Lifeboat Foundation

Researchers created a mathematical framework to examine the genome and detect signatures of natural selection, deciphering the evolutionary past and future of non-coding DNA.

Despite the sheer number of genes that each human cell contains, these so-called “coding” DNA sequences comprise just 1% of our entire genome. The remaining 99% is made up of “non-coding” DNA — which, unlike coding DNA, does not carry the instructions to build proteins.

One vital function of this non-coding DNA, also called “regulatory” DNA, is to help turn genes on and off, controlling how much (if any) of a protein is made. Over time, as cells replicate their DNA to grow and divide, mutations often crop up in these non-coding regions — sometimes tweaking their function and changing the way they control gene expression. Many of these mutations are trivial, and some are even beneficial. Occasionally, though, they can be associated with increased risk of common diseases, such as type 2 diabetes, or more life-threatening ones, including cancer.

Sometimes, a hobbled mission is a setback. Other times, the consequences can run deep.

In cases like a rover or a space telescope, it might not be a big deal. But losing the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter or International Space Station leaves more at stake.

A totipotent cell is a single cell that can give rise to a new organism, if given appropriate maternal support. Totipotent cells have many properties, but we do not know all of them yet. Researchers at Helmholtz Munich have now made a new discovery.

“We found out that in totipotent cells, the mother cells of stem cells, DNA replication occurs at a different pace compared to other more differentiated cells. It is much slower than in any other cell type we studied,” says Tsunetoshi Nakatani, first-author of the new study.

DNA replication, in fact, is one of the most important biological processes. Throughout the course of our lives, each time that a cell divides it generates an exact copy of its DNA so that the resulting daughter cells carry identical genetic material. This fundamental principle enables faithful inheritance of our genetic material.

InWith Corporation says it’s created the world’s first soft electronic contact lens that could work with smartphones or other external devices to show its wearer augmented reality.

Andy on Twitter : @theandyaltman.

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There’s a hallmark of incurable neurodegenerative diseases – misfolded proteins that clump together to form sticky plaques or tangles called fibrils.

Now, new research has discovered that a protein normally tasked with clearing cells of molecular debris might be a common feature of a cluster of common and rare neurodegenerative diseases, including two distinct forms of dementia.

The finding was “both unexpected and surprising” and “raises many intriguing questions”, according to the team behind the study, who made 3D-reconstructions of a twisted protein they found in “copious amounts” in some brain tissue samples.

What happens to information after it has passed beyond the event horizon of a black hole? There have been suggestions that the geometry of wormholes might help us solve this vexing problem – but the math has been tricky, to say the least.

In a new paper, an international team of physicists has found a workaround for better understanding how a collapsing black hole can avoid breaking the fundamental laws of quantum physics (more on that in a bit).

Although highly theoretical, the work suggests there are likely things we are missing in the quest to resolve general relativity with quantum mechanics.

Superconductors—metals in which electricity flows without resistance—hold promise as the defining material of the near future, according to physicist Brad Ramshaw, and are already used in medical imaging machines, drug discovery research and quantum computers being built by Google and IBM.

However, the super-low temperatures conventional superconductors need to function—a few degrees above absolute zero—make them too expensive for wide use.

In their quest to find more useful superconductors, Ramshaw, the Dick & Dale Reis Johnson Assistant Professor of physics in the College of Arts and Sciences (A&S), and colleagues have discovered that magnetism is key to understanding the behavior of electrons in “high-temperature” superconductors. With this finding, they’ve solved a 30-year-old mystery surrounding this class of superconductors, which function at much higher temperatures, greater than 100 degrees above absolute zero. Their paper, “Fermi Surface Transformation at the Pseudogap Critical Point of a Cuprate Superconductor,” published in Nature Physics March 10.