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Direct interactions between cells in tissue are incompletely understood because the advanced technologies required to examine them are still in their infancy. A new method can decipher cell–cell interactions on a large scale.
In experiments dubbed the Random Genome Project, researchers have integrated DNA strands with random sequences into yeast and mouse cells to find the default transcriptional state of their genomes.
The discovery of 285-million-year-old fossils of intricately patterned animal scales indicates that evolutionary tinkering of armoured skin started at the dawn of life on dry land as aquatic vertebrates adapted for terrestrial survival.
It has been argued that human culture rests on a unique ability to learn from others more than we could possibly learn alone in a lifetime. Two studies show that we share this ability with bumblebees and chimpanzees.
The proliferation of artificial intelligence tools in scientific research risks creating illusions of understanding, where scientists believe they understand more about the world than they actually do.
Diamond layers can help to dissipate the heat generated by high-power semiconductor devices. This effect has now been enhanced by adding layers of materials and engineering their crystal-lattice vibrations to be compatible at the interfaces.
A combination of technical improvements in noise mitigation enabled the observation of the quantum force of light on a millimetre-scale drum at room temperature. This experimental system permits the drum’s position to be measured with an accuracy close to the quantum limit.
A single gene in astrocytes can constrain repetitive behaviours, indicating that these cells are regulators of behavioural disruption in conditions such as Huntington’s disease and obsessive–compulsive disorder.
By adapting a device designed to create extremely high pressures into one that can sense magnetic fields, researchers have obtained evidence that a hydrogen-rich material is a superconductor, eliminating long-standing doubts.
The molecules of liquid crystals and proteins can form liquid-like condensates, but such a phenomenon had not been observed for supramolecular polymers, which are held together by non-covalent bonds — until now.
Nerve cells in the human brain take a remarkably long time to mature. This study identifies an epigenetic ‘barrier’ in neural precursor cells that determines the rate of neuronal maturation and is slowly released during the process. Inhibition of the barrier is shown to accelerate maturation in multiple human stem-cell-based models.
The lack of a tail is one thing that separates apes — including humans — from other primates. Insertion of a short DNA sequence into a gene that controls tail development could explain tail loss in the common ancestor of apes.
Small solvent molecules have been found to enable a previously unknown ion-transport mechanism in battery electrolytes, speeding up charging and increasing performance at low temperatures.
Active neurons can stimulate the clearance of their own metabolic waste by driving changes to ion gradients in the surrounding fluid and by promoting the pulsation of nearby blood vessels.
This Review describes the various mechanisms of ion-coupled transport across membranes and how the activities of transporter proteins are modulated by the composition of the lipid bilayer.
Agricultural fertilizers are the main global source of ammonia emissions, which harm human health and reduce farmers’ profits. An analysis using big data and machine learning reveals that locally optimized fertilizer-management and tillage practices could slash ammonia emissions from rice, wheat and maize cultivation by up to 38%.
An innovative high-strength ceramic consists of interlocked, nanometre-scale plates in which stacked layers of the material are twisted relative to each other. It can deform at room temperature without fracturing instantly — thereby achieving a long-standing goal for materials scientists.
The fractional quantum anomalous Hall effect occurs when the Hall resistance in a material is quantized to fractional multiples of the fundamental unit h/e2 at zero magnetic field. Observing the effect in a system consisting of a combination of five-layer graphene and hexagonal boron nitride enriches the family of topological matter phases, and opens up new opportunities in quantum computation.
