Life sciences, from genetics and evolution to medicine and ecology.
University at Buffalo researchers used long-read DNA sequencing to uncover over 19,000 structural variants in brown tree snakes, many in genes for immunity and smell, explaining how the invasive species thrived on Guam despite a severe genetic bottleneck.
Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory and Scripps Research have revived vancomycin's activity against vancomycin-resistant Enterococcus faecium by blocking the bacterial enzyme SagA with a small molecule inhibitor called pghi-4, stripping resistant bacteria of their defense and restoring the old antibiotic's effectiveness against strains linked to MRSA and C. difficile.
Scientists discovered that deep-sea pressure squeezes carbon and nitrogen from sinking organic particles, providing an unexpected food source for microbes and potentially rewriting how the ocean's carbon cycle works.
A study of 116 chimpanzees and bonobos found that physical affection before feeding conflicts led to more peaceful sharing, suggesting the evolutionary roots of human social touch stretch back at least six million years.
Fossil vertebrae found in Japan more than two decades ago have been identified as a new genus and species of giant salamander that lived 3.5 million years ago.
Scientists have filmed DNA unzipping at atomic resolution, revealing helicase uses ATP as an 'entropy switch'—a universal mechanism with direct implications for designing antiviral and anticancer drugs.
Researchers at the University of Minnesota have created the world's first synthetic cell built entirely from non-living chemicals, capable of feeding, growing, replicating its genome, and dividing into two new cells.