Why do our mental images stay sharp even when we are moving fast? A team of neuroscientists led by Professor Maximilian Jösch at the Institute of Science and Technology Austria (ISTA) has identified a mechanism that corrects visual distortions caused by movement in animals. The study, conducted in mice, identifies a core function that can be generalized across the vertebrate visual system, including primates such as humans. The findings are published in Nature Neuroscience.

Beryllium-10, a rare radioactive isotope produced by cosmic rays in the atmosphere, provides valuable insights into the Earth's geological history. A research team from the Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf (HZDR), in collaboration with the TUD Dresden University of Technology and the Australian National University (ANU), has discovered an unexpected accumulation of this isotope in samples taken from the Pacific seabed. Such an anomaly may be attributed to shifts in ocean currents or astrophysical events that occurred approximately 10 million years ago. The findings hold the potential to serve as a global time marker, representing a promising advancement in the dating of geological archives spanning millions of years. The team presents its results in the scientific journal Nature Communications (DOI: 10.1038/s41467-024-55662-4).

The continued intensification of global warming has made extreme heat events an increasingly severe threat to crop production. Cotton, as a globally important economic crop and a strategic pillar of China’s textile industry, faces significant challenges from frequent extreme high-temperature events during the summer. The high overlap between extreme heat and the blooming and boll-setting stages of cotton leads to issues such as pollen inactivation, anther non-dehiscence, and bud and boll shedding, severely affecting cotton yield and quality. This has become a critical bottleneck restricting the high-quality development of the cotton industry. Therefore, breeding heat-tolerant cotton capable of withstanding high-temperature stress has become an urgent need in the field of crop breeding.

Incorporating trace amounts of Cu atoms into n-type Bi₂(Te, Se)₃ simultaneously realizes lattice plainification and band structure engineering, thus substantially facilitating thermoelectric transport and leading to excellent device efficiencies.

The newly discovered algae species Streptofilum arcticum possesses a potentially highly flexible cell wall: When water is scarce, the cell and cell wall shrinks; when water becomes available again, the cell wall expands without causing damage. This function explains the evolutionary transition from water to land and provides the algae with advantages in climate adaptation. An international research team led by Freiberg University of Mining and Technology (TU Bergakademie Freiberg), the Universities of Rostock and Innsbruck, and the National Academy Institute in Kyiv has described the species and its cell functions for the first time in a recent publication in the international scientific journal Environmental Microbiology. To date, researchers have identified the new algae species in the Arctic tundra on Svalbard and in coastal dunes along the Baltic Sea, indicating a broader regional distribution than previously assumed.

The University of Oulu is at the forefront of developing cutting-edge biosensor technology that could revolutionize the early diagnosis and treatment of diseases. The multidisciplinary research project, Next-Generation Molecular Sensors, led by Professor Caglar Elbuken, has secured nearly one million euros in funding from the Jane and Aatos Erkko Foundation to support a three-year research initiative.