Page 7 - Sciencex Network News Today

A group of political scientists from Harvard University, working with a colleague from Yale University, has found via simulations that politically motivated gerrymandering in the U.S. tends to cancel out as both sides change voting borders. In their study, reported in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Christopher Kenny, Cory McCartan, Tyler Simko, Kosuke Imai and Shiro Kuriwaki used simulations to compare congressional mapping in the U.S. using data from the 2020 census.

An international team of doctors and medical scientists has found two rare leptin variants in two children. Both variants led to hyperphagia and obesity. In their study, reported in The New England Journal of Medicine, the group found mutations in genes responsible for leptin production and explored how they impacted eating behavior in the patients.

Researchers from the University of Edinburgh, Scotland, and the University of Cantabria, Spain, have teamed up to develop an AI trained to discover senolytic medicinal chemistry in familiar compounds.

A team of chemists and engineers affiliated with a large number of institutions in China has found that using liquid metal to synthesize high-entropy alloy nanoparticles (HEA-NPs) is a viable alternative to conventional methods. In their study, reported in the journal Nature, the group attempted to create a variety of HEA-NPs using liquid metals. The editors at Nature have published a Research Briefing in the same journal issue outlining the work.

An international team of astronomers reports the discovery of a new star cluster (SC) as part of the DECam Local Volume Exploration (DELVE) survey. The newfound cluster, designated DELVE 6, is ultra-faint, metal-poor and is estimated to be about 9 billion years old. The finding was detailed in a paper published June 7 on the pre-print server arXiv.

University of Otago, New Zealand, researchers have described a new genus and species of dolphin from the late Oligocene. In their paper, "A new dolphin with tusk-like teeth from the late Oligocene of New Zealand indicates evolution of novel feeding strategies," published in Proceedings of the Royal Society B, the team describes the toothy fossil features of the 25 million-year-old aquatic mammal and how they were likely used.

Harvard University led research may have solved the puzzle of how life became molecularly right-handed. In the paper, "Origin of biological homochirality by crystallization of an RNA precursor on a magnetic surface," published in Science Advances, the researchers explain how it all might have started with the right kind of rocks.

Researchers at the University of Ghana have looked into the efficacy and safety of Mucuna pruriens seed powder on male fertility. In their paper, "Moderate doses of Mucuna pruriens seed powder is safe and improves sperm count and motility," published in Phytomedicine Plus, the team tested various concentrations of Mucuna seed powder on a small sample size of 28 rats.

Genomic research led by the University of California at Berkeley has looked to uncover the origins and history of desert adaptation in foxes. In a paper, "North African fox genomes show signatures of repeated introgression and adaptation to life in deserts," published in Nature Ecology and Evolution, the researchers reveal what the fox genes say about their evolutionary path.

A team of chemists, biologists and planetary scientists from MIT, Nanoplanet Consulting, Harvard University and the University of Alberta has found via lab experimentation that conditions in Venus clouds are possibly conducive to hosting life. In their paper published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the group describes experiments they conducted in their lab and their results.