Behind the Paper
The real stories behind the latest research papers, from conception to publication, the highs and the lows
Staying alive: sinking Trichodesmium fixes nitrogen in the dark ocean
Sunlight extinguishes about 150 m in the ocean, retaining photosynthetic microbes such as the diazotrophic cyanobacteria in the surface ocean layer. Here we find that Trichodesmium, a key photosynthetic diazotroph, fixes nitrogen while sinking into the deep ocean down to 1000 m depth.
The implications of the contamination of Arctic ice samples to future space missions to Europa and Enceladus
We developed a protocol that may be used to monitor and minimise the microbiological contamination of planetary field analogues of icy moons in their analysis. It may serve as a test-bed for procedures of decontamination of samples from future landing/return missions to icy moons.
What will it take to make aviation climate neutral?
Although currently left out of international climate agreements, the aviation sector - if left unmitigated - could jeopardize achieving the Paris agreement. We explored what climate neutrality means for the aviation sector and assessed the magnitude of the necessary efforts.
Exploiting the temporal dimension of hydrogen-deuterium exchange mass-spectrometry to localise protein-protein interactions
Our paper describes a method to more accurately extract structural information about protein-protein interactions from hydrogen-deuterium exchange mass spectrometry (HDX-MS).
Can biodiversity reduce the negative effects of the co-occurrence of multiple pressures?
Multiple anthropogenic pressures can occur simultaneously, which is caused for concern because multifaceted pressures could lead to dramatic declines in ecosystem functions. Can biodiversity help to buffer the negative effects of the co-occurrence of multiple pressures? Read this report for details.