Search

Cancer cells rely on macropinocytosis to scavenge extracellular proteins for growth. Here the authors show that macropinocytosis supports the survival of hypoxic hepatocellular carcinoma cells and this is dependent on HIF-1, which in turns activates the transcription of a membrane ruffling protein, EH domain-containing protein 2.

Evidence has been growing that the fundamental particles known as neutrinos oscillate — one type of neutrino can transform into another type. A well-placed experiment now points to the definitive answer.

Government authorizes effort to study new fault system.

So much warming, so many dire effects, so little action — Dave Reay reveals how dreams of soggy soil and seaweed keep him going.

Daedalus plans to explore the mesosphere — the levels of the atmosphere between 50 and 100 km up, inaccessible to balloon or satellite. His plan is to make a giant helicopter rotor based on the principle of the Crookes radiometer. One side of each blade is painted black, the other white. The black side, warmed by the Sun, will give a bigger thermal kick to impinging air molecules than the white side, so the whole rotor will rotate. Altoradiometers will soon be hovering in the mesosphere, migrating polewards as they collect valuable scientific data.

During the breeding season, birds face a tricky decision. Lay too many eggs and you many not find enough resources to support them; lay too few and it's a wasted reproductive opportunity. To gauge the reproductive competition, some birds gather in vast flocks, each trying to make the most noise. This is a nuisance in cities, and Daedalus plans to use huge concave mirrors to trick the birds into thinking they are more overpopulated than they really are.

Daedalus is hunting for the gene for the human soul. Once found, the way will be open for several experiments, all of them controversial.

Not every fertilized human egg completes the journey from conception to birth — up to 70% are miscarried in the early stages of development. DREADCO biochemists are now setting out to find out why. They believe that the fetus and mother undergo a ‘dialogue’ of tests, which may involve biochemical signals and act to control the quality of the embryo.

Forecast failure for controversial researcher

Extremophile bacteria found in hot springs might one day provide the basis for high-tech garden compost. Such bacterial fermentation could digest all sorts of rubbish under the right conditions.

Daedalus is developing 'Vacfilm' — a thin film with one-way molecular valves that pump air. The obvious use will be in food wrap, but Daedalus also hopes to revolutionize the refrigerator.

The puritan conscience holds that pleasure is sinful and should be followed by, and maybe even preceded by, pain. Daedalus is now inventing a drug appropriate for this stern view — it is an alcohol which gives you a hangover first. The chemistry is decidedly tricky, but the delayed rewards offered by the resulting ‘Pain and Pleasure Pill’ would have decidedly interesting applications.

Daedalus dreams of an active porous catalyst, such as a piezoelectric zeolite, in which molecular reactions take place in expanding and contracting cavities. Driving this activity up to megahertz frequencies should increase the chemical output of such devices, with potential for creating new molecules.

Attempts to make metallic hydrogen, says Daedalus, have been proceeding along the wrong lines. He suggests that the way forward is to use pressure, but not on pure hydrogen but on a solution of hydrogen in water. The result should be a new metal, hydroxonium, a sort of metallic ice which may even be stable down to normal pressures. Potential uses are as rocket fuel or as a minor constituent of metal alloys.

All of us contain billions of benevolent bacteria, living in complex ecologies in the skin and gut, for example. How is the harmony maintained between selfish species in these communities? Daedalus believes that balance is maintained by subtle chemical signalling -- a set of gentlemen's agreements. By studying and mimicking the chemistry of these agreements, DREADCO will devise a new way of curing infections, gently restoring equilibrium instead of killing off all bacteria and hoping that the old equilibrium is restored.

The synthetic enzyme-armed killer (SEAKER) approach equips chimeric antigen receptor (CAR)-T cells with the capacity to express enzymes that process anticancer prodrugs at tumor sites of action.

Investigation of the true behaviour of molecules in solution is this week's aim. It should be made possible by a novel form of fluorescence created with nitrogen trichloride.

Ancient scrolls that have been carbonized cannot easily be unrolled. But their secrets may be revealed by modern means: nuclear magnetic resonance machines should be able to detect any contrast between ink and scroll.

Explosives that detonate at the speed of light, rather than at the speed of sound (or slower) could be made with the help of photochemical dyes. However, photosensitive explosives will require careful handling and storage if they are going to transform the business of blasting rocks.

Daedalus hopes that his lying eye — the video-analysis computer system for telling whether a speaker is lying — could be used to good effect for many other purposes. These include psychiatry, counselling and exposure of many current emotional fashions (such as compassion towards socially approved underdogs).

Communication with pets is two-way: pets must be able to react to human expressions and behaviour, and vice versa. But we are severely limited in this latter respect, not least (unlike cats, dogs and horses, for instance) in the immobility of our ears. So Daedalus is experimenting with a special cap equipped with large, electromagnetically adjustable ears, which should allow its wearer to become much closer emotionally to any animal that uses ear signals.

