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The text discusses various developments in the fields of biotechnology, pharmaceuticals, chemicals, and other industries. It highlights the launch of the International Centre for Enzyme Design in the UK, partnerships between companies for cancer treatment research, and merger agreements in the ophthalmic pharma sector. It also covers collaborations for more sustainable chemical production, the establishment of a new injectables manufacturing facility, and the sale of a business unit. The text provides information on investments, expansions, collaborations, new facilities, and acquisitions by various companies. Additionally, it mentions the approval of a German measure to support a semiconductor manufacturing company and the relocation of a company. [Extracted from the article]

The given text provides a collection of news articles covering various scientific and technological advancements. The articles touch on topics such as antibiotic development, renewable energy, sustainable packaging, and electric vehicle batteries. [Extracted from the article]

Global climate change is often thought of as a steady and approximately predictable physical response to increasing forcings, which then requires commensurate adaptation. But adaptation has practical, cultural and biological limits, and climate change may pose unanticipated global hazards, sudden changes or other surprises–as may societal adaptation and mitigation responses. These poorly known factors could substantially affect the urgency of mitigation as well as adaptation decisions. We outline a strategy for better accommodating these challenges by making climate science more integrative, in order to identify and quantify known and novel physical risks including those arising from interactions with ecosystems and society. We need to do this even–or especially–when they are highly uncertain, and to explore risks and opportunities associated with mitigation and adaptation responses by engaging across disciplines. We argue that upcoming climate assessments need to be more risk‐aware, and suggest ways of achieving this. These strategies improve the chances of anticipating potential surprises and identifying and communicating "safe landing" pathways that meet UN Sustainable Development Goals and guide humanity toward a better future. Plain Language Summary: Global risks may arise from many places, not all of which are being considered at the moment in the usual projections of future climate. Some risks are being overlooked, sometimes by most of the physical science community itself, or else by others who need information about future climate. We think physical climate sciences can do a lot to remedy this situation by looking more systematically at a broader array of risks and possible futures, narrowing them down, and collaboratively seeking better ways to express them. In this perspective we argue why this is important and explain a few ways it can be done. Key Points: Climate science needs to adjust to account systematically for low‐likelihood, high‐impact risks and comprehensive pathway interactionsAchieving this requires new strategies; several are outlined here, including increased model coupling and scenario explorationSuccess will require collaboration between physical sciences and other disciplines [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This document provides a summary of various news articles highlighting scientific advancements and collaborations in different industries. Some notable topics include a partnership between Kaerus Bioscience and Neurolentech for research on rare genetic neurodevelopment syndromes, the launch of a bio-based acetonitrile for pharmaceutical production by INEOS Nitriles, and Syensqo's achievement of carbon neutrality in their production facility. Other articles cover collaborations for cardiovascular disease treatments, the inauguration of a demonstration plant for electrically heated steam cracking furnaces, and agreements for feedstock supply and hydrogen production. The document also includes articles on research collaborations, AI-powered search tools, green hydrogen supply, gene therapy development, and advancements in chemical and biotech industries. [Extracted from the article]

The Gaia hypothesis is often used as the basis for demonstrating environmental integrity in current arguments within the field of ecological philosophy. However, when citing the Gaia hypothesis, people are often vague when defining its connotations and extensions. By analysing the controversies surrounding the Gaia hypothesis, we can achieve an appropriate conception of its ontology, including the blindness of the strong theoretical approach and the rationality of the weak one. Gaia's naturalistic epistemology, holistic methodology and systematic values can thus be discriminated. Gaia has strong significance for allowing human beings to understand the Earth's ecological environment and is an effective ecological holistic theory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses a study that examines the factors contributing to tree mortality in tropical forests. The research finds that the traits of trees in current forests are more important for predicting changes in forest health than climate projections or rising CO2 levels. The study emphasizes the importance of understanding the trait composition of forests, particularly in tropical regions. The findings suggest that future forest health may depend more on existing traits than on climate change. The study also highlights the need for collaboration between field ecology and vegetation model development. [Extracted from the article]

The article focuses on a new process developed by researchers at MIT and Harvard University that converts carbon dioxide into formate, a material that can be used like hydrogen or methanol to power a fuel cell and generate electricity. Topics include the two-stage process of converting carbon dioxide into fuel, the high efficiency of the new process, and the potential applications of the process.

