For The Better

A new study reveals that having a sense of purpose in daily life can influence college students’ decisions on day-to-day alcohol consumption.

A team of researchers has developed a computational pipeline to identify and better understand viroids and viroid-like covalently closed circular RNAs (cccRNAs, also referred to as, simply, circular RNAs).

Bioengineers have developed a way to grow engineered skin in three-dimensional shapes, including a seamless ‘glove’ of skin that could be slipped onto a severely burned hand.

A new study finds that raised temperatures cause a pathogenic fungus known as Cryptococcus deneoformans to turn its adaptive responses into overdrive. Heat increases its number of genetic changes, some of which might presumably lead to higher heat resi…

If scaled up successfully, the team’s new system could help answer questions about certain kinds of superconductors and other unusual states of matter.

As deserts expanded their range over the past 5-7 million years, many plants invaded the new biome and rapidly diversified, producing amazing adaptations to drought and heat. Can plants continue to adapt to increasing aridity caused by climate change? …

Populations of various species of aquatic insects and other invertebrates respond to flooding and waterway drying due to drought in different ways that can be anticipated, according to a new study that employed a novel method to assess the stability of…

In a new study, a research team discovered evidence that browsing by white-tailed deer had relatively little long-term impact on two tree species in a northern forest.

The stubborn superbug Clostridium difficile, or C. diff, may have met its match. A esearcher is reporting the first well-controlled study to demonstrate the effectiveness of a new medicine for patients with the debilitating recurrent infection and dise…

When noninvasive sound waves break apart tumors, they trigger an immune response in mice. By breaking down the cell wall ‘cloak,’ the treatment exposes cancer cell markers that had previously been hidden from the body’s defenses, researchers have shown.

Researchers have developed a sustainable, inexpensive two-step process that can upcycle organic carbon waste — including lignin, a difficult-to-breakdown material that gives plants their structure. By processing waste through a microbe-driven biorefin…

A group of scientists have released one of the most precise measurements ever made of how matter is distributed across the universe today.

A new computational framework can predict the structures, properties, and performance of granular hydrogels. The new model could one day make it easier to design the right gel for a particular biomedical application.

Variable stimuli influence learning processes in the visual system.

A new conceptual framework for incorporating the way plants use carbon and water, or plant dynamics, into fine-scale computer models of wildland fire provides a critical first step toward improved global fire forecasting.

A new vaccine could be the first clinically approved immunization to protect against invasive fungal infections, a growing concern as antifungal drug resistance increases. Fungal infections cause more than 1.5 million deaths worldwide each year and cos…

Laser-driven ‘mirrors’ capable of reflecting or manipulating light have been produced.

A single protein called Gr8a is expressed in different organs in male and female flies and appears to play an inhibitory role in mating decision-making. The findings point to one of the ways that flies could put up behavioral barriers to protect agains…

Women are disproportionately affected by migraine, especially during their reproductive years. However, the relationship between migraine and adverse pregnancy outcomes has not been well understood. A new study analyzed data from thousands of women fro…