GoKawiilA break in these octopuses’ protein-making machinery boosts their accuracy. Plus, a Nobel-prizewinner has left the United States for China and the effects of microgravity on the brain.
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Shallow-water octopuses seem to have picked up their protein-building mutation around 100 million years ago, around the same time they developed bigger brains.Credit: Norbert Wu/Minden Pictures via Alamy
Certain species of shallow-water octopuses have a unique mutation that makes them extremely accurate protein builders. Researchers found that this mutation causes a break in an RNA strand in the core of the octopus's protein-making machinery. When they engineered a similar break into Escherichia coli, the bacteria made around 50% fewer mistakes when building proteins than did bacteria without the mutation. This quirk means that proteins in these octopuses are less likely to misfold and form toxic clumps.
Science | 5 min read
Reference: bioRxiv preprint (not peer reviewed)
Nobel-prize-winning chemist Omar Yaghi has left the United States for a full-time position at Tsinghua University in Beijing, where he will lead a new artificial-intelligence-assisted materials discovery institute. Born in Jordan to Palestinian-refugee parents, Yaghi came to the US as a child and did his Nobel-winning work on metal-organic framework compounds there. The current state of US science is “not so encouraging”, Yaghi said recently, “because of the cutting back on grants”. In light of these cuts by the administration of President Donald Trump, China has been trying to lure US talent with the promise of money and support.
Nature | 6 min read
For the first time, geophysicists have caught the ocean floor splitting apart at its seams. Using an array of measuring stations laid across an 100-kilometre-long region of the Indian Ocean, the team witnessed a seismic event that shifted two sections of the oceanic crust apart by at least 2 metres in a matter of days, spewing around 160 million cubic metres of lava onto the sea floor as it did so.
Nature | 4 min read
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