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Chitin degradation by Synechococcus WH7803
Abstract Chitin is an abundant, carbon-rich polymer in the marine environment. Chitinase activity has been detected in spent media of Synechococcus WH7803 cultures—yet it was unclear which specific enzymes were involved. Here we delivered a CRISPR tool into the cells via electroporation to generate loss-of-function mutants of putative candidates and identified ChiA as the enzyme…
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Addendum: Grain shape effects in bed load sediment transport
Download PDF Addendum to: Nature https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-022-05564-6 Published online 11 January 2023 In our original article, we used laboratory flume experiments to demonstrate the effects of grain shape on bed load sediment transport. It has been brought to our attention that the paper did not include a comparison of the width-to-depth ratio of our flume experiments…
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Questioning central assumptions of the ICAP framework
Closing the research-practice gap in education is an important aim. The ICAP framework (for interactive, constructive, active, and passive engagement modes) explicitly targets this aim and has gained broad attention. The ICAP framework is supposed to support practitioners in translating research findings into practice by distinguishing between four modes of student engagement. In this comment,…
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Memory and computation together at last
Traditionally, a modern computer consists of at least one processing element, where the arithmetic and logical operations occur, along with a memory device that is responsible for information storage. The separation between processing and memory, however, creates a bottleneck that causes a slowdown in the maximum throughput that can be achieved and a multitude of…
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Yes to global standards for research — as long as they are truly global
When I was starting out as a stem-cell researcher in Bengaluru, India, I faced challenges that would be foreign to many colleagues elsewhere. My experiments often had to be shelved because supplies took months to come, or arrived unusable. With funds to perform only a few experiments, I had to carefully weigh up whether a…
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Predicting electronic structure calculation results
Density functional theory (DFT), while one of the most widely used quantum chemistry methods, is well-known to have high computational costs as the system size grows. To date, several approaches have been proposed to decrease the bottlenecks in DFT and to improve its efficiency and scaling. One such approach is to use the one-electron reduced…
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Generative AI in scientific publishing: disruptive or destructive?
Artificial intelligence (AI) has the potential to revolutionize scientific publishing. The influence of AI could be disruptive or destructive and its influence remains to be seen, but balance between the convenience and accessibility offered by AI-driven tools and the essential skills of deep scientific inquiry and communication needs to be found. In the past few…
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Causal influence of muscle weakness on cardiometabolic diseases and osteoporosis
Abstract The causal roles of muscle weakness in cardiometabolic diseases and osteoporosis remain elusive. This two-sample Mendelian randomization (MR) study aims to explore the causal roles of muscle weakness in the risk of cardiometabolic diseases and osteoporosis. 15 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs, P < 5 × 10−8) associated with muscle weakness were used as instrumental variables. Genetic predisposition to…
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CenSoc: Public Linked Administrative Mortality Records for Individual-level Research
Abstract In the United States, much has been learned about the determinants of longevity from survey data and aggregated tabulations. However, the lack of large-scale, individual-level administrative mortality records has proven to be a barrier to further progress. We introduce the CenSoc datasets, which link the complete-count 1940 U.S. Census to Social Security mortality records.…
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Daily briefing: Politicization of vaccination is warping our COVID memories
Hello Nature readers, would you like to get this Briefing in your inbox free every day? Sign up here. Trucks evacuate people from a neighbourhood in LaPlace, Louisiana, that was flooded by Hurricane Ida in 2021.Credit: Patrick T. Fallon/AFP via Getty Major US climate disaster every three weeks The fifth US National Climate Assessment has…