Biological Science

태양광 메타구조체 ⓒKIST 제공 건물 외벽 모양에 따라 자유롭게 형태를 바꾸는 3차원 태양광 시스템이 개발됐다. 한국과학기술연구원(KIST)은 차세대태양전지연구센터 이필립 센터장 연구팀이 구조 움직임과 전기 연결을 함께 설계해 자유롭게 형태를 바꾸면서도 안정적으로 전기를 생산하는 3차원 태양광 메타구조체를 개발했다고 15일 밝혔다

연어 연구성과 이미지 ⓒ한국해양과학기술원 제공 냉수성 어종인 연어도 고수온 속에서 성장하지 않는 등 이상 신호를 보이는 것으로 나타났다. 한국해양과학기술원 해양생명자원연구부 강혜민 박사 연구팀은 고수온에 노출된 연어에서 간 기능 저하와 열에 대응하는 유전자의 발현 증가가 민물과 바닷물 모두에서 나타난 것을 확인했다고 15일 밝혔다.

우주비행사들이 오랫동안 시달려 온 변비, 그 원인이 혈액 속에서 드러났다. 덴마크 코펜하겐대와 NASA 공동 연구팀이 우주비행사 52명의 혈액을 분석한 결과, 무중력 상태에서는 음식물이 장에 오래 머물고 장내 세균이 식이섬유 대신 단백질을 분해하기 시작하는 것으로 나타났다. 단백질 발효 산물은 신장 손상이나 집중력 저하와도 관련이 있는 만큼, 왕복 3년이 걸리는 화성 탐사를 앞두고 우주 식단을 다시 짜야 한다는 목소리가 나온다. 사람뿐 아니라 장 속 세균까지 먹여야 하는 우주 식탁의 과제를 들여다본다.

Scientists have discovered a remarkable “Pac-Man enzyme” that helps bacteria devour certain types of plastic and may offer new hope in the fight against plastic pollution. Researchers found that several biodegradable plastics completely broke down in soil within about a year, while conventional plastic remained largely unchanged.

A plasma antenna resembling a lightsaber has transmitted radio waves and could let future spacecraft retune and redirect their antennas by adjusting a laser. Changing a radio antenna’s length can be difficult in space exploration equipment, even though that dimension helps determine which frequencies it can transmit and receive. Researchers have now demonstrated a possible [...]

A world with no sunrise still has changing skies, and Webb has caught its water clouds thickening and thinning just 7.5 light-years away. Astronomers have tracked weather on WISE 0855, the coldest known brown dwarf, using the James Webb Space Telescope. A team led by Brittany Miles of the University of Arizona’s Steward Observatory watched [...]

Scientists may have found a surprising shortcut to nuclear fusion that could dramatically cut the energy needed to ignite the power of the Sun. Scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL) have identified a potentially much more efficient way to achieve nuclear fusion, the process that powers the Sun. [...]

Vanillin could help form wound-care materials while supplying antibacterial activity, a combination made more practical by its low-cost and abundant supply. The compound behind vanilla’s sweet aroma could become an ingredient in wound-care materials. A team from Flinders University’s Biomedical Nanoengineering Laboratory has found that vanillin has pronounced antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, and antibacterial properties, making it [...]

Turning 100 is unusually common in one Sardinian village, and centuries of records help show that its residents’ remarkable ages are real. Women in Bolotana, a mountain community of about 2,300 people on the Italian island of Sardinia, have an exceptional pattern of survival after age 70. An international study suggests the village could qualify [...]

A small ear stimulation device could offer a new way to tackle high blood pressure that stays elevated despite medication. Researchers at Queen Mary University of London have tested a device that stimulates nerves through the ear in people whose high blood pressure remained uncontrolled despite medication. The trial, published in the American Heart Association [...]

Nature may have fewer backup plans than we thought, leaving our food supply and climate more exposed when species disappear. The largest global study of its kind suggests that losing species can steadily erode the benefits ecosystems provide, including pollination, clean water, carbon storage, and natural pest control. Led by King’s College London and Imperial [...]

Climate change could give African antelopes an edge in the American West, with native wildlife facing tougher competition when drought leaves less to eat. An antelope native to southern Africa’s Kalahari Desert has found a foothold in New Mexico’s dry rangelands, and climate change could give it far more of the American West to roam. [...]

A new study challenges traditional ideas about honey bee colonies. A honey bee colony may be more than a society of thousands of insects. A new study proposes that the entire colony functions as a single living organism, with its own development, reproductive cycle, and biological lifespan. This perspective could challenge some of the most [...]

A Catholic book that survived the Reformation hints at a secret act of defiance by one of Henry VIII’s own enforcers. Sir John Gage helped Henry VIII dismantle monasteries and dispose of their possessions for the Crown. Yet six fragile pages from a medieval religious book suggest that the trusted royal official also saved a [...]

