ISRIB blocks the integrated stress response (ISR), a quality control process for protein production that, when activated chronically, can be harmful to cells. The study, which was recently published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, discovered that ISRIB reverses the effects of traumatic brain injury (TBI) on dendritic spines, an area of neurons vital to cognition. The drug-treated mice also showed sustained improvements in working memory. “Our goal was to see if ISRIB could ameliorate the neural effects of concussion,” said Michael Stryker, Ph....

Now, a team of microbiologists and genomicists led by the Department of Energy Joint Genome Institute (JGI) has invented a genetic engineering tool, called CRAGE, that could not only make studying these compounds much easier, but also fill significant gaps in our understanding of how microbes interact with their surroundings and evolve. Their work, a collaboration with Goethe University Frankfurt and DOE Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory (EMSL), was published on October 14, 2019, in Nature Microbiology....

This newly released composite image shows star cluster NGC 1333, which is located roughly 780 light years from Earth. While fireworks only last a short time here on Earth, a bundle of cosmic sparklers in a nearby cluster of stars will be going off for a very long time. NGC 1333 is a star cluster populated with many young stars that are less than 2 million years old, a blink of an eye in astronomical terms for stars like the Sun expected to burn for billions of years....

A collage shows nine radar images of near-Earth asteroid 2007 PA8 that were obtained between October 31 and November 13, 2012, with data collected by NASA’s 230-foot-wide (70-meter) Deep Space Network antenna at Goldstone, California. On November 5 at 8:42 a.m. PST (11:42 a.m. EST/16:42 UTC), the object came about 4 million miles (6.5 million kilometers) from Earth, or 17 times the distance between Earth and the moon. The images of 2007 PA8 reveal possible craters, boulders, an irregular, asymmetric shape, and very slow rotation....

Mars is a dynamic planet. HiRISE has witnessed many surface changes over the past ten years, including hundreds of new craters formed by ongoing impacts. Most of these impacts are likely caused by asteroids that have strayed into collision courses with Mars. The planet’s much thinner atmosphere compared to Earth makes small asteroids less likely to burn up prior to hitting the Martian surface. This new crater, which formed explosively at the point of impact, has a diameter of roughly 8 meters (about 25 feet), but its surrounding blast zone and ejecta extend over a kilometer (about one mile) beyond the crater itself....

The ocean is a messy and turbulent space, where winds and weather kick up waves in all directions. When an object or person goes missing at sea, the complex, constantly changing conditions of the ocean can confound and delay critical search-and-rescue operations. Now researchers at MIT, the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH), the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI), and Virginia Tech have developed a technique that they hope will help first responders quickly zero in on regions of the sea where missing objects or people are likely to be....

Scientists at Harvard have developed the first model of solid tumor growth that reflects both shape and growth. They’re among the most powerful tools for demonstrating how cancer grows and spreads, but mathematical models of the disease have always faced an either/or problem. Models for capturing the spatial — or 3D — aspects of tumors don’t reflect the speed at which they grow. Non-spatial models, meanwhile, can more accurately portray the growth of tumors, but not their 3D nature....

You can look and feel better by keeping up a regular exercise schedule, but did you know that exercise also supports bone and muscle health? Locomotor fragility, which affects people who are unable to exercise, causes the muscles and bones to deteriorate. Recently, Japanese researchers discovered a new drug that, by producing effects comparable to those of exercise, may help treat locomotor frailty. Physical inactivity can result in a weakening of the muscles (known as sarcopenia) and bones (known as osteoporosis)....

An international team of researchers from Dartmouth College and the Max Delbrück Center (MDC) in Germany has published a study in the journal Science Advances, revealing that octopuses are the first known invertebrates to contain a high number of gene-regulating microRNAs. The genes of two octopus species were found to have an increase in microRNAs, which are associated with the development of advanced cells with specific functions, over evolutionary time, a finding that has previously only been observed in humans, mammals, and other vertebrates....

The COVID-19 pandemic, caused by SARS-CoV-2, has had a profound impact on global public health. Neutralizing antibodies that specifically target the receptor-binding domain (RBD) of the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein are thought to be essential for controlling the virus. RBD-specific neutralizing antibodies have been detected in convalescent patients – those who have recovered from COVID-19. Some of the recoverees tend to have robust and long-lasting immunity, while others display a waning of their neutralizing antibodies....

