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Astronomers have a choice of two models of how type Ia supernovae arise. The progenitor for one of these huge stellar explosions has now been discovered, bringing a definitive judgement a little closer.
The cohesin complex — best known for its role in cell division — does not rest between divisions, and instead participates in regulating gene expression. How it does this is only now becoming clear.
Plants produce oxygen from water, but the same chemical reaction is hard to achieve synthetically. A new family of catalysts could breathe fresh life into the quest for artificial photosynthesis.
Adaptation by natural selection is thought to drive evolution. Although it has been difficult to confirm this process in the fossil record, evidence has been there all along: we just haven't been looking properly.
The 'shape selectivity' of zeolites can be rationalized using a straightforward thermodynamic analysis of how pore topology affects the free energies of formation of the reactants, intermediates and products involved in the chemical transformations for oil refining catalysed by the zeolite. It is shown that despite some drastic simplifications, the approach can even guide the search for zeolite structures that are particularly suitable for desired catalytic applications.
The sheer number of variables and logical conditions makes some computing problems seem intractable. Statistical physics, normally used to study huge groups of interacting particles, can supply powerful tools to crack them.
Proteins from ancestral bacteria have been modelled and reconstructed. Strikingly, the heat stability of these proteins parallels the temperatures of their ocean habitats, as determined from the geological record.
Static three-dimensional images are easy to make using holographic techniques. Moving pictures are more of a problem. A palm-sized, updatable display using a specially designed polymer could be a breakthrough.
Unusual reproductive incompatibility has been discovered between two strains of a nematode worm. This finding indicates that natural selection can generate long-term divergence within self-fertilizing populations.
A hallmark of Alzheimer's disease is the presence in the brain of protein deposits, or plaques, which are thought to form over a long period. But studies in mice suggest that the plaques can grow overnight.
The future of the video display is both flexible and transparent. Finding a material for the attendant electronics that is small-scale, bendy and see-through is a tall order — but a promising candidate is emerging.
Certain cells bind so tightly to each other that, on occasion, one cell ends up inside another, usually with fatal consequences for the ingested cell. This involuntary cell death might help protect us from cancer.
There is a widely accepted theoretical explanation for why sex in some species is determined at the embryo stage by environmental factors such as temperature. That theory is now supported by experiment.
The Universe is expanding ever faster — the effect of 'dark energy', most astronomers believe. Surveys of how galaxies were distributed in the past could provide precise clues to what is driving this acceleration.
Three-dimensional nanoparticle arrays are likely to be the foundation of future optical and electronic materials. A promising way to assemble them is through the transient pairings of complementary DNA strands.
Two research teams have captured snapshots of the influenza virus's membrane-bound hydrogen-ion channel, which is essential for infection and virulence. Their findings agree on the basics, but differ in details.
