Biotechnology

Each year, a single cow can belch about 200 pounds of methane. The powerful greenhouse gas is 27 times more potent at trapping heat in the atmosphere than carbon dioxide. For decades, scientists and farmers have tried to find ways to reduce methane without stunting the animal's growth or productivity.... Read more

In a new study published in Horticulture Research, a team of researchers from the Institute of Subtropical Agriculture of the Chinese Academy of Sciences has demonstrated that designed synthetic microbial communities (SynComs) can significantly boost crop growth and curb soil-borne diseases, revealing a promising biocontrol strategy.... Read more

A leading bioethicist at Hiroshima University is calling for an anticipatory, rather than reactive, approach to ethics after a Japanese government panel in August backed a report that brings the country a step closer to becoming the first in the world to allow research on human embryos created from stem... Read more

NIMS, in collaboration with Nagoya University, Gifu University, and the University of Adelaide, has developed a method for simultaneously imaging DNA and RNA inside cells using harmless infrared to near-infrared light.... Read more

Researchers at the University of Tokyo have built a microscope that can detect a signal over an intensity range 14 times wider than conventional microscopes. Moreover, the observations are made label-free, that is, without the use of additional dyes.... Read more

Researchers at Fraunhofer IOF in collaboration with Airbus have developed a hyperspectral spectrometer as part of the "Rainbow" project. The technology enables the creation of digital field maps that can be used in agriculture as precise application maps for location-specific measures. Fraunhofer IOF will be presenting the system at the... Read more

Scientists have discovered a fern from South China that naturally forms tiny crystals containing rare earth elements (REEs). This breakthrough opens the door to a promising new way of "green mining" of these minerals called phytomining.... Read more

Research institutions around the world house valuable genetic information that could help unlock countless medical mysteries. However, because DNA degrades over time, it is difficult for researchers to analyze DNA samples older than 20 years using conventional analytical approaches.... Read more

Cornell researchers have developed a powerful new biosensor that reveals, in unprecedented detail, how and where kinases—enzymes that control nearly all cellular processes—turn on and off inside living cells.... Read more

Researchers have developed a powerful new software toolbox that allows realistic brain models to be trained directly on data. This open-source framework, called JAXLEY, combines the precision of biophysical models with the speed and flexibility of modern machine learning techniques. The study, posted to the bioRxiv preprint server, could be... Read more

Ecuadorian scientists are developing a biotechnological strategy to stop banana wilt by genetically editing the causative fungus. Global banana production—one of the pillars of food security and a key source of income for tropical countries—faces a persistent threat: Fusarium wilt.... Read more

Platelets are small, disk-shaped cell fragments in the blood that are essential to stop bleeding and to initiate blood clotting after injury. Platelet transfusions in patients with severe trauma or medical conditions, including bone marrow disease, leukemia, or sepsis, can be lifesaving.... Read more

Researchers at the VIB-VUB Center for Structural Biology have developed a new microfluidics-based workflow that enables high-resolution cryogenic electron microscopy (cryo-EM) structure determination from extremely small quantities of starting material.... Read more

Traditional bisulfite sequencing damages DNA, while enzyme-based alternatives are inconsistent. A novel methylation analysis method, called UMBS-seq, has been published in Nature Communications.... Read more

QUT researchers have recovered the genomes of more than 24,000 previously unknown microbial species—some from entirely new branches of life that likely evolved before plants and animals. The microbes are detailed in two studies published in Nature Biotechnology and Nature Methods.... Read more