(Brigham and Women’s Hospital) With its use of stable isotopes as tracers, MIMS has opened the door for biomedical researchers to answer various biological questions, as two new studies have demonstrated.

(Cell Press) Fungi may be unexpected allies in our efforts to keep hazardous lead under control. That’s based on the unexpected discovery that fungi can transform lead into its most stable mineral form. The findings suggest that this interaction between fungi and lead may be occurring in nature anywhere the two are found together. It also suggests that the introduction or encouragement of fungi may be a useful treatment strategy for lead-polluted sites.

(Cell Press) Fungi may be unexpected allies in our efforts to keep hazardous lead under control. That’s based on the unexpected discovery that fungi can transform lead into its most stable mineral form. The findings suggest that this interaction between fungi and lead may be occurring in nature anywhere the two are found together. It also suggests that the introduction or encouragement of fungi may be a useful treatment strategy for lead-polluted sites.

(Brigham and Women’s Hospital) With its use of stable isotopes as tracers, MIMS has opened the door for biomedical researchers to answer various biological questions, as two new studies have demonstrated.

(Cell Press) Fungi may be unexpected allies in our efforts to keep hazardous lead under control. That’s based on the unexpected discovery that fungi can transform lead into its most stable mineral form. The findings suggest that this interaction between fungi and lead may be occurring in nature anywhere the two are found together. It also suggests that the introduction or encouragement of fungi may be a useful treatment strategy for lead-polluted sites.

(Brigham and Women’s Hospital) With its use of stable isotopes as tracers, MIMS has opened the door for biomedical researchers to answer various biological questions, as two new studies have demonstrated.

(Springer) Humans are considered the hosts for spreading epidemics. The speed at which an epidemic spreads is now better understood thanks to a new model accounting for the provincial nature of human mobility, according to a study published in European Physical Journal B. The research was conducted by a team lead by Vitaly Belik from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA, who is also affiliated with the Max Planck Institute for Dynamics and Self-Organization, Germany.

(University of Vienna) Climate change is having a more profound effect on alpine vegetation than at first anticipated, according to a study carried out by an international group of researchers and published in Nature Climate Change. The first ever pan-European study of changing mountain vegetation has found that some alpine meadows could disappear within the next few decades.

(University of Chicago Medical Center) In a study in Nature, a team of scientists demonstrate how just a few small, high-probability mutations increased the complexity of a molecular machine more than 800 million years ago. By biochemically resurrecting ancient genes and testing their functions in modern organisms, the researchers showed that a new component was incorporated into the machine due to selective losses of function rather than the sudden appearance of new capabilities.

(University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign) Those making land use decisions to reduce the harmful effects of climate change have focused almost exclusively on greenhouse gases — analyzing, for example, how much carbon dioxide is released when a forest is cleared to grow crops. A new study in Nature Climate Change aims to present a more complete picture — to incorporate other characteristics of ecosystems that also influence climate.