This review is a critical analysis of the current state-of-the-art in core spun yarn textile triboelectric nanogenerators (CSY-T-TENGs) for self-powered smart sensing applications. The rapid expansion of wireless communication, flexible conductive materials, and wearable electronics over the last ten years is now demanding autonomous energy, which has created a new research space in the field of wearable T-TENGs. Current research is exploring T-TENGs made from CSYs as stable and reliable energy harvesters and sensing devices for modern wearable IoT platforms. CSY-TENGs are emerging as an important technology due to its simple structure, low cost, and excellent performance in converting mechanical energy into electrical energy and due to its sensing ability. This paper provides a critical review on current progress, it analyzes the unique advantages of CSYs T-TENGs over conventional T-TENGs, it describes fabrication techniques and discusses the materials used along with their properties and electrical performance characteristics, and it highlights the recent advancements in their integration with self-excitation circuits, charge storage devices and IoT-enabled smart sensing applications, such as environmental and health monitoring. In the conclusion, it discusses the challenges and future directions of CSYs T-TENGs and it provides a future road map for optimization, upscaling, and commercialization of the technology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the application of computer simulations in various scientific and engineering domains, including meteorology, cosmology and quantum chemistry. By utilizing simulations, researchers gain insights into complex phenomena, such as weather patterns, the formation of galaxies driven by dark matter and molecular interactions, thus advancing our understanding of the natural world.

The article highlights the thriving condition of the British life sciences sector, recognizing its historical prowess in innovation and manufacturing, notably with recent expansions by companies like Biosynth. Topics discussed include the ramifications of Brexit on the Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) industry, the British Government's Life Sciences Vision post-Covid, and the growing significance of peptide therapeutics in the global market.

This section offers news briefs related to applied chemistry and advanced materials, as of April 1, 2023. Japanese scientists have reported a safe, one-pot homogenous direct synthesis of hydrogen peroxide. Researcher have used the cell wall of an algae to sustainably harvest biogenic calcite for the mass production of nanostructured perovskites.

Payments for ecosystem services (PES) are a conservation initiative that offer payments to people who own or manage lands that provide desired ecosystem services. Utilizing mixed methods, I examine how PES in the form of government‐issued forestry incentives interact with land tenure to affect carbon storage in Guatemala's Western Highlands. Land tenure is a larger determining factor for carbon storage than payments, as communal forests managed by Indigenous Maya K'iche' communities have significantly higher carbon stocks than private landholdings in these same communities. No statistically significant differences were found in carbon stocks between incentivized and non‐incentivized plots, and participants enrolled only a fraction of their land, likely prioritizing enrollment of degraded plots. These results indicate the importance of using both social and physical science methods to understand the physical outcomes and social context of forest management. I also reflect on why carbon storage is often prioritized, drawing on a critical physical geography framework to analyze carbon accounting methods. Measuring carbon storage gives us the tools to describe the success of communal forest management, yet I also caution relying on the quantification of ecosystem services as a method for landscape valuation and suggest avoiding prioritizing carbon storage and sequestration. Key Messages: Communal forests contain more standing carbon than private forests in the Western Highlands of Guatemala.No statistically significant differences were found in carbon stocks between incentivized and non‐incentivized plots.Measuring carbon can be a tool to describe ecosystems but should not lead to the prioritization of carbon storage or sequestration over other values of forests. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 2014, an intervention paper was published in I The Canadian Geographer/Le Géographe canadien i , calling for greater integration of physical and critical human geography, through an intellectual practice termed I critical physical geography i (Lave et al., [16]). Bruce Rhoads, one of the authors of the original CPG Intervention piece (Lave et al., [16]), phrased this critique clearly in a recent paper: [T]he extent to which CPG differs fundamentally from political ecology ... remains unclear. In doing so, the authors advance CPG scholarship by (1) creating new trading zones and creoles distinctive to CPG, and (2) developing and applying their own interactional expertise in ways that contribute to the fuller realization of CPG's three core tenets. Almost a decade after the publication of the initial CPG intervention piece, CPG is expanding into new topics (e.g., predator reintroduction, urban climatology), new methodologies (e.g., dendroprovenancing, network analysis), and new conversations with allied fields (e.g., Black Geographies, Indigenous Geographies, Queer Ecologies). [Extracted from the article]

This section offers news briefs on the biochemical industry as of March 2023. A study from the University of Calgary in Alberta showed the potential of vitamin D supplements to stave off dementia. The role of environmental pollution in antimicrobial resistance is highlighted in a United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) report. A database resulting from the Pest Genome Initiative involving Rothamsted Research, Syngenta and Bayer details the genomes of 19 global crop pests.

