Articles
Twittering away our deliberative capacity: Social media and the threat to democracy
Communication technologies lie at the heart of every society, and their structural biases contribute to many of our social biases. The use of social media, and especially Twitter, by former US president Trump offers a case study in how the rise of social media is driving populism, divisive rhetoric, and harm to our socio-political landscape. Dr Brian Ott at Missouri […]
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Pure and sound: Isolating the finest RNA from jute
Jute is an important crop grown for human usage of its fibres in everyday materials. There has been an increasing interest to study the behaviour of this crop in the field, to maximise its yield. Detailed studies of this plant at the molecular level involves several techniques that require isolation of cellular material such as nucleic acids (DNA and RNA) […]
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Searching TILL high yielding jute is unearthed
Jute fibres are sustainable, biodegradable alternatives to non-degradable plastic fibres. The cultivation of jute is hindered by the presence of only two cultivated varieties in Corchorus sp and their incompatibility for cross-breeding. Increasing the genetic diversity of jute is a priority, to increase the tolerance of this crop towards environmental stresses, as well as improving the quality of the fibres. […]
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Understanding plant pathogens using optical mapping
Macrophomina phaseolina MS-6 is a fungal pathogen responsible for causing a plethora of despairing diseases in more than 500 host plants, such as jute. A detailed study of the organism is vital for understanding mechanisms of infection in these plants. Whole-genome sequencing can aid this process and provide a better understanding of MS-6. Previously used sequencing methods like next-generation sequencing […]
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Transcription factors regulate stress resistance in jute
Dark jute is an increasingly valued bast fibre-yielding plant with a diversity of uses. However, there is a need for varieties that can tolerate challenging environmental conditions. Scientists of Basic and Applied Research on Jute Project at the Bangladesh Jute Research Institute used molecular genetics methods to study the role of the transcription factor superfamily AP2/ERF in the adaptation of […]
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Ripeta: Enhancing scientific integrity
Ripeta is an automated tool designed with a simple but vital objective: to enhance the credibility, reproducibility, and trustworthiness of scientific research papers. Its algorithms use several important metrics to assess the integrity of a paper, stemming the tide of untrustworthy science one paper at a time. Research Outreach caught up with Dr Leslie McIntosh, Ripeta’s founder and CEO, to […]
SUSSOL – Using AI for the selection and substitution of greener solvent
Solvents can be toxic, volatile, highly flammable, non-biodegradable and non-renewable. Searching for a suitable green alternative for a nonbenign solvent can be an onerous task. Hannes Sels, Herwig De Smet and Dr Jeroen Geuens from Karel de Grote University of Applied Sciences and Arts, in close collaboration with their industrial partners, have developed a user-friendly software tool based on an […]
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Customer experience of product quality: A new metric
Henry Ford famously said that quality means doing it right when no one is looking. That is certainly what customers hope has happened in the production of the durable products they purchase, from cars to smartphones. But what do we really mean by product quality and how should it be measured? Professor Marcel Paulssen and Dr Ramesh Roshan Das Guru […]
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Conveyor belts of the Atlantic Ocean: Moving particles, organisms and litter around the globe
Ocean currents are a conveyor belt spanning the entire globe; they are transporting minerals, nutrients, organisms and other particles across vast distances. However, the full extent of the roles played by these flows is still poorly understood. Dr Rui Caldeira, Director of the Oceanic Observatory of Madeira in Portugal, and his collaborators Dr Iria Sala, Cláudio Cardoso and Maria João […]
Intergenerational mobility and school inequality in the US
Children of different income groups attend schools of different quality. To understand how unequal school opportunity contributes to differences in social mobility and human capital, Professor Jean Hindriks, Head of the Economics School of Louvain at UCLouvain, Belgium, and Dr Andreu Arenas, Assistant Professor of Economics at the University of Barcelona, have extended the classical Becker-Tomes-Solon parent-child transmission model to […]
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