#Advanced Cryo-EM reveals viral RNA replication complex structure in stunning detail

“#Advanced Cryo-EM reveals viral RNA replication complex structure in stunning detail” Cryo-EM imaging reveals high-resolution side and top views of the viral RNA replication “crown” complex structure. Credit: Paul Ahlquist, Morgridge Institute for Research For the first time, scientists at the Morgridge Institute for Research have generated near atomic resolution images of a major viral…

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#Cellular signaling cascade balances information transmission against energy consumption, study says

“#Cellular signaling cascade balances information transmission against energy consumption, study says” Credit: CC0 Public Domain Cellular signal transmission is not only optimized for precision—it also includes a cost cap. The relationship between information and energy, a concept well established in physics and engineering, is likely to fundamentally shape cellular signaling networks. One of the questions…

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#Could mini-Neptunes be irradiated ocean planets?

“#Could mini-Neptunes be irradiated ocean planets?” Credit: CC0 Public Domain Many exoplanets known today are ‘super-Earths,’ with a radius 1.3 times that of Earth, and ‘mini-Neptunes,’ with 2.4 Earth radii. Mini-Neptunes, which are less dense, were long thought to be gas planets, made up of hydrogen and helium. Now, scientists at the Laboratoire d’Astrophysique de…

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#Buried GitHub archival storage to last 1,000 years

“#Buried GitHub archival storage to last 1,000 years” Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain If civilization ever succumbs to global warming, nuclear annihilation, an unrelenting pandemic or a martian invasion, some future civilization—or alien life form—might well still be able to reconstruct today’s computers and compose advanced machine learning algorithms … and perhaps even play a round…

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#How governments resist World Heritage ‘in Danger’ listings

“#How governments resist World Heritage ‘in Danger’ listings” Credit: CC0 Public Domain A study published today found national governments repeatedly resisted the placement of 41 UNESCO World Heritage sites—including the Great Barrier Reef—on the World Heritage in Danger list. This resistance is despite the sites being just as threatened, or more threatened, than those already…

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#Geoscientists provide data suggesting global climate changes increase river erosion

“#Geoscientists provide data suggesting global climate changes increase river erosion” Broad surfaces called terraces preserve ancient river floodplains and landscape history up to hundreds of meters above the Fortymile River, a tributary of the Yukon River, in eastern Alaska. Researchers from the USGS, the University of Vermont, Purdue University and Utah State University publish definitive…

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