New experiments suggest that some of the building blocks of life can survive – and even form complex structures – in concentrated sulphuric acid, raising new possibilities for organic chemistry in the clouds of Venus and on other planets.
The distribution of lipid droplets inside an egg cell could reveal its chances of developing successfully, according to researchers from Kraków who have developed a non-invasive way to examine living human egg cells in three dimensions.
Even moderate artificial light that reaches the surface of a lake at night can change the distribution of predators and prey and disrupt the natural migrations of zooplankton. Limiting the light that reaches water bodies can help preserve natural relationships between aquatic organisms.
More than half of Poland’s terrestrial vertebrate species have been recorded among animals killed on the country’s roads, including common hedgehogs, blackbirds and grass snakes as well as rare and endangered species such as the European pond turtle, lynx and Aesculapian snake, according to research published in Scientific Reports.
The first systematic catalogue of 267 cullin–RING ligase substrate receptors, 93 of which have already been linked to genetic diseases, has been created by scientists from the International Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology (IIMCB).
Cargo trucks, planes and ships can carry stowaways such as insects. If they find favourable conditions for living and breeding after arriving in a new environment, they can establish themselves, and some can become invasive species that threaten local ecosystems.
Hydrobiologists from the University of Szczecin, working with scientists from Norway, Germany and Austria, have discovered a new crustacean species that had previously been mistaken for another species described more than 170 years ago.
Extracts from aquatic plants found in lakes in eastern Poland have shown promising biological activity against cancer cells in laboratory research conducted by scientists from the John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin.
Scientists from Wrocław University of Science and Technology and the US biotechnology company Genentech have developed compounds that can stop a form of inflammatory cell death without damaging healthy cells.