Search

Biocompatible chemistry merges chemo-catalytic reactions with cellular metabolism for sustainable small-molecule synthesis. Now a biocompatible Lossen rearrangement has been demonstrated to control bacterial cell growth and chemistry and applied to the remediation and upcycling of polyethylene terephthalate plastic waste in whole-cell reactions and fermentations to produce valuable industrial chemicals, including the drug paracetamol.

The Greenland ice sheet is a large contributor to sea-level rise primarily because of the increased speed of its glaciers in the southeast and northwest. This study looks at a previously stable ice stream in northeast Greenland, and finds that it is thinning due to regional warming. This region drains 16% of the ice sheet but has not figured in model projections of sea-level rise, indicating an under-estimation of Greenland contributions.

Theory predicts a deficit of super-Earth sized planets, which orbit close to their host star. Here, Lundkvist et al. use data from the NASA Kepler mission to show that this deficit is also seen in observations, thereby providing new insight into exoplanetary systems.

Both marine- and land-terminating glaciers in southeast Greenland have experienced dramatic recent retreat. An 80-year record of historical aerial photographs and satellite imagery shows that many land-terminating glaciers in this region retreated more rapidly in the 1930s than today, whereas marine-terminating glaciers have retreated faster in the 2000s.

Diabetes mellitus and hypertension are closely related, and guidelines have recommended aggressive treatment of hypertension in patients with diabetes. However, no single clinical trial is conclusive. An extensive review of the use of blood-pressure-lowering drugs in patients with diabetes supports treating blood pressure >140/90 mmHg, whereas reducing blood pressure in people with normal or high–normal blood pressure might have untoward effects.

A large-scale metagenomic analysis of plant and mammal environmental DNA reveals complex ecological changes across the circumpolar region over the past 50,000 years, as biota responded to changing climates, culminating in the postglacial extinction of large mammals and emergence of modern ecosystems.

Analyses of multiple phylogenetic marker datasets of Asgard archaea provide insight into the transition from prokaryotes to eukaryotes, specifically placing eukaryotes within Asgard archaea and as a sister lineage to Hodarchaeales.

Analysis of two-million-year-old ancient environmental DNA from the Kap København Formation in North Greenland shows there was an open boreal forest with diverse plant and animal species, of which several taxa have not previously been detected at the site, representing an ecosystem that has no present-day analogue.

Melting at the base of the Greenland Ice Sheet is often disregarded as a source of quantifiable mass loss. In this study, the authors find the basal mass loss is equivalent to 8% of the ice sheet’s present imbalance, and that the loss of mass from basal melt is likely to increase in the future.

Stellar data from the Kepler spacecraft are used to infer the existence of a sub-Mercury-sized exoplanet, the smallest yet discovered, in orbit around a Sun-like star.

Why do waves break ? What happens during breaking itself? More than a hundred years of mathematical studies still leave some aspects of these questions unanswered, although we are now understanding much about the processes leading up to breaking and the period after breaking has occurred.

Like phages, archaeal viruses also encode anti-CRISPR proteins (Acrs). These include AcrID1 from the lytic rudivirus SIRV3, which interacts with the Cas10d protein of Sulfolobus islandicus. AcrID1 homologues are present in many archaeal viral families.

Combining historical aerial surveys, expedition photographs, and both spy and modern satellite imagery reveals a pronounced retreat of peripheral glaciers in east and west Greenland, linked to changes in precipitation associated with the NAO.

Red giants are evolved stars that have exhausted the supply of hydrogen in their cores and instead burn hydrogen in a surrounding shell. Once a red giant is sufficiently evolved, the helium in the core also undergoes fusion. However, it is difficult to distinguish between the two groups. Asteroseismology offers a way forward. This study reports observations of gravity-mode period spacings in red giants using high precision photometry obtained by the Kepler spacecraft. It is found that the stars fall into two clear groups, making it possible to distinguish unambiguously between hydrogen-shell-burning stars and those that are also burning helium.

The pulsation spectra of intermediate-mass stars (so-called δ Scuti stars) have been challenging to analyse, but new observations of 60 such stars reveal remarkably regular sequences of high-frequency pulsation modes.

Biologics are delivered by a pill that pricks the stomach wall.

Molecular analysis of archival formalin-fixed clinical tissues can be difficult. Here, researchers have developed MethCORR, an approach that infers gene expression from DNA methylation data and use the approach for molecular characterization and prognostication of colorectal cancer using archival samples.

Three techniques for estimating mass losses from the Greenland Ice Sheet produce comparable results for the period 1992–2018 that approach the trajectory of the highest rates of sea-level rise projected by the IPCC.

Aerial imagery from the 1980s is used to calculate ice mass loss around the entire Greenland Ice Sheet from 1900 to the present; during the twentieth century the Greenland Ice Sheet contributed at least 25.0 ± 9.4 millimetres of global-mean sea level rise.

Findings from a large, international study comprising 4.9 million people with mild hypertension suggest that thiazide and thiazide-like diuretics might be more effective and safer than other first-line antihypertensive drugs. However, the study was not randomized, and the findings might be explained by a phenomenon known as ‘confounding by indication’.

Plasmacytoid dendritic cells (pDC) are an important regulator of immune responses. Here the authors show that pDC precursors, similar to peripheral blood-derived pDCs, can be differentiated from human CD34⁺ hematopoietic stem and progenitor cells, with type I/II IFN priming being required for their functional maturation and differentiation.

After curative treatment, 30% of patients with stage I–III and up to 65% of patients with stage IV colorectal cancer (CRC) develop recurrent disease. Thus, surveillance for disease recurrence is clearly needed in these patients, but controversy surrounds the optimal follow-up approaches. Herein, the current evidence relating to surveillance strategies for patients with CRC is comprehensively reviewed, and the future development of patient-centred programmes is discussed.

Bright star \(\nu\) Indi shows elevated levels of alpha-process elements, suggesting great age, and is kinematically heated, probably from the merger of a dwarf galaxy with the Milky Way. Chaplin et al. make a case for \(\nu\) Indi being an accurate indicator of the timing for the Gaia–Enceladus merger.

7.7 million non-redundant genes have been documented in the pig gut microbiome gene catalogue, revealing a 96% similarity in functional pathways to the human catalogue and influences from sex, age, host genetics and antibiotic treatments.

Kepler-107 b and c have the same radius but, contrary to expectations, the outermost Kepler-107 c is much denser. This difference cannot be explained by photoevaporation by stellar high-energy particle flux and it suggests that Kepler-107 c experienced a giant impact event.