X‐ray diffraction from a solid crystal shows the wave nature of photons. It is an important electromagnetic (EM) physics process when X‐ray photons interact with a crystal. Bragg diffraction, often called Bragg reflection, is a special case of the general form of X‐ray diffraction, known as Laue diffraction. When the Bragg's law is met, the incident photon beam is reflected from the crystal plane behaving as a specular reflection at the Bragg angle. However, the Bragg reflection physical process has not been integrated into the general‐purpose Monte Carlo simulation toolkit Geant4 for particle physics. In the current study, we developed a new EM physical process class "G4CrystalBraggReflection" and a new EM physical model class "G4DarwinDynamicalModel" for modeling the Bragg reflection physical process within a crystal. We added the Bragg reflection physical process to the EM physics category of Geant4. The preliminary results of photon tracking in a silicon crystal slab have shown the feasibility of simulating the Bragg reflection process in addition to the standard EM processes in the framework of Geant4. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Physics‐driven discovery in an autonomous experiment has emerged as a dream application of machine learning in physical sciences. Here, this work develops and experimentally implements a deep kernel learning (DKL) workflow combining the correlative prediction of the target functional response and its uncertainty from the structure, and physics‐based selection of acquisition function, which autonomously guides the navigation of the image space. Compared to classical Bayesian optimization (BO) methods, this approach allows to capture the complex spatial features present in the images of realistic materials, and dynamically learn structure–property relationships. In combination with the flexible scalarizer function that allows to ascribe the degree of physical interest to predicted spectra, this enables physical discovery in automated experiment. Here, this approach is illustrated for nanoplasmonic studies of nanoparticles and experimentally implemented in a truly autonomous fashion for bulk‐ and edge plasmon discovery in MnPS3, a lesser‐known beam‐sensitive layered 2D material. This approach is universal, can be directly used as‐is with any specimen, and is expected to be applicable to any probe‐based microscopic techniques including other STEM modalities, scanning probe microscopies, chemical, and optical imaging. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The advocacy for writing in science and STEM‐related fields through reasoning‐based writing, critical thinking and argumentation has been accentuated as a core competence in curriculum documents. In South Africa, the CAPS document for Physical Sciences acknowledged the importance of writing and consequently, call on teachers to engage in teaching language across the curriculum. This study examined the characteristics of writing prompts in three selected samples of textbooks to understand how writing is addressed in the Physical Sciences textbooks. Specifically, the study examined the frequency and characteristics of writing prompts included in the chemistry component of three selected Physical Sciences textbooks for Grade 12 learners. A total of 533 writing prompts were identified and analyzed using a coding scheme adopted for the study. Findings revealed that learners are prompted to write in variety of ways, with prompts that positioned them to explain why, discuss your ideas, explain how and explain what. While the prompts that ask learners to explain why and discuss your ideas were the most frequently coded, the press to write their reasoning with specific features that are inherent in the respective topics were inadequate. The implications for curriculum developers are the need for explicit instructions on the length of writings required, and for authors to develop adaptable guidelines to enable textbook users understand the writing expectations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Keywords: sea-level rise; climate change; ice sheet; Greenland; Antartica EN sea-level rise climate change ice sheet Greenland Antartica 1 4 4 12/29/22 20221201 NES 221201 The Iselin Marine Facility overlooks Vineyard Sound, Woods Hole Passage, and Great Harbor in Woods Hole, Massachusetts. Ice sheet and climate processes driving uncertainty in projections of future sea level rise: Findings from a structured expert judgment approach. Grinsted et al. ([11]) build on previous efforts by considering the most recent generation of climate, ice-sheet, and glacier models, and by quantifying sensitivities of individual contributors to global sea level rise, including the ice sheets. Sea-level rise, climate change, ice sheet, Greenland, Antartica. [Extracted from the article]

