The triumph and tragedy of the Higgs boson
Ten years ago, physicists found what they predicted. Little new has followed
Ancient DNA reveals Black Death source
Graves in Kyrgyzstan hold early victims of plague that swept medieval Europe
Category Archives: Research
Previews: New Scientist Magazine – June 18, 2022
What is time? The mysterious essence of the fourth dimension
The nature of time is a tricky notion to pin down. But whether it is a fundamental part of our universe or just an illusion has huge implications
FEATURES Could we ever go back in time? Relativity does not rule it out
FEATURES How do we sense time? The brain cells that order our memories
Cover Preview: Nature Magazine – June 16, 2022
Living the high life
The cover image shows plants growing at altitude on Altar Volcano in Chimborazo, Ecuador. Extreme altitudes pose challenges for most forms of life, and flowering plants are no exception. But flowering plants have been found growing as high as 6,400 metres above sea level. In this week’s issue, Michael Holdsworth and his colleagues reveal a molecular mechanism that helps plants to adapt to the extremes of altitude. The researchers studied a range of plants, representing four diverse clades of flowering plants — thale cress (Arabidopsis thaliana), tomato, poppy and the grass
Brachypodium distachyon. They found that plants use genetic adaptations to adjust their sensitivity to atmospheric oxygen, whose partial pressure decreases with altitude. By decoding the ambient oxygen level, the plants are able to sense the altitude at which they grow and optimize internal biochemical processes.
Cover image: Cristian Miño, Ecuador.
Cover Preview: Science Magazine – June 10, 2022
REPORTS BY
- GAIL V. ASHTON
- AMY L. FREESTONE
- ET AL.
Predator control of marine communities increases with temperature across 115 degrees of latitude
REPORTS BY
- MATTHEW R. OLM
- DYLAN DAHAN
- ET AL.
Robust variation in infant gut microbiome assembly across a spectrum of lifestyles
RESEARCH ARTICLES BY
- VICTORIA ACOSTA-RODRÍGUEZ
- FILIPA RIJO-FERREIRA
- ET AL.
Circadian alignment of early onset caloric restriction promotes longevity in male C57BL/6J mice
RESEARCH ARTICLES BY
- XUECHEN ZHU
- GAOXINGYU HUANG
- ET AL.
Structure of the cytoplasmic ring of the Xenopus laevis nuclear pore complex
Science: Ancient Giraffes, MAVEN Spacecraft, Mars Rover Rock Collection
A headbashing relative gives insights into giraffe evolution – How the giraffe got its long neck is a longstanding question in science. One possibility is that giraffes evolved longer necks for sexual competition, with males engaging in violent neck-swinging fights.
Now, a team have described fossils of an ancient giraffoid species with a thick headpiece adapted for fighting, which could add weight to this hypothesis.
Nature News: How the giraffe got its neck: ‘unicorn’ fossil could shed light on puzzle
05:18 A wave of resignations signals discontent in academia
Around the world, the ‘great resignation’ has seen huge numbers of workers re-evaluating their careers and lifestyles and choosing to leave their jobs following the pandemic. Academia is no exception, with many scientists deciding to leave the sector in the face of increased workloads, systemic biases and pressure to publish.
Nature Careers: Has the ‘great resignation’ hit academia?
10:34 An emergency fix gets MAVEN back on track
Earlier this year, NASA’s MAVEN spacecraft, which has been orbiting Mars since 2014, developed some serious equipment issues that prevented it from keeping its correct orientation in space. In a race against time, a team on Earth fixed the problem by developing a system that allowed the spacecraft to navigate by the stars.
Space.com: NASA’s Mars MAVEN spacecraft spent 3 months on the brink of disaster
14:28 The Perseverance rovers continues its rock collection
NASA’s Perseverance rover has arrived at an ancient Martian river delta where it will spend the next few months exploring, while scientists assess where to drill and extract rock samples. It’s thought that rocks from this region have the best chance of containing evidence of Martian life, and plans are being developed to return them to Earth in the future.
Nature News: NASA’s Perseverance rover begins key search for life on Mars
Cover Preview: Nature Magazine – June 9, 2022
Hidden treasure
The Casarabe people lived in southwest Amazonia around AD 500–1400, but understanding of this culture has been limited because the archaeological remains are covered in dense forest. In this week’s issue, Heiko Prümers and his colleagues reveal the discovery of new Casarabe settlements in the Bolivian Amazon. The researchers used lidar to scan the forest, revealing 2 large settlements (each covering more than 100 hectares) and 24 smaller sites, 15 of which had previously been known to exist.
