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Fast transmission between nerve cells relies on specialized ion channels. Probing the structure of these proteins reveals how the binding of a neurotransmitter causes the communication channels to open.
Can we predict the final size of an earthquake from observations of its first few seconds? An extensive study of earthquakes around the Pacific Rim seems to indicate that we can — but uncertainties remain.
Two-dimensional graphite could be useful in carbon-based electronic devices. How electrons move in these structures seems best described by relativistic quantum physics, modelling them as if they have no mass at all.
Many animals concentrate their activity around dawn and dusk. This timing is regulated by distinct ‘morning’ and ‘evening’ oscillators in the central nervous system. But how are these two neuronal clocks coordinated?
The requirements for vitamin B12 vary among algal species in a seemingly inexplicable pattern. A study that exploits genomic data now provides enlightenment — and evidence of symbioses with bacteria.
Large volcanic eruptions cool the world ocean. In doing so, they temporarily reduce the increase in ocean heat content and the rise in sea level attributed to warming caused by greenhouse-gas emissions.
Static pictures of protein structures are so prevalent that it is easy to forget they are dynamic molecular machines. Characterizing their intrinsic motions may be necessary to understand how they work.
A deep search has turned up an RNA that can carry out the chemically complex ‘aldol’ reaction involved in sugar metabolism. Could this be similar to an ancestral catalyst that existed billions of years ago?
The conclusion of a number-crunching exercise on various data sets is that male university students have significantly higher IQs than their female counterparts. But the methodology used is deeply flawed.
The modest-sized but successful Spitzer Space Telescope has detected fluctuations in cosmic light at infrared frequencies. Is this the signature of the first population of stars that formed in the Universe?
The sharpest images ever taken of matter around the probable black hole at the centre of our Galaxy bring us within grasp of a crucial test of general relativity — a picture of the black hole's ‘point of no return’.
Electrons were until recently thought to transport their charge and spin equally freely through metals and semiconductors. Now it seems that spin can lag considerably behind charge.
The polymer nylon-6 is much in demand. An innovation in producing the precursor molecule, ε-caprolactam, involves a one-step process that is environmentally benign and may be scaled up for bulk production.
The semiconductor material used in computing systems does not emit light. But a silicon-based structure that can modulate light from an independent source might aid the marriage of optical and electronic components.
Helicase enzymes can move along DNA or RNA, unravelling the helices as they go. But simply travelling along a nucleic acid in one direction seems not to be enough for some of these molecular motors.