The water‐energy‐food (WEF) nexus is a prominent approach for addressing today's sustainable development challenges. In our critical appraisal of the WEF, covering different approaches, drivers, enablers, and applications, we emphasize the situation across the Global South (Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean). Here, WEF research covers at least 23 focal domains. We find that the nexus is still a maturing paradigm primarily rooted in a physical and natural sciences framing, which is itself embedded in a neoliberal securities narrative. While providing insights and tools to address the systemic interdependencies between resource sectors whose exploitation, degradation, and sub‐optimal management contribute to (un)sustainable development, there is still insufficient engagement with social, political, and economic dimensions. Progress related to climate, urbanization, and resource consumption is encouraging, but while governance and finance are central enablers of current and future nexus systems, gaps remain in relation to implementation and operationalization. Harnessing the nexus for sustainable development across the Global South means recognizing that it is more than a biophysical system, but also a multi‐scale complex of people, institutions, and infrastructure, affected by history and context. Addressing this complexity requires alternative and possibly challenging perspectives to counter dominant narratives, and manage problems associated with policy integration, trade‐offs, and winners and losers. We outline 10 emergent research areas that we think can contribute to this endeavor and enable the nexus to be a stronger policy force. Plain Language Summary: The sustainability of water, energy, and food systems, especially in the Global South, is one of the grand challenges of the 21st century. The water‐energy‐food (WEF) nexus provides a framework and an approach to help address these multifaceted issues. Although the WEF paradigm has evolved, experiencing rapid policy uptake, with encouraging applications in understanding climate change, urbanization, and resource consumption impacts, it is yet to achieve its full potential. Unfulfilled promise is evident in the failure to fully harness "nexus thinking" to enhance the implementation of WEF‐based policies and governance of WEF systems. Simultaneously, research on WEF systems remains largely the preserve of the natural and physical sciences, with much less critical attention received from the social and political sciences. Ensuring the WEF paradigm achieves policy and research salience and improved implementation across the Global South, to effectively contribute to sustainable development, means rectifying such imbalances. This will require expanding beyond some of the innovative WEF research already undertaken, emphasizing interdisciplinarity, plural methods, and a focus on communities in the dynamics of nexus systems. We identify 10 emergent priority areas that can contribute to this endeavor and enhance the capacity of the nexus to positively influence policy change for sustainability. Key Points: The water‐energy‐food "nexus" is increasingly used to frame and examine sustainable development challenges in the Global SouthNexus research spans 23 focal domains of activity, with relations between theory and practice improving but still disjointedChallenging current narratives, improving equitability and the salience of nexus theory and practice are key to future utility [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The IPCC's scientific assessment of the timing of net‐zero emissions and 2030 emission reduction targets consistent with limiting warming to 1.5°C or 2°C rests on large scenario databases. Updates to this assessment, such as between the IPCC's Special Report on Global Warming of 1.5°C (SR1.5) of warming and the Sixth Assessment Report (AR6), are the result of intertwined, sometimes opaque, factors. Here we isolate one factor: the Earth System Model emulators used to estimate the global warming implications of scenarios. We show that warming projections using AR6‐calibrated emulators are consistent, to within around 0.1°C, with projections made by the emulators used in SR1.5. The consistency is due to two almost compensating changes: the increase in assessed historical warming between SR1.5 (based on AR5) and AR6, and a reduction in projected warming due to improved agreement between the emulators' response to emissions and the assessment to which it is calibrated. Plain Language Summary: The IPCC's latest physical science report, the Working Group 1 Contribution to the Sixth Assessment Report (AR6), was released in August 2021. That report includes an update to the tools used to project the climate outcome of emission scenarios. Here we apply these newly calibrated tools, called earth system model emulators, to the set of scenarios assessed in the IPCC's Special Report on warming of 1.5°C (SR1.5). We find that two compensating changes lead to a remarkable consistency (peak warming projections within 0.1°C) between the projections made by the emulators used in SR1.5 and their descendants used in AR6. First, updates to the historical warming assessment since the SR1.5 (which was based on the IPCC's 2013 physical science report (AR5)) increase future warming projections. However, improved consistency between the emulators and the assessment of the underlying physics, particularly the short‐term warming response to emissions, lowers warming projections by an approximately equivalent amount. Our work reinforces the key messages from the IPCC: limiting warming to around 1.5°C is a great and urgent challenge, and it is up to us to decide whether we pull out all the stops to hold temperatures around 1.5°C or whether we sail on by. Key Points: Emulators used in IPCC Special Report on warming of 1.5°C and Sixth Assessment Report are remarkably consistent, despite their entirely new calibrationsThe consistency is due to two compensating factors: change in assessed historical warming and improvements to emulator calibration methods [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Keywords: bivalve; fisheries; nearshore; semi-quantitative; thermal stress EN bivalve fisheries nearshore semi-quantitative thermal stress 1 7 7 10/06/22 20221001 NES 221001 From 26 to 28 June 2021, an unprecedented atmospheric heatwave coincided with the lowest low tides of the year in the Pacific Northwest (i.e., the region consisting of the northwestern corner of the contiguous United States and southwestern Canada). Butter clams, which often burrow >15 cm deep in sediment and live at lower tidal elevations than other clam species (Dethier, 2006), were less affected by the heatwave than surface-dwelling cockles. Given that all of the bivalve species discussed here were likely reproductive during the heatwave (Anderson et al., 1982), it is possible that high mortality in certain species (e.g., cockles) may manifest itself in reduced adult populations in ~4 years. However, we did observe a range in butter clam condition among sites separated by ~30 km, indicating that local scale factors may also contribute to postheatwave clam condition. [Extracted from the article]

The article presents the discussion on idea of converting electronic devices into useful products. Topics include designing electronics being more easily recycled into new forms or naturally degrade and receiving a grant from the UK Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC); and conductors, semiconductors, insulators and the substrate housing all the components.

