Why is ice so slippery?

The answer lies in a film of water that is generated by friction, one that is far thinner than expected and much more viscous than usual water through its resemblance to the "snow cones" of crushed ice we drink during the ...

Citizen scientists re-tune Hubble's galaxy classification

Hundreds of thousands of volunteers have helped to overturn almost a century of galaxy classification, in a new study using data from the longstanding Galaxy Zoo project. The new investigation, published in the journal Monthly ...

Enzyme structure reveals how DNA is opened up for transcription

DNA is a molecular manual that contains instructions for building life. And, like any manual, DNA isn't all that useful if it remains unopened and unread. In order to transcribe DNA, the enzyme RNA polymerase, or RNAP, must ...

Unveiling the mechanism protecting replicated DNA from degradation

Researchers from Tokyo Metropolitan University and the FIRC Institute of Molecular Oncology (IFOM) in Italy have succeeded in depleting AND-1, a key protein for DNA replication, by using a recently developed conditional protein ...

Detangling DNA replication

DNA is a lengthy molecule—approximately 1,000-fold longer than the cell in which it resides—so it can't be jammed in haphazardly. Rather, it must be neatly organized so proteins involved in critical processes can access ...

page 1 from 4