mRNA expression analysis of EWAS-related genes in AD CA1 pyramidal neurons AD CA1 astrocytes and AD CA1 microglia. Only two of the seven identified transcripts in the EWAS study were significantly differentially expressed, BIN1 in AD neurons and SERPINF2 in AD microglia. * indicates p < .05.

ANK1 gene expression change found in brain’s microglia cells associated with neuroinflammation. Researchers led by Arizona State University (ASU) and the Translational Genomics Research Institute (TGen) have identified altered expression of a gene called ANK1, which only recently has been associated with memory robbing Alzheimer’s disease, in specific cells in the brain...

A density functional theory calculation showed the magnetic properties of a fluorinated sample of hexagonal boron nitride. This version is ferromagnetic, determined by how the fluorine atoms (red) attach to the boron and nitrogen matrix.
Credit: Ajayan Group/Rice University

Researchers turn common insulator, 2D hexagonal boron nitride, h-BN (white graphene) into a magnetic semiconductor. A little fluorine turns an insulating ceramic known as white graphene into a wide-bandgap semiconductor with magnetic properties. Rice University scientists said that could make the unique material suitable for electronics in extreme environments...

Spiral galaxy Messier 61, picture taken with the Hubble Space Telescope. Our Milky Way might look like this galaxy. Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA. Acknowledgements: G. Chapdelaine, L. Limatola, and R. Gendler

How does the gas in the centre of the Milky Way behave? Researchers from Heidelberg University, in collaboration with colleagues from the University of Oxford, recently investigated the motion of gas clouds in a comprehensive computer simulation. The new model finally makes it possible to conclusively explain this complex gas motion.

Our solar system is located in the outer regions of the Milky Way, a disk-shaped galaxy with an approximate diameter of 100,000 light years...

Simulation of the interior of a solar-type star. Credit: University of Montréal – DAp/CEA – AIM

Resolving an ongoing controversy about whether the star at the center of our Solar System exhibits the same cyclic behavior as other nearby, solar-type stars the new study results also advance scientists’ understanding of how stars generate their magnetic fields. The Sun’s activity – including changes in the number of sunspots, levels of radiation and ejection of material – varies on an eleven-year cycle, driven by changes in its magnetic field.

Understanding this cycle is one of the biggest outstanding problems in solar physics, in part because it does not appear to match magnetic cycles observed on other solar-type stars – leading some to suggest the Sun is fundamentally different.

Here, by c...