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Originally published by by Bob Yirka , Phys.org, on August 18, 2023   Bright-field sequences showing biofilm phenotypes. (A) Time-lapse sequence showing the formation of a monolayer on a trapped drop. The edge of the drop trap is indicated by the white dashed line. The confluent monolayer is formed at t0 (t = 0 h). (B) Development of a spherical biofilm (SB) on an oil drop. The oil drop radius monotonically decreases in time. At 12 h, the droplet is outlined with a cyan line and the biofilm is outlined by a magenta line, as a guide for the reader. (C) Time-lapse sequence showing the development of a dendritic biofilm (DB) on an oil drop. The biofilm deforms the surface, initially generating wrinkles and protrusions, that fragmenting the droplet into tube-like segments and numerous smaller irregularly shaped volumes of oil covered with cells at later times. Credit: Science (2023). DOI: 10.1126/science.adf3345 A team of French and Japanese environmental scientists has found tha...

  Originally published by University of California - San Diego, on August 10, 2023 Upper: The bacterium A. baylyi can incorporate DNA from its environment through natural competence. This allows horizontal gene transfer and the integration of cell-free DNA into the A. baylyi genome. Lower: Researchers engineered A. baylyi to find the mutated KRAS gene, which helps colorectal cancers grow. Detection of tumor DNA activated an antibiotic resistance gene to confirm that a tumor was found. Credit: Cooper et al Pushing into a new chapter of technologically advanced biological sensors, scientists from the University of California San Diego and their colleagues in Australia have engineered bacteria that can detect the presence of tumor DNA in a live organism . Their innovation, which d etected cancer in the colons of mice , could pave the way to new biosensors capable of identifying various infections, cancers and other diseases. The advancement is described in the journal Scienc...

Originally published by Southwest Research Institute, on June 14, 2023 SwRI Lead Scientist Dr. Christopher Glein was part of a team that found phosphorus, a key building block for life, from the subsurface ocean of Saturn's small moon, Enceladus. Liquid water erupts from the moon's subsurface ocean, forming a plume that contains grains of frozen ocean water. Some of these ice grains go on to form Saturn's E ring. The team analyzed Cassini spacecraft data from ice grains in the E ring, which revealed fingerprints of soluble phosphate salts from Enceladus' ocean. Credit: Cassini Imaging Team/SSI/JPL/ SWRI/ Freie Universität Berlin The search for extraterrestrial life in our solar system j ust got more exciting. A team of scientists including Southwest Research Institute 's Dr. Christopher Glein has discovered new evidence that the subsurface ocean of Saturn's moon Enceladus contains a key building block for life . The team directly detected phosphorus in th...

Originally published by Dionne Seah, Duke-NUS Medical School, on August 8, 2023   An image of neural stem cells (NSCs) from Drosophila (fruit fly) larval brains six hours after larval hatching. NSCs are labeled by a membrane marker (green) and a nuclear marker (magenta). Scale bar: 10µm. Credit: Mahekta Rajeshkumar Gujar Researchers at Duke-NUS Medical School have discovered the regenerative capabilities of injured cellular protrusions from dormant neural stem cells ( NSCs ) in fruit flies . Published in Developmental Cell , the findings establish fruit fly NSCs as a powerful new model to unlock the secrets of neuronal regeneration that could one day lead to new therapies for repairing damage in aging human brains . The study is the first to demonstrate that severed protrusions from fruit fly NSCs can regenerate . However, this capacity declines with age, mirroring the limited ability of mammalian neurons to regrow damaged connections as they grow older. The r...

Published by Optica on August 3, 2023 Inspired by the way that the Morpho butterfly creates color, researchers developed colorful cooling films that don’t absorb light and thus don’t heat up. Credit: Wanlin Wang, Shenzhen University  On a hot summer day, white clothing feels cooler than other colors due to reflecting —not absorbing— sunlight. Other colors like blue or black , will undergo a heating effect as they absorb light . To circumvent this heating effect in colored cooling films , researchers drew inspiration from nanostructures in butterfly wings .   The new films, which don't absorb any light, could be used on the outside of buildings , vehicles and equipment to reduce the energy needed for cooling while preserving vivid color properties .  "In buildings, large amounts of energy are used for cooling and ventilation, and running the air conditioner in electric cars can reduce the driving range by more than half," said research team leader Wanlin W...

Originally published by Kim Krieger, University of Connecticu, on July 25, 2023   Materials scientists from UConn and Brookhaven National Laboratory built an exceptionally strong, lightweight material out of DNA and glass. The series of images at the top (A) show how the skeleton of the structure is assembled with DNA, then coated with glass. (B) shows a transmission electron microscope image of the material, and (C) shows a scanning electron microscope image of it, with the two right-hand panels zooming in to features at different scales. Credit: University of Connecticut Materials that are both strong and lightweight could improve everything from cars to body armor. But usually, the two qualities are mutually exclusive. Now, University of Connecticut researchers and colleagues have developed an extraordinarily strong, lightweight material using two unlikely building blocks: DNA and glass . "For the given density , our material is the strongest known," says Seok-...

Originally published on Live Science by Kiley Price on August 1, 2023 Giant viruses are much more diverse in shape and size than scientists previously thought, according to a new study.   (Left to right) Scientists discovered these never-before-seen giant viruses that are known as the "turtle," "plumber" and "Christmas star" morphotypes, based on their shapes. (Image credit: Fischer et al. DOI: 10.1101/2023.06.30.546935(CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 International license)) What we found is a whole new diversity of shapes that we have never seen before ," study co-author Matthias Fischer , a virologist at Max Planck Institute for Medical Research in Germany, told Live Science. "I would bet that many of those, if not the majority, are completely new and first sightings of viruses that we have never seen before." Giant viruses usually range from 0.2 to 1.5 micrometers in size and have complex genomes that can carry up to 2.5 million DNA base pairs, ...