The article presents the discussion on world news briefs. Topics include group in the US opening the spigots for plants making more aromatic compounds allowing crops for converting more atmospheric carbon dioxide into high-value aromatic compounds; and using the principles of origami where researchers producing a wirelessly propelled mm-scale robot capable of swimming through bodily fluids.

The orthogonal relationship between theoretical/experiential and procedural knowledge about NTS (Figure 5a, Appendix C: Figure S1) also points to superficial NTS experiences, highlighting the difficulty engineering students have translating what they have heard and seen into procedures for differentiating NTS from other landscape features. Given the respective densities of NTS on and off campus (roughly 3.2 NTS per km on campus and 0.2 NTS per km off campus; Silvertooth et al., 2019), it seems unlikely that this result is due to students who are far from campus NTS still being proximal to off-campus NTS, although we cannot rule out this possibility. Student understanding of NTS might also have been limited by infrequent exposure to built NTS in course curricula: only 6% of student participants reported visiting NTS as part of a class and 1% for research (Appendix C: Table S1). Keywords: ecosystem services; green infrastructure; green stormwater infrastructure; landscape perception EN ecosystem services green infrastructure green stormwater infrastructure landscape perception 481 504 24 04/06/22 20220401 NES 220401 INTRODUCTION Urban communities face many challenges globally, including altered hydrology, which has cascading impacts on water quality and public/ecosystem health (Askarizadeh et al., 2015; Walsh et al., 2016). In the full survey where NTS signage was addressed, unsigned NTS were reported by participants significantly more often than signed NTS (29% vs. 11% of the time; I p i < 0.05), and more participants were able to recall the specific type of NTS they had seen when they reported having seen signed NTS (79% vs. 50%; marginally significant, I p i = 0.07). [Extracted from the article]

The increase in simulated flood inundation areas and depths (6%-31% for different GCMs) in the future showed the importance of improving flood management tools for the sustainable development of urban water environments. The paper by Burch et al. (2010) addresses a different aspect of flood risk management in response to climate change and illustrates an advance in best practice for flood risk management and climate change planning. In terms of flood risk management, NBSs include natural flood management measures (NFMs), and these are the subject of the paper in this VSI by Dittrich et al. (2019). [Extracted from the article]

Studies to identify marginal snow environments (taking into account hemispheric differences in snow [Sanecki et al., 2006a]), like those that identify hotspots of snow cover change (e.g., Notarnicola, 2020), can guide where understanding the ecological value of snow is likely have the greatest benefit for informing conservation efforts. Keywords: climate change; phenology; snow manipulation; snow melt; subnivean; winter; bajo nieve; cambio climático; deshielo; fenología; invierno; manipulación de la nieve EN climate change phenology snow manipulation snow melt subnivean winter bajo nieve cambio climático deshielo fenología invierno manipulación de la nieve 1 13 13 03/02/22 20220201 NES 220201 Introduction Seasonal snow, which covers the ground for weeks to months each year, is a feature of many temperate and mountain ecosystems. The predominance of studies on alpine (cold, deep snow cover) and maritime snow (warm, deep snow cover) does not correspond to the relative frequencies of these 2 snow types across the landscape; each are <10% of snow-covered land area in the northern hemisphere. First, predictions for the direction and magnitude of change in snow conditions over the coming decades vary regionally and by elevation; marginal snow environments-those where temperatures are already close to freezing-are likely to experience the first and greatest losses of snow and thus the most rapid loss of snow-associated habitat (Notarnicola, 2020; Steger et al., 2013). [Extracted from the article]

A meta-analysis of multiple published simulations of crop yields predicts aggregate production losses for wheat, rice ( I Oryza sativa i ), and maize in both temperate and tropical regions by 2 °C warming with even greater crop losses in the second half of the 21st century (Challinor et al., 2014). Global emissions of CO SB 2 sb and other greenhouse gases have increased steadily since the pre-industrial era (Pedersen et al., 2021) leading to global temperature increases of >1 °C with most of this increase occurring within the last 50 years (IPCC, 2021). Also focusing on drought and the different molecular mechanisms involved in drought tolerance and drought recovery, Tang and Bassham (2022) address the important process of autophagy and its role in inducing drought tolerance. In their review article, Berrío et al. (2022) discuss several strategies to enhance drought resilience in crops focusing on "growth-centered" and "drought resilience without growth penalty" strategies. [Extracted from the article]

