The discovery of the new species of crocodile sheds fresh light on the need for conservation efforts.
Category: evolution – Page 7
Cosmic CT Scan Uncovers a Surprising Twist in the Universe’s Evolution
Over billions of years, the universe has transformed from a simpler state into an intricate cosmic web, but new research hints that the growth of cosmic structures may not have unfolded exactly as predicted.
Using data from the Atacama Cosmology Telescope and the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument, scientists compared ancient cosmic light with the modern distribution of galaxies, essentially creating a multidimensional cosmic timeline. Their findings reveal a slight but intriguing discrepancy: matter appears to be a bit less “clumpy” today than early models anticipated. While not definitive enough to rewrite physics, this subtle irregularity opens exciting possibilities about the mysterious forces, like dark energy, that could be subtly reshaping the universe.
The Cosmic Dance of Matter.
NASA’s new Roman mission reveals plans for space telescope to survey space and unlock universe mysteries
The NASA team behind the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope – due to launch in 2027 – have shared the designs for the mission’s 3 core surveys.
Roman will deepen understanding into the mysteries of astrophysics and the universe.
“Roman’s setting out to do wide, deep surveys of the universe in a way that will help us answer questions about how dark energy and dark matter govern cosmic evolution, and the demographics of worlds beyond our solar system,” says Gail Zasowski, an associate professor at the University of Utah, US, and co-chair of the Roman Observations Time Allocation Committee (ROTAC).
Smart surfaces could represent a powerless solution to multipath signal interference
The evolution of wireless communications and the miniaturization of electrical circuits have fundamentally reshaped our lives and the digital landscape. However, as we push toward higher-frequency communications in an increasingly connected world, engineers face growing challenges from multipath propagation—a phenomenon where the same radio signal reaches receiving antennas through multiple routes, usually with time delays and altered amplitudes.
Multipath interference leads to many reliability issues, ranging from “ghosting” in television broadcasts to signal fading in wireless communications.
Addressing multipath interference has long presented two fundamental physical challenges. First, multipath signals share the same frequency with the main (leading) signal, rendering conventional frequency-based filtering techniques ineffective. Second, the incident angles of these signals are variable and unpredictable. These limitations have made passive solutions particularly difficult to implement, as traditional materials bound by linear time-invariant (LTI) responses maintain the same scattering profile for a given frequency, regardless of when the signal arrives.
Cell therapy: The evolution of the ‘living drug’
For decades, researchers have been exploring ways to harness the power of the immune system to treat cancer. One breakthrough is cell therapy, often called ‘living drugs.’ This is a form of immunotherapy that uses immune cells from a patient or a healthy donor. With advanced engineering techniques, scientists enhance these cells to recognize better and attack cancer.
“During the late 1980s and 1990s, cancer researchers started exploring ways to advance immunotherapy by transferring immune cells into a patient to attack cancer cells,” says stem cell transplant and cellular therapy specialist Hind Rafei, M.D. “They recognized that immune cells found inside tumors could help destroy cancer cells, leading to the development of one of the earliest forms of cell therapy — tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs).”
Cell therapy is a form of immunotherapy that uses immune cells from a patient or a healthy donor to treat cancer. Learn about the types of cell therapy from stem cell transplant and cellular therapy specialist Hind Rafei, M.D.
Beyond the double helix: Alternative DNA conformations in ape genomes
Certain DNA sequences can form structures other than the canonical double helix. These alternative DNA conformations—referred to as non-B DNA—have been implicated as regulators of cellular processes and of genome evolution, but their DNA tends to be repetitive, which until recently made reliably reading and assembling their sequences difficult.
Now, a team of researchers, led by Penn State biologists, has comprehensively predicted the location of non-B DNA structures in great apes. It’s the first step in understanding the functions and evolution of such structures, known to contribute to genetic diseases and cancer, the team said.
The work depends on newly available telomere-to-telomere (T2T), or end-to-end, genomes of humans and other great apes that overcame sequencing and assembly difficulties associated with repetitive DNA to fill in any remaining gaps in the genomes. A paper describing the study, which shows that non-B DNA is enriched in the newly sequenced segments of the genomes and suggests potential new functions, was published in the journal Nucleic Acids Research.