Most proteins are thought to fold into a single active shape. But the human immune protein XCL1 is a rare breed that can switch back and forth between two different structures, each with its own function. A recent study in … Continue reading
Journal Club
Highlighting recently published papers selected by Academy members
Author Archives: Amy McDermott
A cellular and genetic atlas of the lung offers insights into disease and development
Explorers need maps. That’s as true for hikers blazing trails as it is for molecular biologists striving to cure disease. A new atlas of the lungs, recently published in Nature, is the most comprehensive map ever of that vital organ. … Continue reading
Categories: Genetics | Journal Club | Medical Sciences
Tagged bioengineering, cancer, cells, gene expression, lung, map, molecular biology, organ transplant, single-cell RNA sequencing
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New technique builds animal brain–like spontaneity into AI
A woman walking to a bus stop realizes that she forgot her keys; she suddenly turns around and runs home. Such spontaneous activities are hallmarks of animal behavior. Eager to capture the essence of the human brain, roboticists have tried … Continue reading
Categories: Computer sciences | Journal Club
Tagged artificial intelligence, behavior switching, chaotic itinerancy, machine learning, robotics
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Insights into heat shock protein machinery could point to interventions for neurodegenerative disease
Heat shock proteins perform a range of functions related to protein quality control. Among them: breaking down dangerous protein aggregates called amyloid fibers. The buildup of certain amyloids has been linked to neurodegenerative disease. But the exact mechanism by which … Continue reading
Interdisciplinary study brings a humanist perspective to research on land use change
Decades ago, Brazil’s northeastern State of Bahia produced much of the world’s cocoa for chocolate. Most farms grew their cacao trees interspersed with other native trees, in dense agricultural forests. Children played at the forest edges. Today those children are … Continue reading
Categories: Agriculture | Journal Club | Social Sciences
Tagged agriculture, agro-forestry, cacao, cocoa, conservation, deforestation, farming, forests, land use change, monoculture, remote sensing
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Plants sense temperature with help of elegant protein
How plants sense temperature is a longstanding and little-understood question. Researchers have discovered some of the mechanisms involved. A recent study in Nature adds a new mechanism—among the first in which the biophysical behavior of a single protein regulates the … Continue reading
Categories: Journal Club | Plant Biology
Tagged amino acids, Arabidopsis, ELF3, flowering, meristem, NTL8, protein, temperature, thermosensing
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Inner Workings: Researchers race to develop in-home COVID-19 testing, a potential game-changer
For most people, a COVID-19 test entails a swab up the nose in a doctor’s office or drive-in site. The sample then goes out to a lab. Results come back within a few days to a week—a waiting period that’s … Continue reading
Categories: Infectious disease | Inner workings
Tagged antigen, COVID-19, COVID-19 testing, CRISPR, EUA, FDA, LAMP, nucleic acid, PCR, SARS-Cov-2
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The hippocampus has brief but critical role in early task learning
How the brain learns new tasks is among the biggest and oldest questions in neuroscience. A recent study in Nature Neuroscience offers a new, potentially key part of the answer: the dorsal hippocampus is involved in the earliest stages of … Continue reading
Categories: Journal Club | Neuroscience
Tagged Alzheimer's disease, chemogenetics, decision-making, dorsal hippocampus, hippocampus, learning, memory, neuron
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Insects, not just wind, offer an ancient mechanism of orchid seed dispersal
On Yakushima Island, at the southern tip of Japan, an orchid employs a very unusual strategy to disperse its seeds. Crickets visit the orchid at night, eat its fruits, and defecate the seeds in the vicinity. The discovery, reported recently … Continue reading
Deep-sea mussels still show biological rhythms tracking sunlight, tides
Like many land animals, marine organisms follow daily and seasonal clocks—in the water, those clocks are set by the cadence of the sun and the moon. But researchers hadn’t known if deep-sea creatures also exhibit biological rhythms, tucked away in … Continue reading
Categories: Ecology | Genetics | Journal Club
Tagged chronobiology, circadian rhythms, deep sea, marine ecosystem, tides
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People who are likely to dismiss journalism as “fake news” tend to believe the world is predictable
The notion of “fake news” spread like wildfire in the United States after the 2016 election. Recent research in Psychological Science tried to determine what psychological factors drove this concept—generally defined as the suspicion that politically-biased news outlets produce deliberately … Continue reading
Categories: Journal Club | Psychological and Cognitive Sciences
Tagged fake news, need for structure, psychology, social psychology
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