hold key to species' secrets

  10-08-2017 16:00 via cbc.ca
  A Nova Scotia scientist says great white sharks recently tracked in Nova Scotia waters may offer insight into the mating habits of these elusive creatures of the deep.
  
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• Giant dinosaur slims down... a bit

  10-08-2017 14:11 via bbc.co.uk
  Scientists revise their estimate of the bulk of a colossal titanosaur, but not by much.
  
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• Al Gore on the Paris agreement, Trump and climate change

  10-08-2017 14:01 via bbc.co.uk
  The former US vice president says the US will meet its targets "in spite of Donald Trump."
  
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• Mega-Tsunami Could Be Triggered by an Alaska Quake

  10-08-2017 13:30 via rss.sciam.com
  Researchers have found tectonic features on the ocean floor off the Alaska coast similar to those that drove the 2011 earthquake in Japan
  -- Read more on ScientificAmerican.com
  
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• Maximize Your Odds of Seeing the Great American Solar Eclipse

  10-08-2017 13:00 via rss.sciam.com
  Data show the U.S. locations that offer the best chances for clear skies and light traffic
  -- Read more on ScientificAmerican.com
  
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• 50 years ago, steel got stronger and stretchier

  10-08-2017 13:00
  
  Today, scientists are still trying to improve steel.
  
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• Richard Dawkins Offers Advice for Donald Trump, and Other Wisdom

  10-08-2017 12:45 via rss.sciam.com
  The biologist and atheist, whose latest book was released this week, talks about the reliability of science, artificial intelligence, religion and the president
  -- Read more on ScientificAmerican.com
  
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• Cannibals engraved bones of the dead

  10-08-2017 11:25 via bbc.co.uk
  The prehistoric cannibals of southern England marked up the bones of the people they ate.
  
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• Seals given iron oxide orange 'makeover' in Essex coastal mud

  10-08-2017 11:12 via bbc.co.uk
  The animals were filmed by the Essex Wildlife Trust which says the rust is harmless to them.
  
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• When technology discriminates: How algorithmic bias can make an impact

  10-08-2017 11:00 via cbc.ca
  Algorithms are increasingly being turned to as a way for companies to make objective decisions, including ones that have complex social implications. But they're not always as unbiased as you might think.
  
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• First 'winged' mammals flew over dinosaurs

  10-08-2017 09:49 via bbc.co.uk
  Fossils of the first "winged" mammals, from 160 million years ago, are discovered in China.
  
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• Exposure to oil sends birds off course

  10-08-2017 09:47 via bbc.co.uk
  Even light exposure to oil from disasters like the Deep Water Horizon oil spill makes flying more difficult for birds.
  
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• Infant ape fossil skull illuminates humankind's remote past

  10-08-2017 08:53
  WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The lemon-sized fossil skull of an infant ape nicknamed Alesi that inhabited a Kenyan forest about 13 million years ago is offering a peek at what the long-ago common ancestor of people and all modern apes may have looked like.
  
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• What algae can tell us about political strategy

  10-08-2017 06:00
  (Santa Fe Institute) Cells compete for nutrients. Political campaigns compete for voters. According to new research published in Nature Scientific Reports, general principles may begin to explain how differing strategies play out where groups compete for resources.
  
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• Using alternative medicine only for cancer linked to lower survival rate

  10-08-2017 06:00
  (Yale University) Patients who choose to receive alternative therapy as treatment for curable cancers instead of conventional cancer treatment have a higher risk of death, according to researchers from the Cancer Outcomes, Public Policy and Effectiveness Research (COPPER) Center at Yale School of Medicine and Yale Cancer Center.
  
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• USB connections make snooping easy

  10-08-2017 06:00
  (University of Adelaide) USB connections, the most common interface used globally to connect external devices to computers, are vulnerable to information 'leakage,' making them even less secure than has been thought, Australian research has shown.
  
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• Unstable housing to cost health care system estimated $111 billion over 10 years, study finds

  10-08-2017 06:00
  (Boston University Medical Center) Unstable housing among families with children will cost the United States an estimated $111 billion in health and education expenditures over the next ten years, according to new research published by Children's HealthWatch based at Boston Medical Center.
  
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• Test uses nanotechnology to quickly diagnose Zika virus

  10-08-2017 06:00
  (Washington University School of Medicine) Currently, testing for Zika requires that a blood sample be refrigerated and shipped to a medical center or laboratory, delaying diagnosis and possible treatment. Now, Washington University in St. Louis researchers have developed a test that quickly can detect the presence of Zika virus in blood. Although the new proof-of-concept technology has yet to be produced for use in medical situations, test results can be determined in minutes, and the materials
  
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• Taboo words' impact mediated by context, listeners' likelihood of being offended

  10-08-2017 06:00
  (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign) A new paper by University of Illinois educational psychology professor Kiel Christianson suggests that the physiological and psychological effects of profanity and other taboo words on people who read or hear them may be due largely -- but not entirely -- to the context and individual audience members' likelihood of being offended.
  
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• Surprise discovery in the search for energy efficient information storage

  10-08-2017 06:00
  (University of Nottingham) Today almost all information stored on hard disc drives or cloud servers is recorded in magnetic media, because it is non-volatile (i.e. it retains the information when power is switched off) and cheap. For portable devices such as mobile phones and tablets, other forms of non-magnetic memory are used because the technology based on magnetism is impractical and is not energy efficient.
  
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