For The Better

Synthetic biologists have developed eToeholds — small versatile devices built into RNA that enable expression of a linked protein-encoding sequence only when a cell-specific or viral RNA is present. eToehold devices open up multiple opportunities for …

Researchers have designed a way to selectively turn on gene expression in target cells, including human cells. Their technology can detect specific mRNA sequences, which triggers production of a specific protein.

Scientists have taken a closer look at how mitochondria are maintained in nondividing cells, such as neurons, with the ultimate goal of developing a better understanding of how to prevent or treat age-related diseases.

Researchers have found the two-year heatwave known as ‘the Blob’ may have temporarily dampened the Pacific’s ‘biological pump,’ which shuttles carbon from the surface ocean to the deep sea where it can be stored for millennia.

Developing below the soil surface, desert truffles are hard to find. Recently, researchers updated the number of known species of the desert truffle genus Terfezia occurring in Portugal from three to ten species. They thoroughly characterized their eco…

The Standard Model of particle physics has been extremely successful in describing how the universe works. However, there are some things that it cannot explain. Physicists have, therefore, been looking for new physics in particle accelerators such as …

Scientists used a drone and a multi-agent computerized system for complex social structure modeling to test, for example, whether individuals in a herd of feral horses synchronize according to their social network. For this hypothesis, two sub-models w…

In a new single-arm study, researchers reported that radiation therapy as monotherapy is a safe and effective noninvasive treatment for oligometastatic renal cell carcinoma (RCC).

Experts have created a deep neural network that achieves 98 per cent detection of peptide features in a dataset. That means scientists and medical practitioners have a greater chance of discovering possible diseases through tissue sample analysis.

Oil and water do not mix, but what happens where oil and water meet? Or where air meets liquid? Unique reactions occur at these interfaces, which a team of researchers based in Japan used to develop the first successful construction of uniform, electri…

Bioplastics can be chemically recycled into nitrogen-rich fertilizers in a facile and environmentally friendly way, as recently demonstrated. Their findings pave the way towards sustainable circular systems that simultaneously address issues such as pl…

The high-contrast pattern of giant pandas helps them blend in with their natural environment.

Industry must speed up investment in new technologies that allow manufacture of materials using renewable electricity if net zero emissions targets are to be met, research warns. The study cautions that national strategies for replacing fossil fuels wi…