The body's central-heating system is flawed, in that in chilly climates people need to wear clothes or use fires for extra warmth. A plan to improve on the system involves identifying a glucose-oxidizing enzyme which works well in the cold but becomes reversibly denatured at 37 °C — human body temperature. When immobilized on microspheres and injected into the blood, the enzyme will become activated on reaching the cold outer extremities of the body. There it will burn glucose, warming the skin and acting as a perfect distributed body thermostat.

The time taken for airline security checks can be reduced, thinks Daedalus, if the amount of luggage everyone takes is reduced. Clothing and laptop computers are on his list.

If the chemistry of deep seawater makes it corrosive, it may explain the failure of underwater cables and the lack of organic matter on the seafloor.

Daedalus is looking into ways of making stored food taste fresh. He hopes to identify or synthesize the elusive compounds that restore the illusion of freshness, which could be added at the table rather like salt and pepper.

Daedalus wonders why the Earth is populated with so many specialized species and plans an elaborate computer simulation to investigate whether each species occupies its own niche.

The human eye slides around a visual scene, making several jumps per second in the process. Daedalus wants to take advantage of these 'saccades' to develop computer-transmitted videos that need fewer frames per second.

In thick fog, turning your headlights onto full beam won't help you to see more clearly, as the light is merely scattered into a bright blur. The problem is, although fog droplets absorb very little light, they scatter it confusingly. Daedalus believes that infrared imaging could be the way out, and DREADCO physicists are currently trying to find the exact wavelength (around 11 μm) at which fog will be transparent.

This week Daedalus extends his idea of teleomere-depleted ova, which produce pets with predictable life spans, to animal husbandry. He sees the humane possibilities of meat production which uses such animals — instead of having to be slaughtered, they will drop dead at a predetermined time.

Botulinum toxin, the nerve poison used for cosmetic purposes, could serve in the cause of psychiatry. Daedalus believes that when applied according to the principles of acupuncture, it will erase unsettling memories.

Comets raining down on the Earth is the stuff of science-fiction movies. Yet recent mass extinctions have been caused by just such events, and, Daedalus has noticed, these seem to occur roughly every 26 million years. One theory to explain this is that the Sun has a companion star ('Nemesis') with a 26-million-year period — every time Nemesis swings past the Sun, it disturbs the Oort comet cloud, resulting in a storm of comets. To test this theory, Daedalus proposes investigating the age of craters on the moon, which should reveal the period of Nemesis and when she will strike next.

A 'fractal' foam could be immensely strong for its weight, so it would make a great thermal insulator or sound absorber. A carbonized version could even provide an efficient way of storing hydrogen fuel.

When the immune system becomes run-down and ineffective, help might come from agents that bind small antibody-antigen complexes into bigger and more tightly associated agglomerations. Macrophages would find such agglomerations easier to mop up, and DREADCO biochemists are exploring several alternative binding candidates.

Last week Daedalus proposed a method of measuring brain activity from the magnetic activity of sodium ions in nerve cells. He is now developing a nuclear magnetic psychometric hat, which may reveal the region-specific brain activity associated with subconscious thoughts.

There is an unmet clinical need to identify therapeutic options for the treatment of pancreatic cancer (PDAC). Here the authors present a systematic screening approach for the identification of potential PDAC cell surface target candidates for CAR-T cell based immunotherapy, followed by their functional validation in preclinical models.

How can one tell when a person is lying? It is claimed that certain voice frequencies are affected by deceit, and so audio analysers are sold for use during telephone conversations. As normal conversation has large visual component, Daedalus plans a more sophisticated analyser for video tape. Many subjects will be filmed, and expert opinions on their honesty will be correlated with a full spatial Fourier analysis of their movements. Using the general principles derived in this way, the 'Lying Eye' program will hugely simplify the process of law.

Howling babies can be soothed by rocking or by the sound of heartbeats — both features of an earlier, blissful time in the womb. DREADCO will take this environmental reconstruction further by adapting intra-uterine contraceptive devices to carry a microphone, so that either before or after pregnancy a mother can record a tape to be played back in the cradle, wrapping fractious babies in uterine surround-sound.

The klystron is an efficient source of monochromatic microwaves, the wavelength being dependent on the size of the device's cavity. Daedalus plans to adapt the klystron principle, and by using silicon microengineering produce a lamp that emits a cold, white light ideal for domestic illumination.

The authors implement model-based analyses to uncover strategies used by mice and humans during sensory decision-making. Contrary to common wisdom, mice do not lapse and, instead, switch between sustained engaged and disengaged states.