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We termed enhancers that gained (and maintained) H3K4me1 in obesity and WL ‘new enhancers’. Most of these ‘new enhancers’ were also active (that is, marked by H3K27ac) during obesity and/or WL (Fig. 4D). We then annotated the enhancers to their closest gene and performed a GSEA. In agreement with the promoter GSEA above, we found that the ‘new active enhancers’ were related to inflammatory signalling, lysosome activity and extracellular matrix remodelling (Fig. 4e and Extended Data Fig. 9i), indicating a persistent shift of adipocytes towards a more inflammatory and less adipogenic identity. Corroborating these results, Roh et al. had analysed H3K27ac in adipocytes of obese mice and reported impaired identity maintenance during obesity25.

To combine our findings regarding retained translational changes and epigenetic memory, we investigated whether epigenetic mechanisms, such as differentially marked promoters or enhancers, could explain the persistent translational obesity-associated changes after WL. Notably, 57–62% of downregulated and 68–75% of upregulated persistent translational DEGs after WL could be accounted for by one or more of the analysed epigenetic modalities (Fig. 4f). Overall, these results strongly suggest the presence of stable cellular, epigenetic and transcriptional memory in mouse adipocytes that persists after WL.

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Ebola is a deadly hemorrhagic disease caused by a virus that is endemic in parts of East-Central and West Africa. Most people are aware that a primary route for person-to-person transmission is through contact with bodily fluids from an infected person. But more recent outbreaks, including the 2013–2016 Ebola epidemic in West Africa, demonstrated that infectious Ebola virus (EBOV) is also found on the skin’s surface of those who have succumbed to infection or at late times during infection.

Although evidence suggests that EBOV can be passed on from skin contact with a person in the later stages of the disease, very little is known about how the virus makes its way out of the body and onto the skin’s surface.

Researchers at University of Iowa Health Care and colleagues at Texas Biomedical Research Institute and Boston University have traced a cellular route the virus uses to traverse the inner and outer layers of skin and emerge onto the skin’s surface.

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Researchers have developed a method to direct stem cells to form specific structures. By triggering the expression of specific genes in mouse embryonic stem cells, synthetic organizer cells were created, which can assemble in specific ways and carry out various phsyiological functions. This work is an important step on the road to eventually using synthetic cells to repair damaged tissues or regenerate organs. The research has been reported in Cell.

The researchers created synthetic organizer cells that could generate a structure like a mouse body, from head to tail, that underwent processes that were similar to those in mouse embryonic development. Another type of synthetic organizer cell was used to produce a structure that was similar to a heart, and featured a central chamber. This synthetic, heart-like structure also had a network of blood vessels and beat regularly.

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The Hubble Tension: A Crisis in Cosmology

Astronomers using the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) and Hubble Space Telescope have confirmed a persistent and troubling discrepancy in the universe’s expansion rate, a phenomenon called the Hubble Tension. Published in Astrophysical Journal Letters, this study definitively rules out measurement errors, leaving scientists to question fundamental cosmological principles.

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Every second, 60 billion neutrinos pass through your thumbnail from the Sun alone!

Neutrino Detectors and the Pacific Ocean Experiment

In the search to understand the cosmos, neutrinos—subatomic particles created in nuclear reactions—have become critical clues to some of physics’ most complex questions. Produced in vast quantities by processes such as nuclear fusion in the Sun, neutrinos are hard to capture due to their weak interactions with matter. On Earth, advanced detectors have been built to study them, including Japan’s Kamiokande and the IceCube Neutrino Observatory in Antarctica. Now, astronomers are setting their sights on a new frontier for neutrino observation: the depths of the Pacific Ocean.

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A groundbreaking technique using time-resolved electron microscopy and multi-polarization lasers has allowed scientists to analyze plasmonic waves with great precision.

This method helped uncover the stable and dynamic nature of meron pairs’ spin textures, opening new avenues in nanoscale technology.

Advancing Plasmonics with Multi-Polarization Laser Techniques.

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According to a tenet scientists call the cosmological principle, our place in space is in no way exceptional. But recent observations could overturn this long-held assumption.

By Sarah Scoles edited by Lee Billings & Jeanna Bryner

Ever since humans started gazing at the heavens through telescopes, we have discovered, bit by bit, that in celestial terms we’re apparently not so special. Earth was not the center of the universe, it turned out. It wasn’t even the center of the solar system! The solar system, unfortunately, wasn’t the center of the universe either. In fact, there were many star systems fundamentally like it, together making up a galaxy. And, wouldn’t you know, the galaxy wasn’t special but one of many, which all had their own solar systems, which also had planets, some of which presumably host their own ensemble of egoistic creatures with an overinflated sense of cosmic importance.

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New research identifies E-TCmito as a key link between neuronal activity and mitochondrial function, highlighting its potential to address cognitive decline in aging and diseases like Alzheimer’s.

New research in mice has identified a critical mechanism that connects neuronal activity with mitochondrial function, offering insight into potential strategies to address age-related cognitive decline. Mitochondria, essential for meeting the energy needs of active neurons, generate adenosine triphosphate (ATP) primarily through oxidative phosphorylation (OXPHOS).

As mammals age, the efficiency of mitochondrial metabolism in the brain declines, significantly impacting neuronal and network function. The disruption of the OXPHOS pathway contributes to oxidative stress and mitochondrial dysfunction, exacerbating these challenges.

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