University of British Columbia (UBC) researchers, and collaborators from the universities of Alberta, Tübingen, Autònoma de Barcelona, and the Georgia Institute of Technology, found that ancestors of modern bacteria cultured from an iron-rich lake in Democratic Republic of Congo could have been key to keeping Earth’s dimly lit early climate warm, and in forming the world’s largest iron ore deposits billions of years ago. The bacteria have special chemical and physical features that in the complete absence of oxygen allow them to convert energy from sunlight into rusty iron minerals and into cellular biomass....

Is there a link between consuming more meat, particularly red and processed meat, and an increased risk of cardiovascular disease? If so, why? The effects of foods derived from animals on atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease (ASCVD) are hotly contested despite extensive research, and the mechanisms behind any possible impacts of animal proteins are still unknown. Understanding the effects of meat consumption is crucial for older adults since they are most at risk for heart disease and may benefit from consuming protein to counteract the deterioration of muscle mass and strength that comes with aging....

A Virginia Tech scientist has discovered a potentially new form of plant communication, one that allows them to share an extraordinary amount of genetic information with one another. The finding by Jim Westwood, a professor of plant pathology, physiology, and weed science in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, throws open the door to a new arena of science that explores how plants communicate with each other on a molecular level....

Recent research offers a new spin on using nanoscale semiconductor structures to build faster computers and electronics. Literally. University of Pittsburgh and Delft University of Technology researchers reveal in the February 17 online issue of Nature Nanotechnology a new method that better preserves the units necessary to power lightning-fast electronics, known as qubits (pronounced CUE-bits). Hole spins, rather than electron spins, can keep quantum bits in the same physical state up to 10 times longer than before, the report finds....

Humans and chimpanzees share 99% of their DNA, with human accelerated regions (HARs) being the portions of the genome that exhibit a disproportionate amount of these differences. These HARs remained unchanged in mammals for millennia but underwent rapid transformation in early humans. Scientists have long wondered about the reason for these significant changes in these segments of DNA and how they distinguish humans from other primates. Recently, the researchers at Gladstone Institutes conducted an analysis of thousands of human and chimpanzee HARs and found that a significant number of the modifications that occurred during human evolution had opposing effects from each other....

Yale researchers have discovered a new technique that allows them to measure electrical activity of genetically-targeted sets of neurons in a living organism, a prerequisite for understanding the complex language of the brain. The technique, described in the August 8 issue of the journal Cell, involves inserting fluorescent proteins in neurons of a fruit fly that responds to changes in electrical signals and are recorded by optical sensors. “We hope that one day we will be able compare electrical activity in healthy individuals and those suffering pathological conditions,” said Michael Nitabach, associate professor of cellular and molecular physiology and of genetics and author of the paper....

Sometimes moving slowly is actually better, according to Prof. Avi Zadok of Bar-Ilan University’s Faculty of Engineering and Institute of Nanotechnology and Advanced Materials. “Important signal processing tasks, such as the precise selection of frequency channels, require that data is delayed over time scales of tens of nanoseconds. Given the fast speed of light, optical waves propagate over many meters within these timeframes. One cannot accommodate such path lengths in a silicon chip....

Small UCSF study indicates vaccine safety for pregnant and lactating women. Messenger RNA vaccines against COVID-19 were not detected in human milk, according to a small study by UC San Francisco, providing early evidence that the vaccine mRNA is not transferred to the infant. The study, which analyzed the breast milk of seven women after they received the mRNA vaccines and found no trace of the vaccine, offers the first direct data of vaccine safety during breastfeeding and could allay concerns among those who have declined vaccination or discontinued breastfeeding due to concern that vaccination might alter human milk....

The study participants utilized Steam, a digital distribution service and storefront for video games, and played various games on the platform. Researchers examined the 800 games that were played the most and only included participants for whom they had information on gender and occupation. Researchers discovered that IT professionals and engineers played puzzle-platform games, which possibly enhance their spatial skills. People in managerial roles showed an interest in action roleplay games where organizational and planning skills are involved and engineering professionals were associated with strategy games which often require problem-solving and spatial skills....

Scientists observing a curious neutron star in a binary system known as the ‘Rapid Burster’ may have solved a forty-year-old mystery surrounding its puzzling X-ray bursts. They discovered that its magnetic field creates a gap around the star, largely preventing it from feeding on matter from its stellar companion. Gas builds up until, under certain conditions, it hits the neutron star all at once, producing intense flashes of X-rays. The discovery was made with space telescopes including ESA’s XMM-Newton....