The cover image shows Cotoca, one of the two large settlements, in which earthen mounds (one more than 20 metres high) and long causeways can clearly be seen. The team suggests that these results are the first evidence of agrarian-based, low-density urbanism in western Amazonia. They conclude that the region was not as sparsely populated in pre-Hispanic times as was previously thought.
Cover image: Heiko Prümers/DAI.
Heart Disease: Molecular Mapping Can Predict Risk
Vulnerability to heart disease can be projected before symptoms occur, Mayo Clinic discovered in preclinical research. This proof-of-concept study revealed that heart muscle changes indicate who is vulnerable to disease later in life. These changes can be detected from blood samples through comprehensive protein and metabolite profiling. This exploratory mapping, conducted in the Marriott Family Comprehensive Cardiac Regenerative Program within Mayo Clinic’s Center for Regenerative Medicine, is published in Scientific Reports.
“The team implemented state-of-the-art technologies to predict who is vulnerable and who is protected from heart disease,” says Andre Terzic, M.D., Ph.D., a Mayo Clinic cardiologist and the senior author. “In this era of post-genomic medicine, the acquired foundational knowledge provides guidance for development of curative solutions targeted to correct the disease-causing maladaptation.” Dr. Terzic is the Marriott Family Director, Comprehensive Cardiac Regenerative Medicine, for the Center for Regenerative Medicine and the Marriott Family Professor of Cardiovascular Research.
Cover Preview: Science Magazine – June 3, 2022
Science Magazine – June 3, 2022: A 10th-century Maya structure at Chichen Itza, Mexico, is often called the Observatory for its expansive view of the sky and a design seemingly guided by key positions of the Sun, Moon, and planets. The historic Maya anchored their calendars and rituals to celestial events, and their astronomical knowledge is now coming into sharper focus thanks to new analyses of archaeological relics and insights from today’s Maya.
Preview: New Scientist Magazine – June 4, 2022
Healthy Living: Can The Aging Process Be Halted?
Can the aging process be reversed – or even halted, altogether? If we manage to decode this final mystery of our human biology, we might soon be able to eradicate age-related illnesses like cancer, dementia and heart problems. The race to invent the miracle pill is well underway.
Today, international researchers are getting astonishingly close to realizing humanity’s dream of immortality. The hunt for immortality gained traction with the discovery of Costa Rica’s so-called “Blue Zone,” by Luis Rosero-Bixby. In the “Blue Zone,” on the Nicoya Peninsular, he found a remarkable number of centenarians.
Here, male life expectancy is the highest in the world. Their healthy lifestyle is one factor, but the promise of longevity is probably also because their telomeres – sections of DNA found at the end of chromosomes – are longer than those of the average person. It’s a field of research currently being explored by Maria Blasco in Madrid.
But this is just one of many possible factors influencing the process of aging. Senescent cells may also play a key role. Also known as “zombie cells”, these attack our body in old age and flood it with alarm signals until, at some point, we collapse under their weight. That’s a theory proposed by another researcher in Spain, Manuel Serrano. A billion-dollar industry is already knocking impatiently at the lab doors.
The first to market the miracle pill is guaranteed incredible wealth. That’s why investors are sponsoring young bio-startups in Hong Kong. Keen not be left out, US Big Tech is vying for the world’s best scientists. Alex Zhavoronkov has secured a slice of that pie, with a cash injection of more than 250 million dollars for his company’s work on aging research. Whereas some pioneers’ visions burst like bubbles, others rush to get other, rather more dubious products onto the market. But their efficacy is now measurable.
The epigenetic clock devised by Steve Horvath can measure our biological age, regardless of our actual age in years. With his research on the thymus gland, California’s Greg Fahy managed to not only decelerate the aging process, but reverse it. His initial study on humans showed that a particular drug cocktail took an average two-and-a-half years off their age.
Young biohackers like Nina Khera from Boston want everyone to benefit from this research. Together with friends, she’s working on the “epigenetic clock for all”. But while we’re busy trying to counter the aging process and all the illnesses it entails, fundamental questions arise: Should we be messing with nature like this? Are we about to overwhelm the planet with more and more people? Criminal biologist Mark Benecke in Cologne says that these questions are coming far too late.
Boomers Daily 