Pyrimidine-nucleoside phosphorylase adopts different conformations that influence how it interacts with molecules. Researchers from Shibaura Institute of Technology, Japan, used molecular dynamics simulations to show that closed conformations retain ligands more strongly than open ones and that sugar preference varies by compound and conformation, highlighting enzyme flexibility as an important consideration for drug design, artificial nucleoside synthesis, and greener biocatalytic manufacturing, and provide a framework for future enzyme engineering and inhibitor-design studies. 

A new analysis of Senegalese croplands using an artificial intelligence developed at the University of Cambridge shows how technological benefits enjoyed by industrial agriculture could be brought to smallholder farms in Senegal and other countries in the Global South.

Kyoto, Japan -- Like many parasites, nematomorphs are known to manipulate the behavior of their hosts to complete their life cycles. Also known as horsehair worms, among other names, these creatures develop in their hosts' body cavities and lure their terrestrial arthropod victims into the water where the parasites then reproduce. Some species have even been observed to induce positive phototaxis, attracting the host toward horizontally polarized light reflected on the water's surface.

Given that some parasites, including nematomorphs, target nocturnal hosts, a team of researchers at Kyoto University wondered if parasites manipulate their nocturnal hosts in sync with the lunar cycle. If such a manipulation mechanism has been conserved across nematomorph lineages, the team hypothesized that water-entry behavior in nocturnal hosts infected by Gordius and Gordionus nematomorphs may be more prevalent during the full moon, and sparse during the new moon.

From August to October during nights of the full and new moon, the researchers sampled camel crickets floating on the water in a small artificial pond in the Kiso River system in Nagano prefecture, where they also found large numbers of nematomorphs. In addition, they examined the stomach contents of salmonid fish in a nearby forested stream, treating the fish as fellow field researchers that continuously survey the river, day and night.

In the era of artificial intelligence and machine learning, all-optical computing has garnered renewed attention for its intrinsic advantages in processing speed, energy efficiency, and parallelism. Scientists have developed a new class of metasurface optical differentiators capable of simultaneously performing arbitrary-order optical differentiation and high-resolution imaging in a standalone single-layer configuration. The technique provides a realistic path towards realization of ultracompact all-optical computing devices with potential applications in biological imaging, advanced information processing, and beyond.

- Researchers from KAIST, UNIST, and POSTECH vertically stack semiconductor devices with different response speeds to process fast and slow signal changes together

- The devices were fabricated on 4-inch wafers and flexible substrates and could be used in electronics that attach to the skin