ScienceDaily: Top Environment News

A new study shows how cell membranes curve to create the 'mouths' that allow the cells to consume things that surround them.

The secret to producing large batches of stem cells more efficiently may lie in the near-zero gravity conditions of space. Scientists have found that microgravity has the potential to contribute to life-saving advances on Earth by facilitating the rapid mass production of stem cells.

Down near the Earth's core, there are zones where seismic waves slow to a crawl. New research finds that these enigmatic and descriptively-named ultra-low velocity zones are surprisingly layered. Modeling suggests that it's possible some of these zones are leftovers from the processes that shaped the early Earth -- remnants of incomplete mixing like clumps of flour in the bottom of a bowl of batter.

A healthy, comprehensive diet that lowers the body's inflammation reduces the risk of gestational diabetes mellitus, reveals a new study.

Atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) levels have increased significantly over the last 50 years, resulting in higher global temperatures and abrupt changes to Earth's climate. Carbon capture and storage (CCS) is one of the new technologies that scientists hope will play an important role in tackling the climate crisis. It involves the capture of CO2 from emissions from industrial processes, or from the burning of fossil fuels in power generation, which is then stored underground in geological formations. CCS will also be key if we want to produce 'clean-burning' hydrogen from hydrocarbon systems.

A team of scientists has developed a 'smart' food packaging material that is biodegradable, sustainable and kills microbes that are harmful to humans. It could also extend the shelf-life of fresh fruit by two to three days.

For the first time, scientists have recovered ancient human DNA from the sticky glue head lice use to attach their eggs to their host's hair. The new technique was trialled on mummified remains and the DNA has revealed clues about how the people died and the movements of populations thousands of years ago.

The analysis of ancient DNA preserved in sediments is an emerging technology allowing for the detection of the past presence of humans and other animals at archaeological sites. Yet, little is known about how DNA is preserved in sediment for long periods of time. Scientists have now shed light on the matter by isolating DNA from solid blocks of undisturbed sediment that are embedded in plastic resin. The study reveals that ancient human and animal DNA is concentrated in small 'hot spots', particularly in microscopic particles of bone or feces. Micro-sampling of such particles can recover substantial amounts of DNA from ancient humans, such as Neanderthals, and other species and link them to archaeological and ecological records at a microscopic scale.

A new study has found that a class of toxins found in snake and mammalian venom evolved from the same ancestral gene.

Scientists have found a novel way to combine two species of grass-like plant including banana, rice and wheat, using embryonic tissue from their seeds. The technique allows beneficial characteristics, such as disease resistance or stress tolerance, to be added to the plants.

DNAzymes are precision biocatalysts that destroy unwanted RNA molecules. However, major obstacles to their use in medicine remain. Scientists have investigated with atomic resolution how DNAzymes work in real time.

We tend to talk about cancer as a human disease. While it is true that cancer seriously affects our species, we can no longer disregard the fact that other animals face this disease, just like us. Not just our pets, but wild animals too.

A new study has provided the most detailed timeline of mammal evolution to date.

Prion diseases, such as Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (CJD), are fast-moving, fatal dementia syndromes associated with the formation of aggregates of the prion protein, PrP. How these aggregates form within and kill brain cells has never been fully understood, but a new study suggests that the aggregates kill neurons by damaging their axons, the narrow nerve fibers through which they send signals to other neurons.

Microorganisms can convert oil into natural gas, i.e. methane. Until recently, it was thought that this conversion was only possible through the cooperation of different organisms. In 2019, a researcher suggested that a special archaeon can do this all by itself, as indicated by their genome analyses. Now, researchers have succeeded in cultivating this 'miracle microbe' in the laboratory. This enabled them to describe exactly how the microbe achieves the transformation. They also discovered that it prefers to eat rather bulky chunks of food.