Tag: science

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Detailed Insights into Outer Space are Uncovered Through the Analysis of Two Meteorites

Scientists have for a long time had interest with the study of meteorites. These space rocks reveal information on the origins of our solar system. In addition, they hold critical information on the origin of the universe, and the building blocks of life. The organic components of the Murchison and Aguas Zarcas meteorites have been the subject of extensive research in recent years. Each meteorite had tens of thousands of molecular “puzzle pieces,” according to the experts. Mass spectrometry with ultra-high resolution was used to make the finding. This discovery revealed unexpectedly high oxygen concentrations.

This ground-breaking study sheds insight into the formation of these rocks. Moreover, it presents a window into the complex blends of natural molecules in outer space. Researchers can learn more about meteorite formation processes. In addition, they can learn their space travel and the kinds of molecules that existed in the early universe. All this will be achieved by analyzing the chemical makeup of meteorites.

This study is critical because carbonaceous chondrites, the type of meteorite with the highest organic content, are uncommon. These two examples are the 1969 Murchison meteorite that landed in Australia and the 2019 Aguas Zarcas meteorite that landed in Costa Rica. Scientists can discover more about these meteorites’ environments on their journey through space. The scientists will achieve this by examining the biological components of these meteorites. Through this, they will determine where, when, and how they formed.

Researchers have been able to evaluate highly complex mixtures with high levels of resolution and accuracy. This is possible because of ultra-high resolution mass spectrometry, notably Fourier-transform ion cyclotron resonance (FT-ICR) MS. This method is beneficial for assessing mixtures like petroleum or the organic matter in meteorites. Scientists can determine the molecular constituents of the original sample with remarkable accuracy. They will do so by crushing a sample into small particles and calculating the mass of each one.

Ultra-high-resolution mass spectrometry examined the organic material from the Murchison and Aguas Zarcas meteorites. More than 30,000 peaks for each meteorite were produced due to the team’s decision to examine all soluble organic material simultaneously. More than 60% of them could be assigned a special molecular formula.

Unexpectedly, the researchers discovered a higher oxygen level than anticipated in the molecules. This surprising finding may offer important new information about the chemical processes involved in the meteorite creation process and the early universe.

Samples of lunar dust from the Apollo 12 and 14 missions will be analyzed as part of the team’s ongoing research. These samples are older than FT-ICR MS and have not yet been subjected to analysis with it. The study aims to shed light on the origins of the moon’s surface and learn more about its makeup.

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The Development of an AI-Powered Approach by Researchers Enables the Anticipation of RNA Modifications

Software that is revolutionary has been created by researchers from the National University of Singapore and the Agency for Science, Technology, and Research. This program has a high degree of accuracy in predicting chemical changes to RNA molecules. The team’s approach, known as m6Anet, was made public in the esteemed academic journal Nature Methods.

RNA molecules contain many chemical compounds that govern how they work. However, common methods employed by scientists to read RNA typically fail to detect these RNA modifications. The most common RNA modification is N6-Methyladenosine(m6A). Finding RNA modifications has historically taken a long time and proven difficult because they are related to human diseases like cancer.

By utilizing direct Nanopore RNA sequencing, the researchers were able to get beyond these constraints. This cutting-edge method sequences unmodified RNA molecules along with their changes. They produced m6Anet. By leveraging a Multiple-Instance Learning (MIL) technique and direct Nanopore RNA sequencing data, the software trains deep neural networks to detect m6A accurately.

Each example in traditional machine learning is assigned one label. However, finding m6A calls for an enormous volume of data with unclear labels. To resolve this issue, the team applied the MIL method. The MIL issue entails having a sizable photo album with a cat picture buried among millions of other images. Then, without any labels to use as a guide, try to identify that specific image.

The scientists showed that m6Anet can forecast the presence of m6A from a single sample across species with high precision at a single-molecule resolution. The ability to recognize RNA alterations in various biological samples can be utilized to comprehend their significance in a variety of applications, such as cancer research or plant genomics. This is according to Dr. Jonathan Goke, Group Leader of the Laboratory of Computational Transcriptomics at ASTAR’s GIS.

The AI model has only come across data from a human sample. Even samples from species the model has never encountered before can be used to precisely identify RNA modifications. “The MIL method provides a sophisticated answer to this difficult issue. A reward for our work is seeing the program get adopted by the scientific community so quickly!” affirmed study co-leader Associate Professor Alexandre Thiery, Department of Statistics and Data Science, NUS Faculty of Science.

The scientific community can now access and utilize the study’s software and findings. The long-standing problem of precisely and effectively identifying RNA alterations is addressed by m6Anet, according to Professor Patrick Tan, Executive Director of ASTAR’s GIS. Researchers in several sectors can advance their work with this ground-breaking technology. They will also be able to comprehend the function of RNA modifications in plant genomics and human diseases like cancer.