We will miss party Ed, creative Ed, kind Ed. The shock classification scheme for ordinary and carbonaceous chondrites developed by Ed with colleagues Dieter Stöffler and Klaus Keil is widely used in meteorite research (Scott et al., 1992; Stöffler et al., 1991). (Ed's first publication [Scott, 1971] reported his discovery of a new iron carbide, [Fe, Ni] SB 23 sb C SB 6 sb , in iron meteorites.) A. J. Timothy Jull 2 Ed's family: Anneliese Scott, Victoria Scott, and Rosemarie Scott References 1 Barber, D. J., and Scott, E. R. D. 2003. [Extracted from the article]

GRAPH Erin Lindsey Walton Hauck passed away on September 21, 2022 at the age of 44 following a battle with cancer. Erin is survived by her husband, Tyler Hauck, sons Benjamin (11) and Erik (9), parents Elma and Malcolm Walton, and brother Christopher. Her research recognized and characterized shock veins in host-rock fragments from Steen River impactites, and elucidated shock vein mineralogy and metamorphic effects similar to those in shocked meteorites (Walton et al., [8]). [Extracted from the article]

The article focuses on study from the University of Georgia, the U.S., suggests a non-edible oilseed crop could generate jet fuels and reduce carbon emissions by 68% per litre. Topics include the project has funded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture looked at its potential to grow in the South of the U.S., and the crush seeds from carinata and refine the oil to produce jet fuel and other commercially valuable products.

There is a significant gap between the descriptions of Lean used by industry practitioners and the various bodies of academic research that have studied the theory and application of Lean. There is also a gap between applied research on Lean and basic research in the mathematical, physical and social sciences. As a result, Lean practice is based largely on trial‐and‐error experience while potentially valuable research results remain locked away unused in archival journals. This paper attempts to close these gaps by describing four "Lenses of Lean," each of which aligns with a practical perspective and rests on a distinct body of conceptual research. Our hope is that this framework will provide a useful construct for Lean training and implementation and will also spur academic research that is relevant to advancing Lean practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Key points: Letters to the editor are important to science because they are a form of post‐publication review.Examination of 3,203 letters published in exercise science and physical therapy journals revealed letters are indexed inconsistently.Issues exist with letter titles, letter authorship, and letter digital object identifiers (DOIs) and PubMed identifiers (PMIDs).Implications are that some letters are difficult to discover and cite, and some letter writers are not recognized for their intellectual contributions.Resolutions include indexing letters in PubMed under the "letter" [pt] search term and indexing each letter with the author's name, a distinct but consistently formatted title, and a unique DOI and PMID. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In game theory, Parrondo's paradox describes the possibility of achieving winning outcomes by alternating between losing strategies. The framework had been conceptualized from a physical phenomenon termed flashing Brownian ratchets, but has since been useful in understanding a broad range of phenomena in the physical and life sciences, including the behavior of ecological systems and evolutionary trends. A minimal representation of the paradox is that of a pair of games played in random order; unfortunately, closed‐form solutions general in all parameters remain elusive. Here, we present explicit solutions for capital statistics and outcome conditions for a generalized game pair. The methodology is general and can be applied to the development of analytical methods across ratchet‐type models, and of Parrondo's paradox in general, which have wide‐ranging applications across physical and biological systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses metal-organic frameworks have versatile structures made up of metal ions connected to organic ligands, forming one-, two, or three-dimensional compounds. Topics include the team, led by Monash University and Australia's Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation, developed 2D nanosheets; and queen reports that the spongelike material offering Cr(VI) uptake capacities reported to date, and rapid extraction rates.

