How does your body produce millions of antibodies from one genome? New research reveals how two closely-related proteins help immune cells fold DNA, connecting distant genetic pieces to create diverse antibodies that help fend off disease. In a new Nature Communications paper, a Michigan State University team discovered that the chromosome-organizing proteins STAG1 and STAG2 play distinct roles during antibody-gene assembly.

In a novel experiment at the University of Cincinnati, researchers isolated kissing bugs, fruit flies, mosquitoes and spider beetles in a climate- and light-controlled environment and found that they responded predictably to cycles of humidity in the same way they do temperature and daylight. After the humidity cue was removed, the insects continued to respond to the cyclical fluctuations of humidity and dryness established in the experiment.

 The aviation industry accounts for a large portion of global greenhouse gas emissions. Biobased, sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) can mitigate climate impacts, but transitioning to SAF faces critical supply chain constraints. A research team at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign has developed a method to produce jet-grade fuel from food waste, contributing to a circular bioeconomy. In a new paper, published in Nature Sustainability, they focus on technical and economic considerations.

AMHERST, Mass. — University of Massachusetts Amherst researchers have demonstrated a possible new avenue for developing flame-retardant and generally low-conductivity (low heat transfer) plastics that retain the benefits of being strong and flexible by limiting the accessibility of heat-carrying vibrational channels of the material. This new design framework has promising applications, including lightweight thermal insulation materials for spacesuits, thermal protection components for spacecraft and advanced building materials that reduce heating and cooling losses. 

A recent study by University of Notre Dame researchers describes a promising alternative for next-generation cooling using thermoelectric technology, which has no moving parts ad no gaseous refrigerants, allowing for zero leaks.

Using principles of superposition and entanglement, an interdisciplinary research team led by the University of Utah and Huntsman Cancer Institute develop an AI framework to tailor patients' cancer treatment to their entire molecular background

Neurons tucked away in an ancient part of the brain control the ability to pay attention by suppressing distractions and directing focus.

The discovery of these neurons in mice by Johns Hopkins University researchers, in a part of the brain that exists across all vertebrates including humans, could be an initial step toward more targeted treatments for attention disorders.

A UC Berkeley paleontologist discovered a “cat” fossil in a museum that is actually from an early diverging lineage of saber-toothed cat. The cat’s relatively small upper canines compared to later species of sabertooths reinforces the theory that growing long canines was an evolutionary rachet that led to the demise of sabertooths. The famed Smilodon exemplifies this trend. It had some of the largest fangs of any saber-toothed cat before going extinct 10,000 years ago.

A new kind of brain wave has been discovered that specifically rotates over space and time, relies on a circular anatomical circuit in the sensory cortex, and impacts activity across the brain. The findings were made in mouse studies. Scientists hope to learn whether these rotating traveling waves play a global role in sensing and interpreting internal and external stimuli, in laying down memory, and in managing motor performance. The researchers have yet to determine if rotating traveling waves are coordinated globally to the same extent in other species, including humans, as they are in mice.