The team’s findings, published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences today, suggest new applications in areas such as tissue engineering and soft robotics where hydrogel is commonly used. The team has also filed a patent at CMU and NTU. In nature, plant or animal tissues are formed as new biomass is added to existing structures. Their shape is the result of different parts of those tissues growing at different rates....

The recent find by the scientists from St Petersburg University, petrovite, Na10CaCu2(SO4)8, occurs as blue globular aggregates of tabular crystals with gaseous inclusions. “The copper atom in the crystal structure of petrovite has an unusual and very rare coordination of seven oxygen atoms. Such coordination is characteristic of only a couple of compounds, as well as of saranchinaite, which was discovered by our colleagues from St Petersburg University — the research team of Professor Oleg Siidra,” said the project manager, Professor Stanislav Filatov....

This is the reason why Vosshall and Maria Elena De Obaldia, a former postdoc in her lab, set out to investigate the leading theory to explain varying mosquito appeal: individual odor variations connected to skin microbiota. Through a study, they recently demonstrated that fatty acids emanating from the skin may create a potent perfume that mosquitoes can’t resist. They published their results in the journal Cell on October 18. “There’s a very, very strong association between having large quantities of these fatty acids on your skin and being a mosquito magnet,” says Vosshall, the Robin Chemers Neustein Professor at The Rockefeller University and Chief Scientific Officer of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute....

The thyroid function is crucial to the human body’s metabolism, growth, and development. By continuously releasing a stable amount of thyroid hormones into the bloodstream, it aids in the regulation of numerous body functions. The thyroid gland generates extra hormones when the body needs more energy in particular situations, such as when it is growing, cold, or pregnant. The study looked at more than 100 patients admitted to the hospital with severe COVID-19, analyzing their thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH) and other indicators....

Scientists have identified how and why some COVID-19 patients can develop life-threatening clots, which could lead to targeted therapies that prevent this from happening. The work, led by researchers from RCSI University of Medicine and Health Sciences, is published in the Journal of Thrombosis and Haemostasis. Previous research has established that blood clotting is a significant cause of death in patients with COVID-19. To understand why that clotting happens, the researchers analyzed blood samples that were taken from patients with COVID-19 in the Beaumont Hospital Intensive Care Unit in Dublin....

Scientists in Stuttgart are currently doing things to a ceramic, which would normally result in a pile of shards. They were the first to produce a paper-like material from a vanadium pentoxide ceramic which is as hard as copper, yet flexible enough to be rolled up or folded. The material is also different from other ceramics, as it is electrically conductive. In a project funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG), the scientists from Stuttgart University, the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems and the Max Planck Institute for Solid State Research produced the ceramic paper consisting of conductive nanofibers of vanadium pentoxide in a straightforward and simple way....

GRBs are short and intense bursts of gamma rays, which suddenly appear from deep space but randomly in direction and time. They are the brightest explosions in the universe since the Big Bang. Although discovered more than 50 years ago, the nature of GRBs is still poorly understood, especially what powers the explosions. Studying GRBs is important to understand how massive stars end their lives, black hole formation, and the most relativistic jets in the universe....

Without changing the genetic code in the DNA, epigenetic modifications can alter how genes are expressed, affecting an organism’s health and development. It was once a radical idea that such changes in gene expression can be inherited. Now there is a growing body of evidence behind it, but the mechanisms involved are still poorly understood. Scientists at the University of California, Santa Cruz show in a new study how a common type of epigenetic modification can be transmitted via sperm not only from parents to offspring, but to the next generation (“grandoffspring”) as well....

The morphing structure of the brain’s “cartilage cells” may regulate how memories change while you snooze, according to new research in eNeuro. Sleep lets the body rest, but not the brain. During sleep, the brain accounts for a day of learning by making strong memories stronger and weak memories weaker, a process known as memory consolidation. But changing memories requires changing synapses, the connections between neurons. Sleep-induced changes need to overcome perineuronal nets, cartilage-like sheaths that not only surround and protect neurons, but also prevent changes in synapses....

Amid a year of record-breaking temperatures, research from the Earlham Institute in Norwich and the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Centre (CIMMYT) provides much-needed hope for enhancing crop resilience and securing food in the face of a changing climate. The field trials in Mexico also emphasize the importance of genetic diversity in key crops, where decades of selective breeding have reduced their ability to adapt to a rapidly warming planet....

