Ancient fossil microorganisms indicate that life in the universe is common
Scientists analyze specimens from 3.465 billion years ago This is a 3.465 billion year-old fossil microorganism from Western Australia. Credit: J. William Schopf/UCLA Center for the Study of Evolution and the Origin of Life A new analysis of the oldest known fossil microorganisms provides strong evidence to support an increasingly widespread understanding that life in […]
Bacteria acquire resistance from competitors
The T6SS (green, magenta) mediated killing and lysis of competing bacteria can lead to DNA release (cyan) and subsequent gene transfer. Bacteria not only develop resistance to antibiotics, they also can pick it up from their rivals. In a recent publication in Cell Reports, Researchers from the Biozentrum of the University of Basel have demonstrated […]
Anaerobic Bacterial Fermentation Products Increase Tuberculosis Risk in Antiretroviral-Drug-Treated HIV Patients
Antiretroviral drugs can help improve the immune response in people with HIV, but many patients are still highly vulnerable to tuberculosis (TB). A team including researchers from the University of Cape Town studied blood samples and microbes in the lungs of HIV patients being treated with antiretroviral drugs. They found that increased anaerobic bacteria in […]
Lighting the path to a better understanding of matter
Physicists have used collisions between lead ions to observe light being scattered by light, paving the way for a better understanding of the properties of matter, according to a study published in Nature Physics. The phenomenon, called light-by-light scattering, is impossible in classical physics because particles of light, or photons, carry no charge. Quantum physics predicts […]
Is it time to retire cholesterol tests?
In this illustration of a low-density lipoprotein particle, apolipoprotein B (blue) is surrounded by various forms of cholesterol (orange and yellow) and other lipids. The next time you go in for a medical checkup, your doctor will probably make a mistake that could endanger your life, contends cardiologist Allan Sniderman of McGill University in Montreal, […]
Can a multibillion-dollar biotech prove its RNA drugs are safe for a rare disease?
Moderna Therapeutics is betting that messenger RNA can turn cells into factories for missing proteins. Earlier this year, Paolo Martini, who heads rare disease research at the closely scrutinized biotech company Moderna Therapeutics in Cambridge, Massachusetts, visited the Middle East. He met with doctors who treat children with a rare metabolic disorder known as methylmalonic […]
Forcing fluorines into shape
For some, the phrase ‘total synthesis’ conjures images of Robert Woodward lighting another cigarette as he works into the evening on his groundbreaking preparation of vitamin B12. For others, KC Nicolaou’s searing yellow structures of polycylic brevetoxins on infinitely black slides are a most vivid image, while for a younger generation, the term is inherently linked to Phil Baran’s eternal […]
Synthetic protein packages its own genetic material and evolves
Computationally designed protein assemblies are advancing research in synthetic life and in targeted drug delivery Summary: Scientists have created computationally designed protein assemblies, that display some functions normally associated with living things, in the search for ways to transport therapeutic cargo into specific types of cells without using viruses as vehicles. These encapsulate their own […]
Graphene transformed into diamond under pressure
Effect unique to bilayer graphene could be exploited to make ultrathin protective coatings Crushing a double layer of graphene under extremely high pressures can turn it into an ultrathin diamond film, researchers in the US have found. The phenomenon, which is not seen in either monolayer or multilayer graphene, may one day be used to […]
Clegg introduces a failed rocket fuel oxidiser with a very tricky structure
As a teenager, I made good use of nitromethane – which has the CH4 structure of methane with one hydrogen atom replaced by nitrogen dioxide – it was an oxidiser in the fuel for glow plug motors. But I wasn’t aware of the compound’s big brother, tetranitromethane, in which all of methane’s four hydrogen atoms are replaced with […]
Human cells and microorganisms found to be biochemically similar, according to astonishing study
Science earlier in 2017 and featured proof that both archaea and eukaryotic cells have a common mechanism that compacts, organizes, and structures their genomes. Karolin Luger led the study, and she is currently a structural biologist at the University of Colorado Boulder. However, most of the reports published in Science were accomplished when Luger was […]
Venoms are a treasure trove of peptides that may provide a bounty of novel painkillers
[:pb] Snakes, spiders and scorpions are some of the most lethal animals on the planet, producing venoms either as part of a defence mechanism towards predators, or as a means to subdue and kill their prey for food. For millions of years, spider and scorpion venoms have evolved to disable the central nervous system of […]
