SciGlow | All Science News In One Place
SciGlow is a newsletter of science stories from the major research labs. Headlines link to in-depth articles and editorials. SciGlow keeps scientists and others up-to-date on current research.
Cuts, scrapes, blisters, burns, splinters, and punctures – there are a number of ways our skin can be broken. Most treatments for skin wounds involve simply placing a barrier over it (usually an adhesive gauze bandage) to keep it moist, limit pain, and reduce exposure to infectious microbes, but do not actively assist in the … Read more
Keven Walgamott had a good “feeling” about picking up the egg without crushing it. What seems simple for nearly everyone else can be more of a Herculean task for Walgamott, who lost his left hand and part of his arm in an electrical accident 17 years ago. But he was testing out the prototype of … Read more
A new study has found that an Inuit population in Canada’s Arctic are genetically distinct from any known group, and certain genetic variants are correlated with brain aneurysm. Geographically isolated populations often develop unique genetic traits that result from their successful adaptation to specific environments. Unfortunately, these adaptations sometimes predispose them to certain health issues … Read more
Proteins are sequences of amino acids. The amino-acid sequence determines how the protein will fold into a 3D structure. That structure then determines what the protein does. A protein’s amino-acid sequence completely determines its function. However, nobody has figured out how to determine structure or function given the amino-acid sequence. In other words, the mapping … Read more
Life depends on double-stranded DNA unwinding and separating into single strands that can be copied for cell division. St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital scientists have determined at atomic resolution the structure of machinery that drives the process. The research appears today in the journal Nature Communications. The process may also help to solve what the study’s … Read more
Thirty years ago, aging biology gained unprecedented scientific credibility when gene variants were identified that extend the lifespan of the nematode C. elegans. In a major review – From discoveries in ageing research to therapeutics for healthy aging – published in the June 11 issue of Nature, six Buck faculty members highlight discoveries that have … Read more
Wandering through the Harvard campus one day in 2015, graduate student Andrew Yegian recalls how something unusual caught his eye. ‘I noticed a person running with straight arms’, he explains. This really stood out for Yegian, as runners usually bend the elbow, while walkers keep their arms straight, which made him wonder: ‘If straight arms … Read more
UNC School of Medicine scientists created a powerful new “directed evolution” technique for the rapid development of scientific tools and new treatments for many diseases. The scientists, whose breakthrough is reported in Cell, demonstrated the technique by evolving several proteins to perform precise new tasks, each time doing it in a matter of days. Existing methods … Read more
Techniques developed by astronomers could help in the fight against breast and skin cancer. Charlie Jeynes at the University of Exeter will present his and Prof Tim Harries team’s work today (3 July) at the RAS National Astronomy Meeting (NAM 2019) at the University of Lancaster. A large part of astronomy depends on the detection … Read more
In a major collaborative effort, researchers at the Lewis Katz School of Medicine at Temple University and the University of Nebraska Medical Center (UNMC) have for the first time eliminated replication-competent HIV-1 DNA – the virus responsible for AIDS – from the genomes of living animals. The study, reported online July 2 in the journal Nature … Read more