Why energy fades with age: Missing membrane lipid may destabilize mitochondria

The Hidden Chemistry of Aging Mitochondria
As we age, mitochondria lose flexibility and energy efficiency. The membrane lipid phosphatidylcholine plays a key role in this process: when its production decreases, mitochondrial function deteriorates significantly. Credit: FLI / Kerstin Wagner; AI-generated with Google Gemini

Why do cells age—and why do we lose our energy and vitality as we get older? This question is one of the central challenges of modern biomedicine. The focus is particularly on mitochondria—tiny cellular organelles long known as the cell’s powerhouses but now understood as dynamic control centers that not only produce energy, but also coordinate cellular communication, adaptation, and many of the processes essential for life.

They supply us with the energy that our body needs for movement, growth, and re...

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New semiconductor building blocks make power converters smaller, more affordable

New semiconductor building blocks make power converters smaller, more affordable
ORNL researcher Rahul Biswash tests a converter built in the Grid Research Innovation and Development Center, or GRID-C, to measure the operating efficiency of incorporating a gallium nitride semiconductor. Credit: Alonda Hines/ORNL, U.S. Dept. of Energy

Researchers at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory incorporated gallium nitride semiconductors to create a high-efficiency power converter that is more compact, affordable, and efficient.

A power converter is a type of device that manages semiconductor switching and transforms current or voltage, so electricity flows smoothly and safely among equipment, power sources, and users.

Silicon semiconductors are the fundamental building blocks of conventional converters...

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Saturn-sized exoplanet with Earth-like temperature reveals methane-rich atmosphere

Grey planet with host star in background
Artist’s impression of a gas giant planet orbiting its distant host star. New research, led by astronomers at Penn State and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, used NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope to analyze the atmosphere of a gas giant planet about the size of Saturn but with Earth-like temperatures and found it to be rich in methane. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech. All Rights Reserved.

A planet that is about the size of Saturn, but with a temperature more like Earth’s, has an atmosphere rich in methane, according to a new study using NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope (JWST).

Unlike the gas giant planets—Jupiter and Saturn—in Earth’s solar system, which are distant from the sun and therefore extremely cold, and so-called “hot Jupiters”—giant planets beyond the solar system that are s...

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Common food preservatives linked to high blood pressure and heart disease

Common food preservatives linked to high blood pressure and heart disease
Common food preservatives linked to high blood pressure and heart disease. Credit: Mathilde Touvier

Eating foods that contain common preservative food additives may increase the risks of high blood pressure and cardiovascular disease, according to research published in the European Heart Journal.

The research was led by Dr. Mathilde Touvier, a research director at INSERM (the French National Institute for Health and Medical Research), and Anaïs Hasenböhler, Ph.D. student, both from the Nutritional Epidemiology Research Team at the Université Sorbonne Paris Nord and Université Paris Cité, France.

Ms. Hasenböhler said, “Food preservatives are used in hundreds of thousands of industrially processed foods...

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