AI predicts shape of nearly every known protein

Determining the 3D shape of almost any protein known to science will soon be as simple as typing in an internet search. Researchers have used the revolutionary artificial-intelligence (AI) network AlphaFold to predict the structures of some 200 million proteins from one million species, covering nearly every known protein on the planet. The data will be uploaded to a free database.

Molecular motor is ‘DNA origami’ milestone

Physicists have built a molecular-scale motor entirely from DNA strands, and used it to store energy by winding up a DNA ‘spring’. The tiny machine gains energy from Brownian motion — the constant random argy-bargy of molecules in a medium. The machine turns like the ratchet wheel in a clock, winding a string of DNA like a spiral spring.

Ear fossils hint at origin of warm-blooded mammals

Fossilised inner-ear canals suggest that the moment mammals evolved to be warm-blooded — the timing of which is highly contested — occurred around 230 million to 200 million years ago. A team of researchers hypothesised that hotter, more active bodies would have less viscous fluid in their vestibular system, which maintains balance and spatial orientation — and the inner ear’s shape would adapt in turn. After calibrating their understanding on the basis of 50 living vertebrate species, they analysed the inner ear canals of 56 extinct synapsid species — the reptile-like ancestors of mammals — and found that the shape of the canals had changed abruptly in the Late Triassic period.

Mass and Angular Momentum, Left Ambiguous by Einstein, Get Defined

In 1979, Nobel-prizewinning physicist Roger Penrose said that the two biggest unsolved problems in general relativity concerned mass and angular momentum (a measure of rotational motion). Both those properties, which are easy enough to understand in day-to-day life, spiral out of mathematical control when an object interacts with the curvy-wurvy effects of space-time within a finite region. Now both problems have been solved, thanks to a culmination of decades of work.

Hoatzin could reshape avian taxonomy

Hoatzins (Opisthocomus hoazin) present an evolutionary enigma — one analysis of their DNA suggests that the birds’ closest relatives are cranes and shorebirds, and another found that they are closely related to a group that includes tiny, hovering birds, such as hummingbirds. The riddle is forcing biologists to consider whether to rethink the shape of the standard ‘tree of life’ for modern birds.

Root-cropping behaviour in gophers may represent a kind of husbandry

Gophers graze on roots that grow into their large network of tunnels, which some researchers say could be the first evidence of a non-human mammal engaging in farming. Scientists installed cameras in trenches that they dug around tunnels used by southeastern pocket gophers (Geomys pinetis) in Florida. The roots of above-ground grasses and nettles quickly filled the tunnels that the gophers couldn’t access, but remained short in those they could. The animals nibbled on the roots to nourish themselves and stimulate root regrowth, and dropped waste throughout the network to fertilise the soil — effectively cultivating the crop. Other researchers say the practice can’t be described as farming because the gophers don’t plant or distribute their crops as do humans and other creatures, such as fungus-growing ants.

Five things we don’t know about the Higgs boson

1. So far, scientists have determined that the boson’s properties — such as its interaction strength — match those predicted by the standard model, but with an uncertainty of around 10%. This is not good enough to show the subtle differences predicted by new physics theories.
2. Physicists have seen the Higgs boson decay into only the heaviest matter particles, such as the bottom quark. They now want to check whether it interacts in the same way with particles from lighter families, known as generations.
3. The Higgs boson has mass, so it should interact with itself, and the rate of this self-interaction is crucial to understanding the Universe. But such events — for example, the decay of an energetic Higgs boson to two less-energetic ones — are extremely rare and haven’t been conclusively observed yet.
4. Physicists want to know the lifetime of the Higgs — how long, on average, it sticks around before decaying to other particles — because any deviation from predictions could point to interactions with unknown particles, such as those that make up dark matter.
5. Some theories that extend the standard model predict that the Higgs boson is made up of other particles, or that there are different types of Higgs boson. Future observations could provide evidence if any of these exotic predictions are true.

Muon magnetism update

Last year, an experiment suggested that the muon — a subatomic particle similar to an electron — had inexplicably strong magnetism, possibly breaking a decades-long streak of victories for the leading theory of particle physics, known as the standard model. Now, revised calculations by several groups suggest that the theory’s prediction of muon magnetism might not be too far from the experimental prediction after all. By narrowing the gap, the latest predictions might make it easier to resolve the discrepancy between theory and experiment.

Ice Age wolf genomes point to dog origins

Modern dogs probably evolved in eastern Eurasia — and might have been domesticated more than once. Researchers analysed 72 ancient wolf (Canis lupus) genomes spanning the last 100,000 years. They found that early dogs from northeastern Europe, Siberia and North America are closely related to ancient wolves from eastern Asia. However, some dogs from western Europe and Africa seem to have a genetic link to ancient wolves that lived farther west.