The COVID pandemic illustrated how urgently we need antiviral medications capable of treating coronavirus infections. To aid this effort, researchers quickly homed in on part of SARS-Cov-2’s molecular structure known as the NiRAN domain — an enzyme region essential to viral replication that’s common to many coronaviruses. A drug targeting the NiRAN domain would likely…
A new study from the University of Bath’s School of Management has found that individuals with a higher IQ make more realistic predictions, which supports better decision-making and can lead to improved life outcomes. The research, published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, shows that people with a low IQ (the lowest 2.5%…
Mice taught to link smells with tastes, and later fear, revealed how the amygdala teams up with cortical regions to let the brain draw powerful indirect connections. Disabling this circuit erased the links, hinting that similar pathways in humans could underlie disorders like PTSD and psychosis, and might be tuned with future brain-modulation therapies. Source…
University of Sydney researchers have harnessed human-made lightning to develop a more efficient method of generating ammonia – one of the world’s most important chemicals. Ammonia is also the main ingredient of fertilizers that account for almost half of all global food production. The team have successfully developed a more straightforward method to produce ammonia…
Imagine the magnificent glaciers of Greenland, the eternal snow of the Tibetan high mountains, and the permanently ice-cold groundwater in Finland. As cold and beautiful these are, for the structural biologist Kirill Kovalev, they are more importantly home to unusual molecules that could control brain cells’ activity. Kovalev, EIPOD Postdoctoral Fellow at EMBL Hamburg’s Schneider…
Georgina Rannard Climate and science correspondent Prof Daniel J Mayor @oceanplankton A tiny, obscure animal often sold as aquarium food has been quietly protecting our planet from global warming by undertaking an epic migration, according to new research. These “unsung heroes” called zooplankton gorge themselves and grow fat in spring before sinking hundreds of metres…
Comet 3I/ATLAS is the third interstellar object we have seen in the solar system E. Guido, M. Rocchetto, J. Ferguson An interstellar object has been spotted zipping through our solar system, and amateur and professional astronomers around the world are now racing to train their telescopes in its direction, allowing them to refine models of…
The Northwest Africa 12264 meteorite is older than expected Ben Hoefnagels Tiny shavings from a single meteorite could completely overturn our understanding of how the solar system formed, after the space rock turned out to be older than expected. Previous research suggests that small rocky bodies called protoplanets formed throughout the solar system, but those…
Trees in tropical forests are dying at an increased rate, with consequences for biodiversity, carbon storage, and the global climate. While deforestation is the primary cause of forest loss, intact forests are also experiencing a rise in tree death. Drought, higher temperatures, and fires have been the leading suspects, but a new paper led by…
Hands on with the new research at this year’s Royal Society Summer Science Exhibition Source link
