Author: admin

  • Wiedenheft, B., Sternberg, S. H. & Doudna, J. A. RNA-guided genetic silencing systems in bacteria and archaea. Nature 482, 331–338 (2012).

    Article 
    PubMed 

    Google Scholar 

  • Barrangou, R. et al. CRISPR provides acquired resistance against viruses in prokaryotes. Science 315, 1709–1712 (2007).

    Article 
    PubMed 

    Google Scholar 

  • Garneau, J. E. et al. The CRISPR–Cas bacterial immune system cleaves bacteriophage and plasmid DNA. Nature 468, 67–71 (2010).

    Article 
    PubMed 

    Google Scholar 

  • Marraffini, L. A. CRISPR–Cas immunity in prokaryotes. Nature 526, 55–61 (2015).

    Article 
    PubMed 

    Google Scholar 

  • Zhang, S. et al. Pro-CRISPR PcrIIC1-associated Cas9 system for enhanced bacterial immunity. Nature 630, 484–492 (2024).

    Article 
    PubMed 

    Google Scholar 

  • Rauch, B. J. et al. Inhibition of CRISPR–Cas9 with bacteriophage proteins. Cell 168, 150–158.e10 (2017).

    Article 
    PubMed 

    Google Scholar 

  • Camara-Wilpert, S. et al. Bacteriophages suppress CRISPR–Cas immunity using RNA-based anti-CRISPRs. Nature 623, 601–607 (2023).

    Article 
    PubMed 
    PubMed Central 

    Google Scholar 

  • Marino, N. D. et al. Discovery of widespread type I and type V CRISPR–Cas inhibitors. Science 362, 240–242 (2018).

    Article 
    PubMed 
    PubMed Central 

    Google Scholar 

  • Bondy-Denomy, J. et al. Multiple mechanisms for CRISPR–Cas inhibition by anti-CRISPR proteins. Nature 526, 136–139 (2015).

    Article 
    PubMed 
    PubMed Central 

    Google Scholar 

  • Jia, N. & Patel, D. J. Structure-based functional mechanisms and biotechnology applications of anti-CRISPR proteins. Nat. Rev. Mol. Cell Biol. 22, 563–579 (2021).

    Article 
    PubMed 

    Google Scholar 

  • Shu, X. et al. CRISPR-repressed toxin–antitoxin provides herd immunity against anti-CRISPR elements. Nat. Chem. Biol. 21, 337–347 (2025).

    Article 
    PubMed 

    Google Scholar 

  • Makarova, K. S. et al. Evolutionary classification of CRISPR–Cas systems: a burst of class 2 and derived variants. Nat. Rev. Microbiol. 18, 67–83 (2020).

    Article 
    PubMed 

    Google Scholar 

  • Shmakov, S. et al. Diversity and evolution of class 2 CRISPR–Cas systems. Nat. Rev. Microbiol. 15, 169–182 (2017).

    Article 
    PubMed 
    PubMed Central 

    Google Scholar 

  • Wang, J. Y., Pausch, P. & Doudna, J. A. Structural biology of CRISPR–Cas immunity and genome editing enzymes. Nat. Rev. Microbiol. 20, 641–656 (2022).

    Article 
    PubMed 

    Google Scholar 

  • Strecker, J. et al. RNA-guided DNA insertion with CRISPR-associated transposases. Science 365, 48–53 (2019).

    Article 
    PubMed 
    PubMed Central 

    Google Scholar 

  • Wu, Z. et al. Structure and engineering of miniature Acidibacillus sulfuroxidans Cas12f1. Nat. Catal. 6, 695–709 (2023).

    Article 

    Google Scholar 

  • Takeda, S. N. et al. Structure of the miniature type V-F CRISPR–Cas effector enzyme. Mol. Cell 81, 558–570.e3 (2021).

    Article 
    PubMed 

    Google Scholar 

  • Wu, W. Y. et al. The miniature CRISPR–Cas12m effector binds DNA to block transcription. Mol. Cell 82, 4487–4502.e7 (2022).

    Article 
    PubMed 

    Google Scholar 

  • Yan, W. X. et al. Functionally diverse type V CRISPR–Cas systems. Science 363, 88–91 (2019).

    Article 
    PubMed 

    Google Scholar 

  • Dmytrenko, O. et al. Cas12a2 elicits abortive infection through RNA-triggered destruction of dsDNA. Nature 613, 588–594 (2023).

    Article 
    PubMed 
    PubMed Central 

    Google Scholar 

  • Guo, J. et al. VirSorter2: a multi-classifier, expert-guided approach to detect diverse DNA and RNA viruses. Microbiome 9, 37 (2021).

    Article 
    PubMed 
    PubMed Central 

    Google Scholar 

  • Camargo, A. P. et al. Identification of mobile genetic elements with geNomad. Nat. Biotechnol. 42, 1303–1312 (2024).

