Channel 42
Science is the answer to everything.

Biologists at Washington University in St. Louis have made major headway in explaining a mechanism by which plant cells silence potentially harmful genes. A team led by Craig Pikaard, Ph.D., Washington University professor of biology in Arts & Sciences, has published a paper this month in Cell that explains how RNA polymerases work together to use the non-coding region of DNA to prevent destructive, virus-derived genes from being activated.

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Increasing levels of nitrogen deposition associated with industry and agriculture can drive soils toward a toxic level of acidification, according to a study published in Nature Geoscience.

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A new study by researchers at UC Davis Medical Center suggests that the sudden unexplained deaths of some epilepsy patients may be a result of their brains not telling their bodies to breathe during seizures.

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Massive energy releases occur every day in the upper reaches of Earth’s atmosphere. Lightning may give rise to these bursts of radiation. However, unlike the well-known flashes of light and peals of thunder familiar to Earth-dwellers, these energy releases are channeled upward and can be detected only from space. Our atmosphere protects us from the effects of this radiation, but the mechanisms at work can impact Earth’s upper atmosphere and its space environment.

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Democratic Party control in Washington could restore lawsuits as an option for workers and consumers now forced to settle disputes through mandatory arbitration that gives employers and businesses an unfair edge, a University of Illinois labor law expert says.

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To prevent global warming, researchers and policymakers are exploring a variety of options to significantly cut the amount of carbon dioxide that reaches the atmosphere. One possible approach involves capturing greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide at the source, then injecting them underground. Now MIT engineers have come up with a new software tool to determine how much CO2 can be sequestered safely in geological formations.

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Construction of new coal-fired power plants in the United States is in danger of coming to a standstill, partly due to the high cost of the requirement — whether existing or anticipated — to capture all emissions of carbon dioxide, an important greenhouse gas. But an MIT analysis suggests an intermediate step that could get construction moving again, allowing the nation to fend off growing electricity shortages using our most-abundant, least-expensive fuel while reducing emissions.

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Clinton Foundation researcher to present drug forecasting method for anti-malarial treatments.

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China is not eroding the foundations of US alliances in East Asia and the United States remains the security partner of choice in the region. But consistent US efforts are needed to ensure that the nation retains its influence, according to a RAND Corporation study issued today.

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A Cray XT high-performance computing system at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory is the world’s fastest supercomputer for science. The Cray XT, called Jaguar, has a peak performance of 1.64 petaflops, (quadrillion floating point operations, or calculations) per second, incorporating a 1.382 petaflops XT5 and a 266 teraflops XT4 systems.

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