Researchers using NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter see seasonal changes on far-northern Martian sand dunes caused by warming of a winter blanket of frozen carbon dioxide. Earth has no naturally frozen carbon dioxide, though pieces of manufactured carbon-dioxide ice, called “dry ice,” sublime directly from solid to gas on Earth, just as the vast blankets of dry ice do on Mars. A driving factor in the springtime changes where seasonal coverings of dry ice form on Mars is that thawing occurs at the underside of the ice sheet, where it is in contact with dark ground being warmed by early-spring sunshine through translucent ice....

Married men and women who divide household chores in traditional ways report having more sex than couples who share so-called men’s and women’s work, according to a new study co-authored by sociologists at the University of Washington. Other studies have found that husbands got more sex if they did more housework, implying that sex was in exchange for housework. But those studies did not factor in what types of chores the husbands were doing....

What causes an eruption? Why do some volcanoes erupt regularly, while others remain dormant for thousands of years? A team of geologists and geophysicists, led by the University of Geneva (UNIGE), Switzerland, has reviewed the literature on the internal and external mechanisms that lead to a volcanic eruption. Analyzing the thermo-mechanics of deep volcanic processes and magma propagation to the surface, together with magma chemistry, the geologists determined that most of the magma rising from depth actually does not cause a volcanic eruption....

Imagine a kerosene lamp that continued to shine after the fuel was spent, or an electric stove that could remain hot during a power outage. Materials scientists at Harvard have demonstrated an equivalent feat in clean energy generation with a solid-oxide fuel cell (SOFC) that converts hydrogen into electricity but can also store electrochemical energy like a battery. This fuel cell can continue to produce power for a short time after its fuel has run out....

The potassium chloride cotransporter 1 (KCC1) structure solved in this study carries positively charged potassium ions (K+) and negatively charged chloride (Cl–) ions across cell membranes to help regulate the volume of the cell. The protein is one of a large family of cotransporters found in many of the body’s tissues, particularly in the kidneys and the brain. Despite extensive study of cotransporters, the lack of high-resolution structures has hindered a deeper understanding of their actions....

Recently, scientists developed a new type of optical metasurface with which phase modulation in both space and time is imposed on the reflected light, leading to different paths for the forward and backward light propagation. For the first time, nonreciprocal light propagation in free space was realized experimentally at optical frequencies with such an ultrathin component. “This is the first optical metasurface with controllable ultrafast time-varying properties that is capable of breaking optical reciprocity without a bulky magnet,” said Xingjie Ni, the Charles H....

One of the defining features of COVID-19 is the excessive immune response that can occur in severe cases. This burst of immune overreaction, also called a cytokine storm, damages the lungs and can be fatal. A team of MIT researchers has developed specialized proteins, similar in structure to antibodies, that they believe could soak up these excess cytokines. “The idea is that they can be injected into the body and bind to the excessive cytokines as generated by the cytokine storm, removing the excessive cytokines and alleviating the symptoms from the infection,” says Rui Qing, an MIT research scientist who is one of the senior authors of the study....

Researchers at Yale School of Medicine have identified a key link between stem cell factors that fuel ovarian cancer’s growth and patient prognosis. The study, which paves the way for developing novel targeted ovarian cancer therapies, is published online in the current issue of Cell Cycle. Lead author Dr. Yingqun Huang, associate professor in the Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology & Reproductive Sciences, and her colleagues have demonstrated a connection between two concepts that are revolutionizing the way cancer is treated....

They are still slightly asymmetrical, with steep slip faces on the south ends. This indicates that sand generally moves to the south, but the winds may be variable. This is part of a series of images (see above) to monitor how frost disappears in the late winter; this observation appears to be free of frost. A previous image (below) shows when the surface was covered by frost. The map is projected here at a scale of 25 centimeters (9....

On-the-job exposure to high levels of pesticides raised the risk of heart disease and stroke in a generally healthy group of Japanese American men in Hawaii, according to new research published in the Journal of the American Heart Association, the open-access journal of the American Heart Association. “This study emphasizes the importance of using personal protective equipment during exposure to pesticides on the job and the importance of documenting occupational exposure to pesticides in medical records, as well as controlling standard heart disease risk factors,” said Beatriz L....