Phys.org news

Stem cells are the original cell type from which all other cells and tissues in the body develop through a very tightly regulated process. However, how stem cells differentiate in addition to gene-control systems, such as ...

The Indonesian seas are a biodiversity hotspot, harboring the highest coral diversity in the tropics and home to an extraordinary variety of marine life. Yet these unique ecosystems have been under growing pressure for years, ...

Proteins do most of the work in our body's cells. But when a protein is too active or does not function properly, it can lead to disease or other health problems. Researchers from the University of Toronto have discovered ...

Researchers at the National University of Singapore (NUS) have developed a high-throughput method to identify gold nanoparticles capable of delivering therapies directly to mitochondria (the energy centers inside cancer cells). ...

Firework shows are controversial in this day and age. While beautiful, fireworks are loud, bright, and smoky, and they can be dangerous to the surrounding environment, releasing contaminants into the air and frightening both ...

Until now, it has been technically nearly impossible to rotate highly sensitive samples in all directions under a microscope without making contact. Researchers at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) have developed ...

Extreme weather poses a big threat to birds. Yet there is a lack of both knowledge and methods for measuring its negative effects. In a new study published in Trends in Ecology & Evolution, researchers from Lund University ...

Plant roots are far more than simple absorption organs: they can adjust their structure to better cope with water stress. Scientists at the University of Geneva (UNIGE), in collaboration with the University of Lausanne (UNIL), ...

The kingfisher's brilliant blue feathers were once used like paint to create works of art. The technique, known as tian-tsui, was popular during China's Qing Dynasty. And because tian-tsui uses delicate feathers, previous ...

In 2018, an artificial intelligence (AI) program called AlphaFold achieved a major breakthrough by placing first in the critical assessment of structure prediction, a competition for predicting the three-dimensional structures ...

Most drugs work by inhibition: they block a protein's activity but leave the protein itself intact. Targeted protein degradation takes a fundamentally different approach, harnessing the cell's own quality-control machinery ...

Living organisms sustain themselves through intricate metabolic processes that continuously convert energy and materials into useful functions. Inspired by these biological systems, researchers are now engineering synthetic ...