International Research Awards on New Science Inventions

As any cook knows, some liquids mix well with each other, but others do not. For example, when a tablespoon of vinegar is poured into water, a brief stir suffices to thoroughly combine the two liquids. However, a tablespoon of oil poured into water will coalesce into droplets that no amount of stirring can dissolve. The physics that governs the mixing of liquids is not limited to mixing bowls; it also affects the behavior of things inside cells. It’s been known for several years that some proteins behave like liquids, and that some liquid-like proteins don’t mix together. However, very little is known about how these liquid-like proteins behave on cellular surfaces. “The separation between two liquids that won’t mix, like oil and water, is known as ‘liquid-liquid phase separation,’ and it’s central to the function of many proteins,” said  Sagar Setru , a 2021 Ph.D. graduate who worked with both  Sabine Petry , a professor of  molecular biology , and  Joshua S...

Nestled deep in the nucleus of each of your cells is what seems like a magic trick: Six feet of DNA is packaged into a tiny space 50 times smaller than the width of a human hair. Like a long, thin string of genetic spaghetti, this DNA blueprint for your whole body is folded and compacted into structures called chromosomes in order to fit within this space. Also packed into the nucleus are structures called nuclear bodies, which are proteins that act like cellular machinery. And as if DNA and nuclear bodies were not enough to fit into the volume of a cubic micrometer, strands of RNA (that will be translated to proteins) are also crammed in throughout the nucleus. The three-dimensional, spatial organization of the nucleus is important; it varies between individual cells and can contribute to differences in cellular states, for example, the phenotype of a brain cell versus a muscle cell. Now, Caltech researchers have developed a new technique to image the nucleus, including its DN...

Nearly 500 million years ago, Earth’s lowland landscapes were dominated by vast sandy, gritty plains. They then underwent a major, irreversible change, after which these landscapes became dominated by thick layers of mud. Now, new research from Caltech explains that this drastic landscape change was instigated by the evolution of early tiny plants, like mosses and liverworts. The study was conducted as part of a collaboration between the laboratories of  Woodward Fischer —professor of geobiology and associate director of the Center for Autonomous Systems and Technologies—and  Michael Lamb , professor of geology. The work is described in a paper published in  Science  on January 29, 2021. Prior research posited that large plants with deep roots (like trees in forests) helped hold mud, contributing to a muddy landscape. But several years ago, Earth scientists realized there was a problem with this idea: the rise of mud on Earth began before large, complex plants ...

The earliest eye damage from prion disease takes place in the cone photoreceptor cells, specifically in the cilia and the ribbon synapses, according to a new study of prion protein accumulation in the eye by National Institutes of Health scientists. Prion diseases originate when normally harmless prion protein molecules become abnormal and gather in clusters and filaments in the human body and brain. Understanding how prion diseases develop, particularly in the eye because of its diagnostic accessibility to clinicians, can help scientists identify ways to slow the spread of prion diseases. The scientists say their findings, published in the journal  Acta Neuropathologica Communications,  may help inform research on human retinitis pigmentosa, an inherited disease with similar photoreceptor degeneration leading to blindness. Prion diseases are slow, degenerative and usually fatal diseases of the central nervous system that occur in people and some other mammals. Prion diseas...

Using X-ray tomography, a research team has observed the internal evolution of the materials inside solid-state lithium batteries as they were charged and discharged. Detailed three-dimensional information from the research could help improve the reliability and performance of the batteries, which use solid materials to replace the flammable liquid electrolytes in existing lithium-ion batteries. The  operando  synchrotron X-ray computed microtomography imaging revealed how the dynamic changes of electrode materials at lithium/solid-electrolyte interfaces determine the behavior of solid-state batteries. The researchers found that battery operation caused voids to form at the interface, which created a loss of contact that was the primary cause of failure in the cells. “This work provides fundamental understanding of what is happening inside the battery, and that information should be important for guiding engineering efforts that will push these batteries closer to commercia...

In an effort to curb the rise in overall carbon vehicle emissions, the state of California recently announced a plan to ban new sales of gasoline-powered vehicles in less than 15 years – if the  current governor’s order  holds strong. Now, thanks to supercomputers funded by the National Science Foundation such as  Comet  at the San Diego Supercomputer Center (SDSC) at UC San Diego and  Stampede2  at the Texas Advanced Computing Center (TACC), the research community has been making progress on developing more reliable and efficient electric cars and light trucks as well as other products by focusing on the batteries that power them. Three such university teams that recently were given allocations on these supercomputers include researchers from UC San Diego, Washington University in Saint Louis, and Washington State University. “We have been working on making lithium-ion batteries longer lasting and faster charging for many years,” said Shyue Ping Ong, a...

