DE SCIENCE DISCOVERY

Scientists resurrect ancient enzymes to improve photosynthesis A Cornell University study describes a breakthrough in the quest to improve photosynthesis in certain crops, a step toward adapting plants to rapid climate changes and increasing yields to feed a projected 9 billion people by 2050. The study, "Improving the Efficiency of Rubisco by Resurrecting Its Ancestors in the Family Solanaceae," published April 15 in Science Advances. The senior author is Maureen Hanson, the Liberty Hyde Bailey Professor of Plant Molecular Biology in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences. First author Myat Lin is a postdoctoral research associate in Hanson's lab. The authors developed a computational technique to predict favorable gene sequences that make Rubisco, a key plant enzyme for photosynthesis. The technique allowed the scientists to identify promising candidate enzymes that could be engineered into modern crops and, ultimately, make photosynthesis more efficie...

How do our eyes stay focused on what we reach for? Keeping our eyes focused on what we reach for, whether it be an item at the grocery store or a ground ball on the baseball field, may appear seamless, but, in fact, is due to a complex neurological process involving intricate timing and coordination. In a newly published study in the journal Nature, a team of researchers sheds additional light on the machinations that ensure we don't look away from where we are reaching. The work centers on a form of coordinated looking and reach called "gaze anchoring" -- the temporary stoppage of eye movements in order to coordinate reaches. "Our results show that we anchor our gaze to the target of the reach movement, thereby looking at that target for longer periods," explains Bijan Pesaran, a professor at NYU's Center for Neural Science and one of the paper's authors. "This is what makes our reaches much more accurate. The big question has been: How...

Kitchen sponge a better incubator for bacterial diversity than a laboratory petri dish Researchers at Duke University have uncovered a basic but surprising fact: A kitchen sponge is a better incubator for diverse bacterial communities than a laboratory petri dish. But it's not just the trapped leftovers that make the cornucopia of microbes swarming around so happy and productive, it's the structure of the sponge itself. In a series of experiments, the scientists show that various microbial species can affect one another's population dynamics depending on structural environment factors such as complexity and size. Some bacteria thrive in a diverse community while others prefer a solitary existence. And a physical environment that allows both to live their best lives leads to the strongest levels of biodiversity. Soil provides that optimal mixed-housing environment -- and so does a kitchen sponge. Bacteria are just like people living through the pandemic -- some f...