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Huntington's disease results from defects in the huntingtin protein, but the exact mechanism has been unclear. Researchers now have a better idea, and the knowledge has proved beneficial — for flies at least.
Colloids, which consist of small particles in suspension, can switch from a fluid to a crystalline state. But a careful simulation of this phase transition shows that some types of colloids cannot crystallize.
Predictions of flight performance in birds rely heavily on aerodynamic theory because it is difficult to measure energy consumption in flight. Fresh data leave part of the theory up in the air.
Strontium isotopes have been used to identify the sources of timber in buildings around one thousand years old. The method can now help to solve a range of other problems.
Artificial light has freed us from dependence on sunlight. But to improve the efficiency of electric lights Daedalus suggests sending electrons along a wiggly conductor.
Upper-tropospheric clouds contain ice particles, most of which result from the freezing of liquid droplets. That freezing, it emerges, is far more complicated than had been thought.
In the 1950s there were hopes that semiconductor thermocouples would replace mechanical refrigerators, just as semiconductor transistors supplanted vacuum tubes. New materials may bring that goal a bit closer.
For many years there has been uncertainty about the processes that trigger melting in solids. A new simulation manages to tie several threads together.
Making patterns from molecular building blocks sounds like child's play, but has been surprisingly difficult to do. A new approach to assembling molecules into patterns may ultimately lead to molecule-based devices.
In some ecosystems at least, extrapolating from the short-term effects of global warming will give a misleading impression of the reaction over longer periods of time.
Mice become infertile if they lack the gene encoding a newly discovered sperm-specific ion channel. Sperm are produced in normal quantities, but have trouble moving.
Gene expression requires several complex biochemical reactions to be carried out precisely. These reactions must also be coordinated, and molecular biologists now have a better handle on how that happens.
Simulations of what happens when two black holes collide predict they will release their energy mostly as gravity waves. Such predictions are a bonus to researchers seeking to observe gravity waves.
Carbon fibre composites could be made stronger if they contained more polymeric carbon nanotubes. This would require a better understanding of the melting processes during manufacture.
In multicellular animals, there has to be a balance between the free flow and clotting of blood. One molecule involved is von Willebrand factor, and the enzyme that cuts it down to size is now unveiled.
Does our ability to talk lie in our genes? The suspicion is bolstered by the discovery of a gene that might affect how the brain circuitry needed for speech and language develops.
A paradox in palaeoclimatology has been the apparent existence of a cool sea surface in the tropics under conditions of high CO2 in the atmosphere. It looks as if that paradox has been resolved.
