Articles Archives

Biology

DNA replication: Unravelling the secrets of the replisome

Every cell needs to divide and produce more cells. This is an essential part of every living organism. The first step is to make a copy of its own DNA to pass on to daughter cells. This is known as DNA replication and has been the focus of Professor Michael O’Donnell’s lab for many years. The team, based at The Rockefeller University, New […]

Physical Sciences

Digital holography: Unlocking the mysteries of aerosols

Aerosols are diverse and complex particles in our atmosphere. Varying hugely in both size and shape, scientists have faced significant technical challenges in measuring how these particles scatter and absorb the sun’s light, making it difficult to accurately assess their influence on the Earth’s atmosphere. Dr Matthew J. Berg at Kansas State University and his colleagues are now combatting the issue through the cutting-edge […]

Biology

Fishes in the lower Congo River. An extreme case of species divergence and convergent evolution

In its lower reaches the Congo River is the world’s fastest and deepest river, and this short stretch hosts great biological diversity. Many fishes inhabiting the lower Congo River display adaptations to life in such an extreme environment, and often similar adaptations have arisen in fishes distant from each other on the tree of life. Professor Melanie Stiassny, along with […]

Health & Medicine

Lumbar Total Disc Replacement defeats crippling sciatica

Lumbar disc degenerative disease (LDDD) causes collapse of the spine resulting in agonising sciatica (inflammation of the sciatic nerve, causing pain). Current treatments, including fusion and discectomy, have mixed outcomes with patients often reporting pain after surgery. Lumbar Total Disc Replacement (LTDR) is a treatment largely unfamiliar to patients, yet it is highly effective, and Food and Drug Administration-approved for […]

Biology

A hitherto unseen matrix involved in cell division is revealed

Cell division has been fascinating researchers for decades. This process could not occur without the spindle to organise the chromosomes neatly in two sets, one for each daughter cell. It’s commonly accepted that the spindle is formed by a series of filaments that puts chromosomes into place, but there may be more to it than that. This is certainly the […]

Health & Medicine

Benefits of a diet with walnuts in Alzheimer’s disease

Alzheimer’s disease is a severe neurodegenerative disorder, responsible for 60-70% of cases of dementia. The most common symptoms are memory loss, disorientation and loss of cognition. To date, there is no known cure for this disease, but Dr Abha Chauhan, based at the New York State Institute for Basic Research in Developmental Disabilities, New York, USA, has shown how supplementation with walnuts in […]

Health & Medicine

Beyond osteoporosis: Preventing fragility fractures

Osteoporosis is known to be a risk factor for fragility fractures in postmenopausal women. However, not all women who suffer fragility fractures have osteoporosis, so other factors must also be important. Dr Koji Fujita of Tokyo Medical and Dental University is investigating the link between certain physical characteristics and risk of fragility fractures. In this work, Dr Fujita found a […]

Health & Medicine

No safe level of smoking exists for heart disease and stroke

If you think smoking only one or two cigarettes a day is almost harmless, think again. Professor Allan Hackshaw at the Cancer Institute, University College London and colleagues examined the risk of stroke and heart disease associated with light smoking (one to five cigarettes per day). Their large-scale systematic review provides a major body of evidence highlighting the importance of […]

Education & Training

Gender and visuospatial processing in multimedia STEM learning

Multimedia learning research comparing effectiveness of static and dynamic visualisations in STEM disciplines has revealed mixed results, because it has ignored gender distribution among its participants. Although research is suggestive for gender differences in visuospatial processing, the failure to report gender compositions in many studies makes it impossible to draw conclusions on the moderating effects of these differences on learning. […]

Behavioural Sciences

Building high-performance teams through team psychological safety

Research confirms that when people feel safe within a team they will perform better; they willingly take risks, actively contribute and work hard knowing that they can depend on the others in the team to support them and put in as much effort. In a business context this is called ‘team psychological safety’ (TPS) and it is the key to […]