With the advent of climate change as a major challenge of our time, Earth system modeling has become highly policy‐relevant regulatory science. In this situation, the social mechanisms that play a role in any scientific endeavor become particularly exposed. By discussing historical, philosophical, and sociological (HPS) aspects of the field's current "cultures of prediction" together with the physical science community in a physical science journal, we aim to provide an entry point into HPS reasoning for climate scientists interested in reflecting on their field and science in general. This paper, first, introduces our perspective on "science as culture" and climate modeling as "regulatory science" and, second, highlights and connects relevant ideas from the three commentaries that follow it. In so doing, we hope to give a fuller picture of climate science, the interplay it engenders between HPS and the physical sciences, the distinctions that it gives rise to as compared to some of the more traditional, exact, sciences in which it is rooted and its place in society including its role in scientific policy advice. Key Points: With the advent of climate change as a major challenge of our time, Earth system modeling has become highly policy relevantIn this situation, the social mechanisms that play a role in any scientific endeavor become particularly exposedThis paper introduces perspectives on "science as culture" and highlights relevant ideas from the three subsequent commentaries [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research groups are the cornerstone of scientific research, yet little is known about how these groups are formed and how their organization is influenced by the gender of the research group leader. This represents an important gap in our understanding of the processes shaping gender structure within universities and the academic fields they represent. Here, we report the results of an email survey sent to department chairs and discipline‐specific listservs. We received responses from 275 female and 175 male research group leaders. Most respondents were biologists (n = 328) but psychology (n = 27), chemistry (n = 16), physics (n = 32), and mathematics (n = 30) were also relatively well represented. We found that men were self‐reported as overrepresented in research groups in the physical sciences, particularly at later career stages. Within biology, male and female group leaders reported supervising a disproportionate number of same‐gender trainees (students and postdoctoral fellows), particularly early in their careers. These self‐reported patterns were driven primarily by gender‐based differences in the pool of students applying to their research groups, while gender differences in acceptance rates played a seemingly smaller role. We discuss the implications of our results for women continuing into the professoriate and for the recruitment of young scientists into research groups. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Here, we describe a novel peroxin, Pex37, in the yeast Hansenula polymorpha. H. polymorpha Pex37 is a peroxisomal membrane protein, which belongs to a protein family that includes, among others, the Neurospora crassa Woronin body protein Wsc, the human peroxisomal membrane protein PXMP2, the Saccharomyces cerevisiae mitochondrial inner membrane protein Sym1, and its mammalian homologue MPV17. We show that deletion of H. polymorpha PEX37 does not appear to have a significant effect on peroxisome biogenesis or proliferation in cells grown at peroxisome‐inducing growth conditions (methanol). However, the absence of Pex37 results in a reduction in peroxisome numbers and a defect in peroxisome segregation in cells grown at peroxisome‐repressing conditions (glucose). Conversely, overproduction of Pex37 in glucose‐grown cells results in an increase in peroxisome numbers in conjunction with a decrease in their size. The increase in numbers in PEX37‐overexpressing cells depends on the dynamin‐related protein Dnm1. Together our data suggest that Pex37 is involved in peroxisome fission in glucose‐grown cells. Introduction of human PXMP2 in H. polymorpha pex37 cells partially restored the peroxisomal phenotype, indicating that PXMP2 represents a functional homologue of Pex37. H.polymorpha pex37 cells did not show aberrant growth on any of the tested carbon and nitrogen sources that are metabolized by peroxisomal enzymes, suggesting that Pex37 may not fulfill an essential function in transport of these substrates or compounds required for their metabolism across the peroxisomal membrane. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: Structural Maintenance of Chromosomes 2 (SMC2) and Structural Maintenance of Chromosomes 4 (SMC4) are the core components of the condensin complexes, which are required for chromosome assembly and faithful segregation during cell division. Because of the crucial functions of both proteins in cell division, much work has been done in various vertebrates, but little information is known about their roles in plants. Here, we identified ZmSMC2 and ZmSMC4 in maize (Zea mays) and confirmed that ZmSMC2 associates with ZmSMC4 via their hinge domains. Immunostaining revealed that both proteins showed dynamic localization during mitosis. ZmSMC2 and ZmSMC4 are essential for proper chromosome segregation and for H3 phosphorylation at Serine 10 (H3S10ph) at pericentromeres during mitotic division. The loss of function of ZmSMC2 and ZmSMC4 enlarges mitotic chromosome volume and impairs sister chromatid separation to the opposite poles. Taken together, these findings confirm and extend the coordinated role of ZmSMC2 and ZmSMC4 in maintenance of normal chromosome architecture and accurate segregation during mitosis. Significance Statement: ZmSMC2 and ZmSMC4, the important subunits of condensin, interact with each other to guarantee normal chromosome architecture and accurate segregation during mitosis. Deletion of both proteins affects the mitotic chromosome architecture, which leads to mislocalization of H3S10 phosphorylation at metaphase and subsequent improper chromosome segregation with the presence of chromosome bridges at anaphase. These findings further reveal the effect of normal chromosome condensation on the accurate chromosome segregation during mitosis in plants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article offers information on how scientist use technologies to tackle air pollution. Topics discussed include information on air pollution as the biggest environmental health risk in the world; attitudes of Europeans toward the environment; and need for approach that exiles cars from cities and reclaims the streets for people.

The article offers science related new briefs. Topics discussed include the compound halicin discovered by scientists at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), plans of energy company Shell of building grid storage battery project in Europe and a study of Greenland ice cores reports fossil methane emissions from human activity as far higher than previously estimated.

