A role for a microRNA in the immune system has been shown by study of one of the world’s first microRNA knockout mouse. The microRNA acts as a lynchpin to balance the response of immune defences and the researchers suggest the corresponding human gene will have a similar vital role.

MicroRNAs (also known as siRNAs - short, interfering RNAs) are short (22-25 base) sequences that do not code for protein, but can lead to destruction of other RNA molecules or can interfere with their translation. They bind to corresponding bases in the target RNA. The mature microRNAs are derived from larger precursor molecules.

A new technique for creating films of barium titanate (BaTiO3) nanoparticles in a polymer matrix could allow fabrication of improved capacitors able to store twice as much energy as existing devices. The improved capacitors could be used in consumer devices such as cellular telephones – and in defense applications requiring both high energy storage and rapid current discharge.

The characteristics of the vegetation that inhabited Earth 21 million years ago can be vital to get to know climatic evolution in the last million years and the causes for these changes.

Samples of the sedimentary bowls of the geographic section from the south of Spain to Turkey give researchers cause to theorize that 14 million years ago there were glaciations in the south pole that changed the ruling subtropical climate into warm and transformed the characteristic vegetation of this area.

A team of scientists announced today confirmation of a link between massive volcanic eruptions along the east coast of Greenland and in the western British Isles about 55 million years ago and a period of global warming that raised sea surface temperatures by five degrees (Celsius) in the tropics and more than six degrees in the Arctic.

The study is important, experts say, because it documents the Earth’s response to the release of large amounts of greenhouse gases – carbon dioxide and methane – into the atmosphere, and definitively links a major volcanic event with a period of global warming.

A major study has shed new light on the dim layer of the ocean called the "twilight zone"—where mysterious processes affect the ocean's ability to absorb and store carbon dioxide accumulating in our atmosphere.

The results of two international research expeditions show that carbon dioxide — taken up by photosynthesizing marine plants in the sunlit ocean surface layer — does not necessarily sink to the depths, where it is stored and prevented from re-entering the atmosphere as a greenhouse gas. Instead, carbon transported to the depths on sinking marine particles is often consumed by animals and bacteria and recycled in the twilight zone—100 to 1,000 meters below the surface—and never reaches the deep ocean.

Terahertz (THz) radiation, or far-infrared light, can penetrate clothing and other materials to provide images of concealed weapons, drugs, or other objects. However, THz scanners must usually be very close to the objects they are imaging because water vapor in air absorbs THz radiation so strongly that most of it never reaches the object to be imaged.