Researchers have discovered a gene for a tandem potassium channel in an algal virus. The finding supports the view that giant viruses may have contributed significantly to the evolution of complex proteins. The study is published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Many have voiced concerns that artificial intelligence will take jobs away from humans. But assistant professor of chemistry Zhongyue (John) Yang, along with his former doctoral student Qianzhen Shao (now a postdoc at Stanford) and other team members, has created an AI tool that aims to elevate the work that scientists do—not replace them.
It may sound abstract, but distinctions between "native," "introduced" or "invasive" species can often be life or death. Species considered invasive in Australia—such as European rabbits and feral pigs—are often culled, while most native animals are generally left alone.
According to quantum electrodynamics, the theory describing interactions between light and electrically charged particles, a sufficiently strong electric field can, in principle, convert some of its energy into particles and their antimatter partners. A particle's antimatter partner has the same mass and, for electrically charged particles, the opposite electric charge.
As quantum computers grow more ambitious, many researchers believe the best way forward is to build them in multiple interconnected parts. In these modular designs, separate quantum processors are linked so they can work together as one larger machine. For this to happen, however, connections must carry fragile quantum information without destroying it.
Around 2,400 years ago, at Łysa Góra in Poland, a group of people took a bronze helmet, crushed it, broke it into pieces and threw it into a pit with iron adzes and a scythe. Such helmets are sometimes found in lavish graves of the Celtic warrior elite, from Champagne, France, to Dürrnberg, Austria.
Scientists at Johns Hopkins have uncovered a crucial missing link between a common gut bacterium and colorectal cancer, solving a mystery that has puzzled researchers for nearly two decades. The bacterium, Bacteroides fragilis, produces a toxin that damages the colon’s protective lining, triggers chronic inflammation, and promotes tumor formation.
A remarkable 4,000-year-old defensive structure discovered in Morocco is rewriting what scientists thought they knew about ancient North African civilizations. The massive fortifications reveal unexpectedly sophisticated prehistoric societies and suggest that the region played a much greater role in Mediterranean history than previously recognized.
Among the ravenous carnivores and lumbering herbivores that roamed the Cretaceous landscape, another kind of dinosaur was evolving that started to eat something else: the plants that began to flower and produce fruit. The discovery by paleontologists from Stony Brook University, Royal Ontario Museum (ROM) and the North Dakota Geological Survey reveals that a new species, Infernogallus jamesi—a type of small oviraptorosaur—had chewing muscles for mashing soft food, making it the first known dinosaur that specifically ate fruit.
Scientists have discovered a surprising mechanism that allows certain metals to resist cracking at temperatures as low as -253°C (-424°F), when similar materials typically become dangerously brittle. Instead of breaking, two experimental alloys reorganize their internal structures, creating new ways to absorb stress and remain flexible.
