Biology and biotechnology
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ResearchGooey origins for RNA world
Viscous muddy pond edges may have been incubators for the rise of self-replicating RNAs on ancient Earth
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ResearchPrimitive synthetic cells get a taste for each other
Predatory protocells offer insight into how such behaviours may have arisen at the dawn of life
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ResearchPlastics synthesis goes green
Enzyme-catalysed polymerisation could lead to sustainable plastics
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ResearchHydrogen isotopes reveal butterflies’ journey across the Sahara
Painted lady butterflies shown to migrate thousands of miles from Europe to Sub-Saharan Africa
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ResearchCopper key to our sensitivity to rotten eggs' foul smell
Central role that metals play in detection of noxious sulfur compounds is unknown among any other odour receptor
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ResearchNucleic acid instability challenges RNA world hypothesis
Early life may have contained both RNA and DNA, rather than just RNA
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ResearchTumour cells' last breaths dampen down immune system
Dying cancer cells release potassium ions that alter the behaviour of T-cells
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ResearchSwimming microrobots ‘see the invisible’
Chemically-fuelled and magnetically-guided spheres enable microscopy beyond the diffraction limit
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ResearchNanoplasters get cells into sticky situation
Nanoparticles that glue cells together could aid wound healing or stop tumour metastasis
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Research3.7 billion year old microbe fossils discovered in Greenland
Discovery puts earliest evidence for life back 220 million years