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The sensing of bitter taste results from the complex interplay of many chemical cues and a range of receptors. It emerges that this complexity might be built-in even at the level of individual receptors.
What every biologist should know about electronics, plus a disturbing outbreak of volcanism in North Carolina, in the weekly dip into Nature’s archive.
Scientists have designed a liquid that behaves as both a solid and a fluid owing to the presence of tiny gas-filled capsules. An unusual relationship between pressure and volume enables this material to grasp fragile objects.
The idea that three different free radicals could be used together to carry out specific steps in a chemical reaction has long been implausible. A ‘radical sorting’ strategy now achieves this feat to make organic molecules.
The complexity of fitting brakes to all four wheels of a car and the simplicity of John Maynard Smith’s ecological models, in the weekly dip into Nature’s archive.
Efficiency roll-off in a wide range of TADF OLEDs is analysed and a figure of merit proposed for materials design to improve efficiency at high brightness, potentially expanding the range of applications of TADF materials.
Clever manipulation of electrons has enabled scientists to change a key property of light emitted by a device using electrically controlled magnetization. The method could lead to stable and energy-efficient information transfer.
Reconstructions of the strength of a powerful current that circles the South Pole reveal that it has undergone no long-term change in the past five million years, even though Earth cooled substantially over that time.
Depleting an expanding pool of aberrant stem cells in aged mice using antibody therapy has been shown to rebalance blood cell production, diminish age-associated inflammation and strengthen acquired immune responses.
A smart adhesive patch that wicks sweat away from electronics embedded in its centre offers comfortable and reliable sensing of the wearer’s biometrics or environment without the risk of perspiration damaging the devices.
A population of neurons that engages mechanisms of the innate immune system during memory formation has been uncovered in mice. Surprisingly, inflammatory signalling might pave the way for long-term memory.
What effects will climate change have on insect communities? Analyses of data collected over decades robustly document consequences specific to bee populations, and this evidence might aid future conservation efforts.
Organelles called lysosomes fuse with cargo-carrying vesicles and degrade the cargo molecules. How lysosomes maintain their size despite constant vesicle fusion was unclear, but now factors that aid organelle fission have been found.
Complex magnetic structures called skyrmions have been generated on a nanometre scale and controlled electrically — a promising step for fast, energy-efficient computer hardware systems that can store large amounts of data.
The central nervous system’s astrocyte cells respond to injury and disease. The finding that they form molecular memories of certain responses, and that these modify inflammatory signalling, sheds light on autommunity.
A method for imaging the production of blood cells in the bones of mice has revealed the organization of cell lineages, both in a steady state and in response to stressors, such as bleeding and infection.
Understanding the factors that drive formation of particular types of cancer can aid efforts to develop better diagnostics or treatments. The identification of a bacterial subspecies with a connection to colon cancer has clinical relevance.
An array of robots has been set up so that pushes between them produce movements that do not conform to the usual laws of motion. Fascinating behaviour emerges from these interactions: wave phenomena known as solitons.
The quality of a bird’s song during courtship can influence whether a male is selected as a mate. An innovative approach using machine learning offers a way to analyse the characteristics of birdsong.
