During maize domestication, a 9.1-kilobase stretch of DNA became nearly universal. A new Cell paper connects it to BRR1, a gene that helps move carbon and nitrogen into the developing ear.
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Synthetic protein droplets became catalysts only after condensing. Their boundaries produced strong electric fields, changed water chemistry, and drove reactions without a conventional enzyme active site.
In mouse models of melanoma and breast cancer, metastatic cells used NINJ1 to attach to vagal sensory neurons in the lung. Disrupting that contact reduced metastatic growth.
A new counting rule says any simply connected shell resists three kinds of deformation and yields through three others. Folds and wrinkles decide where the stiffness goes.
Closed-loop feedback changed the firing of one vocal-learning neuron at one precise moment in a zebra finch’s song, revealing how delayed reward can guide a fast motor sequence.
In model experiments through 2300, evolving fracture damage raised the Amundsen Sea Embayment’s mean sea-level contribution from 54 to 235 millimeters under idealized ocean warming.