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How soil microbes may control the future of our planet

The soil beneath our feet is a huge carbon bank storing up to approximately three times more carbon than the entire atmosphere. That makes it a significant player in the future of our climate. If even a small fraction of the carbon escapes into the air as carbon dioxide, it

A promising fatty liver treatment may raise cancer risk

A surprising new study reveals that blocking a supposedly protective enzyme, Caspase-2, could actually backfire—raising the risk of chronic liver damage and cancer over time. Researchers found that without this enzyme, liver cells grow abnormally large and accumulate genetic

Measuring irreversibility in gene transcription

Living cells are fundamentally nonequilibrium systems, meaning they constantly spend energy through seemingly one-way, irreversible processes, such as transcribing DNA into RNA, to keep life going. But how that irreversibility appears in the dynamics of individual genes has

Sea turtle shells reveal hidden records of ocean change

Techniques developed to study the distant past—from dating ancient artifacts to reconstructing climate records in ice cores—are now being repurposed to help us better understand the lives of modern sea turtles. Using radiocarbon methods from archaeology, researchers show that

Pike eat more as water warms, threatening native species

Rising temperatures in a Southcentral Alaska river have led to a hungrier population of invasive northern pike, a trend that could imperil native salmon and other fish species. A University of Alaska Fairbanks-led research team analyzed the stomach contents of northern pike