Initiatives to protect marine ecosystems could do more harm to marine life than good, according to a recent PNAS paper. The work suggests that the announcement of one of the world’s largest marine protected areas sparked a sudden uptick in … Continue reading
Journal Club
Highlighting recently published papers selected by Academy members
Journal Club: New screening method promises to reveal elusive cellular receptors for a range of pathogens
The surfaces of human cells are chock-full of proteins that help cells communicate with one another. Unfortunately, many viruses coopt these proteins, latching on in order to enter cells. By revealing which proteins are receptors for which viruses, researchers may … Continue reading
Categories: Genetics | Infectious disease | Journal Club | Microbiology | Uncategorized
Tagged cell surface proteins, cytomegalovirus, HCMV
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Journal Club: Drug-resistant microbes could threaten future global economy, low income countries in particular
Antimicrobial resistance is not only a major public health threat, but also an economic one, according to researchers at The World Bank. Their new study, published in the journal World Development, suggests that an increase in drug-resistant microbes could cause … Continue reading
Categories: Infectious disease | Journal Club | Medical Sciences | Microbiology
Tagged antibiotics, antimicrobial resistance, economics, IPCC, poverty, WHO, World Bank
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Journal Club: Highly-detailed solar wind observations may help explain sun’s mysteries
The solar wind—a stream of charged particles blowing off the sun’s surface—affects the entire solar system. Yet its behavior remains largely enigmatic. Now a new effort has provided the most detailed long-term measurements ever made of the solar wind, helping … Continue reading
Categories: Astronomy | Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences | Journal Club
Tagged heliophysics, magnetosphere, NASA, Parker Solar Probe, solar wind, space weather, sun
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Journal Club: Sticky proteins play crucial role in tailoring synapses
The proteins that join neurons together at the synapse do more than just act like glue. Synaptic adhesion proteins are known to affect the activity of neurotransmitters, weaken or strengthen synaptic connections, or direct where synapses form. Faulty adhesion proteins … Continue reading
Categories: Biochemistry | Journal Club | Neuroscience
Tagged autism, CA1 neuron, leucine-rich repeat protein, neuron, neurotransmitter, schizophrenia, synapse, synaptic adhesion proteins
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Journal Club: Bioengineers build a tiny heart ventricle to better understand heart disease and treatment
Bioengineer Kit Parker wants to build replacement hearts for children born with heart defects. Although that goal remains a long way off, Parker recently took a step in that direction by assembling a 1:250 scale model of the human left … Continue reading
Categories: Cell Biology | Journal Club | Medical Sciences
Tagged arrhythmia, heart attack, heart defect, isoproterenol, stem cells, tissue engineering, ventricle
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Journal Club: Giving the brain something to do highlights the circuitry of smarts
Scientists conducting neuroimaging studies hope that their MRI scans will offer up patterns that predict traits related to intelligence, personality, disease, or even offer insights into a patient’s clinical symptoms or their chances of responding to a drug. But according … Continue reading
Categories: Applied Physical Sciences | Journal Club | Neuroscience
Tagged Human Connectome Project, intelligence, MRI, neuroimaging, Raven's matrices, rest-state
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Journal Club: Protein vs protein, study comprehensively compares the environmental impacts of livestock and seafood
The most environmentally friendly protein sources include clams, sardines, and cod. Not surprisingly, beef has the worst environmental impact. Somewhat surprisingly, farmed salmon is relatively innocuous; but catfish is not. These are the conclusions of a recent study that compares … Continue reading
Categories: Agriculture | Ecology | Environmental Sciences | Journal Club | Sustainability Science
Tagged beef, greenhouse gas, nutrition, protein, salmon, shellfish
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Journal Club: Dogs can harbor evolving flu viruses, signaling potential future threat to humans
When scientists search for the origins of a novel influenza A outbreak, they often trace the virus back to birds or pigs. These animals act as reservoirs, hosts that allow diverse flu viruses to swap genome segments, evolving into new … Continue reading
Categories: Evolution | Infectious disease | Journal Club | Uncategorized
Tagged avian flu, canine flu, H1N1, influenza, pandemic, swine flu, zoonosis
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Journal Club: Microglial protein trafficking could play a role in neurodegenerative disorders
Neurodegenerative conditions such as Alzheimer’s disease (AD) or Parkinson’s are associated with a build-up of insoluble, toxic forms of proteins such as amyloid or tau in the brain. Normally, intracellular protein complexes known as retromers help with recycling and trafficking … Continue reading