How can we understand climate change from a sociological perspective? In asking this question, we assume that Sociology has something to contribute to such an enterprise. The argument that we put forward is twofold: We argue that Sociology provides a much needed alternative to two dominant approaches that have influenced public discourse, behaviorist theories, mainly employed in Economics, and a belief in the centrality of science in policy making ("evidence first"), mainly entertained by physical scientists. We critically discuss both approaches, showing the limits of behaviorism and the linear model of policy making and provide an alternative framework, which emphasizes the role of social action, of organizations, and of structural differences between different social worlds. We then apply our framework to assess the role of evidence at the climate science‐policy interface and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) as a boundary organization in particular. We argue that science and politics follow different logics and that the IPCC is simultaneously both more political and less policy relevant than its self‐description as "policy‐relevant, never policy prescriptive" tries to make us believe. We conclude that a depoliticization of politics by IPCC expert advice and a politicization of climate science occur simultaneously and mutually reinforce one another. The result is a lack of progress in climate policy as science has taken center stage but is unable to offer political solutions. Key Points: Applying sociological concepts, we assess how climate change has been framed by two influential disciplines (economics and the physical sciences)We provide an alternative framework which emphasizes the role of social action, of organizations, and of structural differences between different social worldsWe conclude that science and politics follow different logics and that boundary organizations such as the IPCC cannot escape this harsh reality [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Having a history of 25 years, with the first PBC taking place in Montpellier (France) in 1994 and the most recent one in Montreal (Canada) in 2018, the PBC sessions mirror, on the one hand, the most exciting research areas in plant biomechanics over the last quarter of a century and, on the other, may help to answer the question "Quo vadis plant biomechanics?" Appearing at (almost) all PBCs, the sessions Trees & Wood (9/164); Cells, Cell Walls & Tissues (9/160); Ecology & Evolution (9/112); Morphogenesis & Growth (8/97); and Applied Biomechanics & Biomimetics (8/93) can be considered as the core topics that are of ongoing scientific interest for the plant biomechanics community. The increasing flexibility in older liana stems is always achieved by the production of a less-dense, flexible secondary wood with huge-diameter vessels that additionally enable sufficient water conduction within the slender liana stems, which are often several hundreds of meters long (Fig.). In particular, we wish to inspire molecular biologists to join the bandwagon of biomechanics and to converge the newest molecular approaches and results with questions concerning (whole plant) organismic botany as addressed in biomechanics. [Extracted from the article]

The article offers information on importance of photochemistry. Topics discussed include information on canataxpropellane, a relative of the widely used anti-cancer drug taxol; photochemical synthesis of the marine polyketide hippolachnin A from the sponge Hippospongia lachne; and use of photochemical methods in industry that allow more sustainable production, saving energy and valuable resources.

The Koshihikari allele of I MP3 i in a near-isogenic line (NIL) in the Takanari genetic background produced 19% more panicles and 12-20% more spikelets (Takai et al., [4]). In conclusion, the authors propose that mild alleles such as I MP3 i , which moderately increase panicle number, combined with large-sized panicle varieties can be used to create high-yielding varieties adapted to rising CO SB 2 sb levels. [Extracted from the article]

The first law of thermodynamics tells that the total amount of energy and matter in our Universe remains constant. This is also called the law of constants and implies that our Universe is a closed system with regard to matter and energy. The second law of thermodynamics was traditionally explained in terms of increasing entropy over time. This law, from an infodynamics perspective, can be regarded as increasing complexity of informational content over time. This opens an evolutionary view how, from an infodynamics perspective, our Universe evolved from initial simplicity through increasing complexity over time. Increasing complexity over time in a closed‐loop system generates unique transformational dynamics. This paper explores how to apply this understanding for systemic transformational change within conventional systems that have evolved from a mechanistic worldview. Examples of praxis are provided to highlight this midwifing process to ease our collective birthing pains into new ways of being. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This section offers chemistry-related news briefs as of June 1, 2019. A study found that many chemical facilities in the U.S. are at danger due to the effects of climate change. Researchers gave new insight on how to stop inflammation at the molecular, giving hope that treatments for chronic inflammatory diseases may be one step closer. A study found that cannabidiol, a non-psychoactive compound of cannabis could help deliver medications across the blood-brain barrier.

This section offers Society of Chemical Industry (SCI)-related news briefs as of June 1, 2019. SCI hosted the launch of an automotive battery report which forecasts the British chemical sector could capture 8 billion British pounds per year from the domestic automotive battery manufacturing supply chain by 2030. The SCI Committee on Clinate Change has revised its recommendations on emissions target for Great Britain. Updates to the SCI 138th annual general meeting (AGM) have been announced.

The article reports Scientists in the US have created a polymer self assembles using non-covalent bonds in a way mimics the dynamic construction of proteins in biology. Topics include scientists have testing a new exhaust system called the ‘Super-X divertor' designed to steer plasma; and fusion research has achieved a milestone with the news in October 2020 of the ‘powering up' of the UK Atomic Energy Authority's fusion research machine.