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Which human genes have been hotspots for positive selection? Analyses of the top candidates reveal, not genes subject to such selection, but genes that have probably been subject to biased DNA repair.
Cells of the adaptive immune system hold a grudge: on re-encountering a pathogen, they show a robust protective response. It seems that natural killer cells of the innate immune system might also have this ability.
Hopes are that the emergent family of iron-based superconductors, the pnictides, could act as a Rosetta stone in decoding the two-decade mystery of superconductivity observed at high temperatures.
Electrical signalling among brain cells summons the local delivery of extra blood — the basis of functional brain imaging. Yet sometimes, blood is sent in anticipation of neural events that never take place.
It's cold in winter and hot in summer. But the latest analysis illustrates the need to put observational data at the forefront of attempts to achieve a more detailed understanding of the annual temperature cycle.
Computer simulations of the cosmos suggest that cold streams of gas could underlie the unexpectedly high star-formation activity of many massive galaxies found to exist a few billion years after the Big Bang.
Coordination between subunits is crucial for the proper functioning of multi-component molecular machines. A single-molecule study now allows glimpses into the mechanism used by subunits of one such machine.
How monomers of the cytoskeletal protein actin join to form the stable polymers crucial to muscle contraction and cellular motility has been a long-standing question. A state-of-the-art approach provides an answer.
Turbulent convection in a rotating body is a common but poorly understood phenomenon in astrophysical and geophysical settings. Consideration of boundary effects offers a fresh angle on this thorny problem.
Oscillations in gene expression regulate various cellular processes and so must be robust and tunable. Interactions between both negative and positive feedback loops seem to ensure these features.
How can we investigate a disease affecting neurons, which cannot be isolated from patients for analysis? As the study of one neurological disorder shows, a first step might be to make patient-specific neurons.
Observations of superfluid behaviour — flow without friction — of unusual character in a condensed-matter system pave the way to investigations of superfluidity in systems that are out of thermal equilibrium.
