Roman C. Sarott

Oct 3, 2024 | science.org | Adrian C. Hayday |Nicola Festuccia |Roman C. Sarott |Lalasia Bialic-Murphy

Editor’s summaryThe maximum size, growth rate, and lifespan of trees determines the rate of forest carbon accumulation. These life history traits are thought to be correlated, but studies have been limited to local scales in tropical systems. Bialic-Murphy et al. used data on tree size and status from over 1000 species across North, Central, and South America to show that these relationships are more complex.

Oct 3, 2024 | science.org | Adrian C. Hayday |Nicola Festuccia |Roman C. Sarott |Thomas Matthews

Editor’s summaryHuman activities are a leading cause of species extinctions, either directly or indirectly, for millennia. Matthews et al. investigated how extinctions have affected global bird diversity, specifically in terms of birds’ traits and evolutionary history (see the Perspective by Kemp).

Oct 3, 2024 | science.org | Adrian C. Hayday |Nicola Festuccia |Roman C. Sarott |Marc S. Lavine

Microrobots Miniaturization and multifunctionalityMarc S. LavineAn integrated approach to medical microrobotic design can lead to minimally invasive treatments and personalized, targeted medicine. PHOTO: D. CASTELLANOS-ROBLES, ET AL., WILEY, 46:6 (2024) DOI: 10.1002/J.NEURON.2024.02.022A challenge in making objects smaller is finding ways to shrink their size without losing their functionality.

Oct 3, 2024 | science.org | Adrian C. Hayday |Nicola Festuccia |Roman C. Sarott |Mohamad-Gabriel Alameh

Editor’s summaryA stay in a hospital might resolve one health challenge, but it may introduce another: an intractable infection with Clostridioides difficile. This bacteria can thrive and produce toxins if the normal gut bacteria are knocked out by antibiotics. Alameh et al. have been developing a multivalent mRNA–lipid nanoparticle vaccine to protect vulnerable individuals against toxigenic C. difficile.

Oct 3, 2024 | science.org | Adrian C. Hayday |Nicola Festuccia |Roman C. Sarott

Editor’s summaryThe central dogma of molecular biology states that genetic information flows from DNA and RNA to protein, with reverse transcription converting RNA to DNA. In the pursuit of understanding how bacteria defend themselves from viral infection, two groups of investigators have found alternative pathways to making genes from RNA that did not previously encode proteins (see the Perspective by Osterman and Sorek). Tang et al.