Science News

Cold atmospheric plasma can affect cell adhesion with a significant role in stem cell adhesion. In a new study now published in Scientific Reports, Kobra Hajizadeh and a team of researchers in the departments of physics and plasma research at the Islamic Azhad University and the CNRS, France, studied the effect of plasma treatment on human bone marrow mesenchymal stem cell (HBMMSC) adhesion to understand cell differentiation and cell fate.

A study published in PNAS on Aug. 5 reveals the genome-wide chromatin accessibility of neonatal cochlear hair cells (HCs) and has identified two previously unknown Atoh1 enhancers. This study demonstrates that three Atoh1 enhancers cooperate for cochlear HC development in a dosage-dependent manner. The discovery provides insights into the molecular mechanisms underlying Atoh1 expression regulation and novel potential therapeutic targets for HC regeneration. This work was performed by researchers in Liu Zhiyong’s lab at the Institute of Neuroscience, Center for Excellence in Brain Science and Intelligence Technology (CEBSIT) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and the research group of Lu Falong at the Institute of Genetics and Developmental Biology (IGDB) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

Crystallization in liquids is a fundamental phase transition. While for many years, the understanding of crystallization was governed by classical nucleation theory, recent research has shifted focus to non-classical pathways in crystallization. In a new study, scientists from the Institute of Industrial Science, The University of Tokyo, reveal that the crystal precursor structure, which forms spontaneously as a structural fluctuation in a supercooled liquid, has a critical impact on crystal nucleation and growth.

Using data from ESA’s Gaia satellite and the Large Sky Area Multi-Object Fiber Spectroscopic Telescope (LAMOST), astronomers have investigated three open clusters near the Aquila Rift cloud. They found that two of them, designated UPK 39 and UPK 41, constitute a primordial binary open cluster. The discovery is reported in a paper published July 28 on arXiv.org.

Computer simulations are most often used as a guide so chemists can more efficiently work out the exact details of a general reaction idea they have in mind—much like a compass helps guide an explorer efficiently to a destination on their map. However, researchers at ICReDD took things a big step further and used simulations to produce the general idea for an entirely unimagined reaction, effectively using computations to make the map itself. Using the design principle suggested by computational results, the team hit the motherlode in the lab, successfully developing a suite of 48 reactions that produce compounds potentially useful for novel drug development.

Researchers have developed a transparent protective coating material that can self-heal in 30 minutes when exposed to sunlight.

An RMIT-led international collaboration has observed, for the first time, electric gate-controlled exchange-bias effect in van der Waals (vdW) heterostructures, offering a promising platform for future energy-efficient, beyond-CMOS electronics.

Faced with a historic drought and threatened by desertification, Spain is rethinking how it spends its water resources, which are used mainly to irrigate crops.

A malnourished beluga whale that has swum up France’s River Seine is no longer progressing but is still alive, environmental group Sea Shepherd said Monday.

Scientists at Newcastle University have uncovered a source of oxygen that may have influenced the evolution of life before the advent of photosynthesis.