While the jury is still out as to why the Neanderthal, an ancient ancestor of modern humans, became extinct about 40,000 years ago, it has long been assumed that it was because they possessed a low level of intelligence. Pioneering research is challenging this idea, uncovering evidence to suggest that our ancient cousins were in […]

A court in New York, US, has agreed a controversial bankruptcy settlement for Purdue Pharma that also puts an end to thousands of lawsuits. Post-bankruptcy, the company will be renamed Knoa Pharma. It will be largely owned by the National Opioid Abatement Trust, with profits funding programmes to prevent and treat addiction. But the Sackler […]

Temperature can severely influence the conformational state and ligand binding properties of a protein, new research shows. Consequently, computational modelling based solely on cryogenic structural data may produce misleading results. Nearly all crystallographic datasets collected for determining protein structures are obtained at cryogenic temperatures. The protein crystals are cryocooled with liquid nitrogen, and when a […]

A new approach to methylation clocks from Morgan Levine uses massive computer resources and sophisticated mathematics. I am enthusiastic about it, not just because it produces better results than previous methods, but because I suspect it is better aligned with the way that biological systems actually work. The Clockmaker’s Dilemma Your goal is a robust […]

By definition, dwarf galaxies are small and dim, with just a fraction of the stars found in the Milky Way and other galaxies. There are, however, giants among the dwarfs: Ultra-diffuse galaxies, or UDGs, are dwarf systems that contain relatively few stars but are scattered over vast regions. Because they are so diffuse, these systems […]

The COVID-19 pandemic emptied many offices, and there are some indications the exodus isn’t temporary. The American Psychological Association points to a 2020 survey by PwC that shows more than half of U.S. employees expect to continue working from home at least one day a week. So, what does that mean for employers? University of Arizona researchers Altaf […]

In less time than it takes to read this sentence, hummingbirds can catch a whiff of potential trouble. That’s the result of new UC Riverside research showing, contrary to popular belief, the tiny birds do have an active sense of smell. Researchers have known for some time that vultures have a highly sensitive sense of […]

In their ongoing effort to make carbon capture more affordable, researchers at the Department of Energy’s Pacific Northwest National Laboratory have developed a method to convert captured carbon dioxide (CO2) into methane, the primary component of natural gas. By streamlining a longstanding process in which CO2 is converted to methane, the researchers’ new method reduces the materials needed […]

Researchers in Japan have synthesised nanoporous ultra-high-entropy alloys that contain 14 elements. Tests showed the alloys were capable of splitting water and performed better than commercial platinum-based hydrogen evolution reaction catalysts and iridium-based oxygen evolution reaction catalysts. ‘Most conventional alloy catalysts contain a primary metal constituent with high atomic percentage, such as platinum, and one […]

Researchers have proven that lithium brine is a kind of water and not a mineral, answering a fundamental question surrounding the controversy of the element’s extraction, particularly in Chile. The team hopes the finding could help minimise the environmental and human impacts of lithium mining from brines. Lithium mining is expanding , both from brines […]