News by Subject Chemistry & Physics

A collaboration led by Distinguished Professor Dr. Kazunori Ikebukuro from Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology (TUAT), Japan, discovered that G-quadruplex (G4)-forming DNA binds myoglobin through a parallel-type G4 structure. Through the G4 binding, the enzymatic activity of myoglobin increases over 300-fold compared to that of myoglobin alone (Figure). This finding indicates that DNA may work as a carrier of genetic information in living organisms and act as a regulator of unknown biological phenomena.

The eruption of the Laacher See volcano in the Eifel in Germany is one of Central Europe's largest eruptions over the past 100,000 years. Technical advances in combination with tree remains buried in the course of the eruption now enabled an international research team to accurately date the event. Accordingly, the eruption of the Laacher See volcano occurred 13,077 years ago and thus 126 years earlier than previously assumed.

Mitosis, the mechanism of cell division that is so important for life, involves more than 100 proteins at its core. The group of Professor Andrea Musacchio from the Max Planck Institute of Molecular Physiology in Dortmund has been able to fully reconstitute the engine of the mitosis machinery, called kinetochore. This is the first step towards the making of artificial chromosomes, that may one day be used to restore missing functions in cells.

Proteins have been quietly taking over our lives since the COVID-19 pandemic began. We've been living at the whim of the virus's so-called 'spike' protein, which has mutated dozens of times to create increasingly deadly variants. But the truth is, we have always been ruled by proteins. At the cellular level, they're responsible for pretty much everything.

A McGill-led study has shown that the size of the Maya population in the lowland city of Itzan (in present-day Guatemala) varied over time in response to climate change. The findings, published recently in Quaternary Science Reviews, show that both droughts and very wet periods led to important population declines.

The new technology, enabling the storage of information in the thinnest unit known to science, is expected to improve future electronic devices in terms of density, speed, and efficiency. The allowed quantum-mechanical electron tunneling through the atomically thin film may boost the information reading process much beyond current technologies. The technology involves laterally sliding one-atom-thick layers of boron and nitrogen one over the other -- a new way to switch electric polarization on/off.