GoKawiil
Tech News
Scientists have outlined a new enzymatic approach that reuses byproducts to synthesize thiophosphate molecules, compounds valued for their applications in chemistry and biology. The method relies on biological catalysts rather than traditional chemical synthesis routes, offering a more sustainable pathway to these materials.
Several companies are developing small nuclear reactors compact enough to be transported by aircraft or shipped in standard containers, each carrying roughly a decade's worth of fuel. Backers envision deploying these units directly from factories to isolated locations like rural Alaska, remote mining operations, or even future space outposts, where conventional power infrastructure is costly or impractical.
Researchers demonstrated that water drops sitting on various hydrophobic and metallic surfaces can spontaneously build up electrical charge without any external triggering, and that this self-generated charge is sufficient to accelerate corrosion of underlying copper and other metals. The experiments used engineered materials such as PFOTS-coated quartz and ITO glass, Teflon-coated copper, and common items like PVC boards and copper foil tape to show the effect across different surfaces.
Researchers built a two-ion crystal in a Paul trap combining a calcium ion with a single CaOH+ molecular ion, generated by leaking water vapor into the vacuum chamber until a molecule formed. They then used a non-classical 'cat state' of motion, created with a bichromatic laser on the calcium ion, to detect the tiny photon recoil from the molecule absorbing infrared light—effectively performing infrared absorption spectroscopy on one single polyatomic molecular ion.
Researchers extracted high molecular weight DNA from 15 sperm samples donated by 13 men from the TwinsUK cohort and an external biobank, using a modified extraction protocol designed to break down the tightly packed protamine structure of sperm DNA. Applying long-read sequencing to these samples, the team identified evidence of gene conversion occurring before meiosis, a genetic recombination process not previously well characterized at this resolution in sperm cells.
Researchers used a dual-site two-photon microscope to simultaneously track pons-projecting premotor cortical neurons (L5PTs) and cerebellar granule cells (GrCs) across mice performing two different tasks, virtual reality navigation and a reaching task. They found both cell types could be reliably tracked across days and contexts, with granule cell activity patterns reorienting cortical population trajectories to keep the two behavioral contexts distinct.
Researchers solved eight cryo-EM structures of human UGCG, the enzyme that gatekeeps glycosphingolipid synthesis, capturing it alone and bound to substrates, products and the drugs miglustat, ibiglustat and eliglustat. The team also ran molecular dynamics simulations and a cross-species sequence comparison spanning platypus, marsupials, elephants and other mammals to trace how UGCG regulation evolved, finding features unique to primates. All structural data, simulation files and sequences have been deposited in public repositories.
A referenced body of neuroscience research outlines how endocannabinoid molecules act as retrograde messengers, traveling backward across synapses to modulate neurotransmitter release. The compiled citations trace decades of work from the discovery of cannabinoid receptors to recent findings on how this signaling system shapes motivation and reward-seeking behavior.
Researchers developed an imaging method called kine that turns interferometric radio telescope measurements into dynamic video reconstructions rather than static snapshots. The technique relies on a neural field representation of a source's changing brightness distribution and was tested extensively on synthetic datasets before comparison with the established CLEAN method on real observations.
Researchers compiled river chemistry data from basaltic watersheds worldwide to recalculate how much carbon dioxide is naturally absorbed through silicate rock weathering. They found that critical zone processes—such as atmospheric deposition, hydrothermal contamination and secondary mineral formation—reduce the alkalinity that actually reaches rivers, meaning basalt weathering contributes a smaller share of global CO2 drawdown than prior estimates suggested, roughly 0.3% of annual anthropogenic emissions.
Scientists modeled how Mars' gravity field shifts over time due to solar tides, using a technique that lets gravity harmonic coefficients vary periodically at annual, semi-annual and other frequencies within orbit-determination software. By tracking these small periodic gravity variations, they detected a thermal anomaly located beneath the boundary separating Mars' northern lowlands and southern highlands, known as the crustal dichotomy.
Scientists grew high-purity single-crystal CrSb using chemical vapour transport and confirmed its structure through X-ray diffraction, resistivity, magnetization and Laue measurements. Using these bulk-resolved samples, they identified a three-dimensional g-wave altermagnetic order parameter in the material, characterizing how its magnetic symmetry differs from conventional magnets.