연구성과 요약도 ⓒ과학기술연합대학원대 제공 원자력발전소를 해체할 때 방사성 오염물질은 제거하면서 독성 약품 사용량은 줄이고, 제염 후 남은 폐액까지 하나의 공정으로 처리할 수 있는 친환경 통합 기술이 개발됐다. 14일 과학기술연합대학원대학교(UST)에 따르면 중수로 원전(가압중수로)에서 원자로와 냉각재 계통을 잇는 배관(피더관) 안

꿀벌이 침을 쏘면 침은 동물 피부에 박히지만 그 상태에서도 독액을 계속 주입한다. 몸에서 분리된 작은 꿀벌 침이 어떻게 스스로 움직이며 독액을 밀어 넣는지 그 작동 원리가 밝혀졌다. 실험용 인공 젤에 박힌 꿀벌의 침 ⓒAjay Narendra and Fiorella Ramirez-Esquivel 제공 호주 맥쿼리대 피오렐라 라미레스

Scientists have discovered a potential new weapon against a devastating fungus that threatens rice, wheat, and barley worldwide. By engineering a special type of plant immune receptor, researchers created defenses capable of recognizing multiple fungal threats at once. The breakthrough could eventually lead to crops with powerful, long-lasting disease resistance, helping protect a global food supply increasingly threatened by spreading infections and climate change.

A nationwide search for giant crayfish uncovered a record-breaking Tennessee specimen and a surprising mystery about how big these freshwater creatures can grow. Scientists found that North American crayfish seem to hit a biological size limit, possibly because of their muscles or protective shells.

A small trial in older adults uncovered subtle gut changes and hints of mood improvement with daily blueberry powder, but no clear benefit over placebo. Inside the gut, the fiber and dark pigments in blueberries encounter a crowded community of microbes. Those ingredients could change the microbes and the substances they produce, raising the possibility [...]

A hormone that raises blood sugar may help put the brakes on a post-meal spike when fat reaches the gut before sugar. An international research team found that giving mice fat before glucose slowed stomach emptying and reduced the early blood sugar spike. The experiments suggest that the response involves cooperation between gut and pancreatic [...]

Researchers discovered that a diabetes medication altered how certain immune cells function, potentially reducing harmful inflammation. A medication already used to treat diabetes may protect the heart by changing how immune cells behave in the bloodstream. In a small human clinical trial, researchers found that the drug reduced inflammatory cell clusters associated with cardiovascular disease, [...]

Snow drought and record warmth have pushed Lake Powell to its lowest level on record, deepening pressure on the Colorado River system. Snow drought and exceptional warmth across the Colorado Basin in 2026 helped push water storage in major Western reservoirs to historic lows. By summer, the effects of the weak mountain snowpack from winter [...]

For much of the satellite record, the Arctic sea ice melt season kept getting longer. Then, around 2010, that long-running trend unexpectedly flattened. Over several decades, Arctic sea ice generally began melting earlier in the spring and refreezing later in the fall. That extended the time each year when ice was melting and contributed to [...]

A newly identified giant isopod species offers clues to how these deep-sea crustaceans spread around the world, including a possible return to the Americas via Antarctica. A giant crustacean brought from Puerto Rico to Germany as a teaching specimen has turned out to belong to a species unknown to science. Tübingen paleontologist Professor Dolf Seilacher [...]

Seven molecules in human milk could help explain how a mother’s nutrition connects with her baby’s growth, offering a window into the biology of milk production. Human milk contains thousands of nutrients, metabolites, proteins, immune factors, and other molecules, yet researchers have often studied those components one at a time. Much remains unknown about how [...]

A brief procedure using saline could offer lasting relief for stubborn carpal tunnel symptoms without steroids, a small clinical trial suggests. The numbness, tingling, weakness, and pain of carpal tunnel syndrome arise when the median nerve, a major nerve running from the forearm, is compressed inside a narrow passage in the wrist. Corticosteroid injections can [...]

Two meals looked nearly identical nutritionally, yet the ultraprocessed option triggered more insulin release in healthy adults, hinting at differences nutrition labels may miss. Ultraprocessed foods supply more than half of the average American’s daily calories, and their place in diets worldwide is growing. Formulated to be convenient, accessible, affordable, and highly palatable, they can [...]

Scientists exploring the brain’s “blue place” discovered the longest neuron ever measured in a mouse and uncovered new clues about how the brain learns. When mice in a decision-making experiment switched their choices after a negative outcome, neurons near the top of a tiny brainstem region became active. Just before the mice ignored cues that [...]

Diamond and graphite have a new carbon cousin called diamondiyne, with a crystal structure confirmed so far only in microscopic patches. A carbon structure proposed 35 years ago has finally taken shape in a thin film where two liquids meet. Using relatively inexpensive equipment, researchers at the University of Gothenburg have created diamondiyne for the [...]

Restoring just part of a depleted mitochondrial fat began reversing muscle wasting in mice, suggesting a possible route toward treating age-related muscle decline. As muscles weaken with age, they shift toward fibers built for endurance rather than quick, powerful bursts of movement. These slow-twitch fibers contain more mitochondria, the structures that supply cells with energy, [...]