Behind the Paper
The real stories behind the latest research papers, from conception to publication, the highs and the lows
The infection event could have ended in tragedy
We present the scientific story we discovered (https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-023-36123-w) in the form of a drama.
Generation and Decoding Colored Beams Carrying Orbital Angular Momentum
By nanoscale 3D printing, we produced miniaturized optical components processing information in the color and orbital angular momentum of beamlets using only light from a lamp. These colored vortex beams from incoherent white light promise anticounterfeiting through pairwise optical authentication.
A simple bubble-popping game can assess motor skills in young autistic children
A simple bubble-popping game created by our research team revealed differences in visual-motor skills in young autistic children. These differences were accentuated when autistic children had co-occurring ADHD. This engaging game could be part of a broader and scalable digital autism screening tool.
Re-examining SARS-CoV-2 vaccine targeting and dose separation in England
In late 2020 the COVID-19 vaccination rollout in England comprised two key recommendations: (i) prioritise elderly & vulnerable; (ii) interval between first & second doses increased from 3 to 12 weeks. We re-examined these recommendations with a mathematical model of SARS-CoV-2 infection in England.
EnzymeML: seamless data flow and modelling of enzymatic data
The design of biocatalytic reaction systems is highly complex due to the dependency of the estimated kinetic parameters on the enzyme, the reaction conditions, and the modelling method. Consequently, reproducibility of enzymatic experiments and re-usability of enzymatic data are challenging.
We developed the XML–based markup language EnzymeML to enable storage and exchange of enzymatic data such as reaction conditions, time course of substrate and product, kinetic parameters, and kinetic model, thus making enzymatic data findable, accessible, interoperable, and reusable (FAIR). The feasibility and usefulness of the EnzymeML toolbox is demonstrated in six scenarios, where data and metadata of different enzymatic reactions are collected and analysed.
EnzymeML serves as a seamless communication channel between experimental platforms, electronic lab notebooks, tools for modelling of enzyme kinetics, publication platforms, and enzymatic reaction databases. EnzymeML is open, transparent, and invites the community to contribute. All documents and codes are freely available at https://enzymeml.org/.
