Behind the Paper
The real stories behind the latest research papers, from conception to publication, the highs and the lows
Suppression of common species enables bacterial rarity in dry soils
A chosen few, common species are globally widespread. On the other hand, rare bacterial species display high sensitivity to environmental conditions at low relative abundances. Predictable shifts in soil bacterial rarity occur across biomes primarily driven by soil hydration conditions.
Optical manipulation of electronic dimensionality in a quantum material
Exotic phenomenon can be achieved in quantum materials by confining electronic states into two dimensions. For example, quantized Hall effect can be resulted in a unit cell of a periodic 2D system (Nobel prize in 1988), relativistic fermions are realized in a single layer of carbon atoms arranged in a two-dimensional (2D) honeycomb lattice while such electronic state is absent in the bulk graphite (Nobel prize in 2010), superconducting transition temperature can be enhanced by confining materials into 2D, and so on. Ordinarily, the 2D electronic system can be artificially created by exfoliating the layered materials, growing on substrates via molecular beam epitaxy, or building interfaces between two different materials. Searching for new methods to confine electronic states into 2D is important in condensed matter physics.
Reciprocal impacts of telomerase activity and ADRN/MES differentiation state in neuroblastoma tumor biology
Telomere maintenance and tumor cell differentiation have been separately investigated in neuroblastoma malignancy. Their mechanistic connection is unclear. We establish a tight and reciprocal causal relationship between the telomere and differentiation programs of high-risk neuroblastoma.
Molecular and Phenotypic profiling of Colorectal Cancer patients in West Africa reveals biological insights
Very little is known about the biology of Colorectal cancer in West Africa. This study provides novel insights on the subject