“Organs-on-a-chip” system sheds light on how bacteria in the human digestive tract may influence neurological diseases. In many ways, our brain and our digestive tract are deeply connected. Feeling nervous may lead to physical pain in the stomach, while hunger signals from the gut make us feel irritable. Recent studies have even suggested that the bacteria living in our gut can influence some neurological diseases. Modeling these complex interactions in animals such as mice is difficult to do, because their physiology is very different from humans’. To help researchers better understand the gut-brain axis, MIT researchers have developed an “organs-on-a-chip” system that replicates interactions between the brain, liver, and colon. Using that system, the researchers were able to model the influence that microbes living in the gut have on both healthy brain tissue and tissue samples derived from patients with Parkinson’s disease. They found that short-chain fatty acids, which are prod...

Conditions such as loud noise and few trees in neighborhoods seem to affect how much sleep adolescents get, according to a study in the journal Sleep. In a second study, researchers measured young people’s brainwaves to observe the troublesome effects of sleep loss on memory and cognitive function. The findings were reported by two scientific teams funded by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI), part of the National Institutes of Health . According to the  Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (link is external) , about six out of 10 (57.8%) middle school students and seven out of 10 (72.7%) high school students in the United States do not get the recommended amount of sleep on school nights, increasing their risk for future chronic disease development. Studies have shown a link between insufficient sleep and a higher risk of obesity, diabetes, depression, anxiety, and increased risk-taking behaviors in adolescents. In the new residential environment study...

Good news: The bacteria living on your toothbrush reflect your mouth – not your toilet. After studying microbial communities living on bristles from used toothbrushes, Northwestern University researchers found those communities matched microbes commonly found inside the mouth and on skin. This was true no matter where the toothbrushes had been stored, including shielded behind a closed medicine cabinet door or out in the open on the edge of a sink. The study’s senior author,  Erica Hartmann , was inspired to conduct the research after hearing concerns that flushing a toilet might generate a cloud of aerosol particles. She and her team affectionately called their study “Operation Pottymouth.” “I’m not saying that you can’t get toilet aerosols on your toothbrush when you flush the toilet,” Hartmann said. “But, based on what we saw in our study, the overwhelming majority of microbes on your toothbrush probably came from your mouth.” The study will be published Feb. 1 in the jour...

A daily alcoholic drink for women or two for men might be good for heart health, compared to drinking more or not drinking at all. But while there is some evidence that drinking in moderation might prevent heart attacks, now a randomized, double-blinded clinical study of 100 heart patients has added a new wrinkle to the contours of the debate over alcohol and heart disease. UC San Francisco researchers found that alcohol has an immediate effect on the heart in patients with atrial fibrillation (AFib), the most common life-threatening heart-rhythm disorder. In the study, published online Jan. 27, 2021, in the  Journal of the American College of Cardiology: Clinical Electrophysiology , electrical properties that drive the muscles of the heart to contract changed immediately in patients who were randomly assigned to an infusion of alcohol maintained at the lower limit of legal intoxication, compared to an equal number of control subjects who instead received a placebo infusion. Ac...

Reaching zero net emissions of carbon dioxide from energy and industry by 2050 can be accomplished by rebuilding U.S. energy infrastructure to run primarily on renewable energy, at a net cost of about $1 per person per day, according to new research published by the Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab), the University of San Francisco (USF), and the consulting firm Evolved Energy Research. The researchers created a detailed model of the entire U.S. energy and industrial system to produce the first detailed, peer-reviewed study of how to achieve carbon-neutrality by 2050. According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the world must reach zero net CO2 emissions by mid-century in order to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius and avoid the most dangerous impacts of climate change. The researchers developed multiple feasible technology pathways that differ widely in remaining fossil fuel use, land use, consumer adopti...

Getting old is a complex matter. Research has shown that gut microbes are one of the factors that can influence several aspects of human life, including aging. Elucidating how a specific microbial species contributes to longevity is quite challenging given the complexity and heterogeneity of the human gut environment. To explore the influence of bacterial products on the aging process, researchers at Baylor College of Medicine and  Rice University  developed a method that uses light to directly control specific gene expression and metabolite production from bacteria residing in the gut of the laboratory worm  Caenorhabditis elegans. “We used optogenetics, a method that combines light and genetically engineered light-sensitive proteins to regulate molecular events in a targeted manner in living cells or organisms,” said co-corresponding author Dr. Meng Wang , Robert C. Fyfe Endowed Chair on Aging and professor of  molecular and human genetics  and the  Hu...

Hernias form when intra-abdominal content, such as a loop of the intestine, squeezes through weak, defective or injured areas of the abdominal wall. The condition, one of the most common soft tissue injuries, may develop serious complications, therefore hernia repair may be recommended. Repair consists of surgically implanting a prosthetic mesh to support and reinforce the damaged abdominal wall and facilitate the healing process. However, currently used mesh implants are associated with potentially adverse postsurgical complications. “Although hernia mesh implants are mechanically strong and support abdominal tissue, making the patient feel comfortable initially, it is a common problem that about three days after surgery the implant can drive inflammation that in two to three weeks will affect organs nearby,” said  Dr. Crystal Shin , assistant professor of  surgery  at Baylor College of Medicine and lead author of this study looking to find a solution to postsurgical ...