    Article 
    PubMed 

    Google Scholar 

  • Zhang, R. et al. SpacePHARER: sensitive identification of phages from CRISPR spacers in prokaryotic hosts. Bioinformatics 37, 3364–3366 (2021).

    Article 
    PubMed 
    PubMed Central 

    Google Scholar 

  • Wu, Z. et al. Programmed genome editing by a miniature CRISPR–Cas12f nuclease. Nat. Chem. Biol. 17, 1132–1138 (2021).

    Article 
    PubMed 

    Google Scholar 

  • Holmgren, A. Thioredoxin. Annu. Rev. Biochem. 54, 237–271 (1985).

    Article 
    PubMed 

    Google Scholar 

  • Martin, J. L. Thioredoxin—a fold for all reasons. Structure 3, 245–250 (1995).

    Article 
    PubMed 

    Google Scholar 

  • Zeller, T. & Klug, G. Thioredoxins in bacteria: functions in oxidative stress response and regulation of thioredoxin genes. Naturwissenschaften 93, 259–266 (2006).

    Article 
    PubMed 

    Google Scholar 

  • Chartron, J., Shiau, C., Stout, C. D. & Carroll, K. S. 3′-Phosphoadenosine-5′-phosphosulfate reductase in complex with thioredoxin: a structural snapshot in the catalytic cycle. Biochemistry 46, 3942–3951 (2007).

    Article 
    PubMed 

    Google Scholar 

  • Hwang, J. et al. The structural basis for the negative regulation of thioredoxin by thioredoxin-interacting protein. Nat. Commun. 5, 2958 (2014).

    Article 
    PubMed 

    Google Scholar 

  • Zhang, Z. et al. Structural basis for thioredoxin-mediated suppression of NLRP1 inflammasome. Nature 622, 188–194 (2023).

    Article 
    PubMed 

    Google Scholar 

  • Ball, D. P. et al. Oxidized thioredoxin-1 restrains the NLRP1 inflammasome. Sci. Immunol. 7, eabm7200 (2022).

    Article 
    PubMed 
    PubMed Central 

    Google Scholar 

  • Gao, Y. et al. Structures and operating principles of the replisome. Science 363, eaav7003 (2019).

    Article 
    PubMed 
    PubMed Central 

    Google Scholar 

  • Tabor, S., Huber, H. E. & Richardson, C. C. Escherichia coli thioredoxin confers processivity on the DNA polymerase activity of the gene 5 protein of bacteriophage T7. J. Biol. Chem. 262, 16212–16223 (1987).

    Article 
    PubMed 

    Google Scholar 

  • Park, J.-U. et al. Structures of the holo CRISPR RNA-guided transposon integration complex. Nature 613, 775–782 (2023).

    Article 
    PubMed 

    Google Scholar 

  • Nakagawa, R. et al. Cryo-EM structure of the transposon-associated TnpB enzyme. Nature 616, 390–397 (2023).

    Article 
    PubMed 
    PubMed Central 

    Google Scholar 

  • Yamano, T. et al. Crystal structure of Cpf1 in complex with guide RNA and target DNA. Cell 165, 949–962 (2016).

    Article 
    PubMed 
    PubMed Central 

    Google Scholar 

  • Yang, H., Gao, P., Rajashankar, K. R. & Patel, D. J. PAM-dependent target DNA recognition and cleavage by C2c1 CRISPR–cas endonuclease. Cell 167, 1814–1828.e12 (2016).

    Article 
    PubMed 
    PubMed Central 

    Google Scholar 

  • Kurihara, N. et al. Structure of the type V-C CRISPR–Cas effector enzyme. Mol. Cell 82, 1865–1877.e4 (2022).

    Article 
    PubMed 
    PubMed Central 

    Google Scholar 

  • Tsuchida, C. A. et al. Chimeric CRISPR–CasX enzymes and guide RNAs for improved genome editing activity. Mol. Cell 82, 1199–1209.e6 (2022).

    Article 
    PubMed 
    PubMed Central 

    Google Scholar 

  • Hino, T. et al. An AsCas12f-based compact genome-editing tool derived by deep mutational scanning and structural analysis. Cell 186, 4920–4935.e23 (2023).

    Article 
    PubMed 

    Google Scholar 

  • Li, Z., Zhang, H., Xiao, R., Han, R. & Chang, L. Cryo-EM structure of the RNA-guided ribonuclease Cas12g. Nat. Chem. Biol. 17, 387–393 (2021).

    Article 
    PubMed 
    PubMed Central 

    Google Scholar 

  • Zhang, B. et al. Mechanistic insights into the R-loop formation and cleavage in CRISPR–Cas12i1. Nat. Commun. 12, 3476 (2021).

    Article 
    PubMed 
    PubMed Central 

    Google Scholar 

  • Pausch, P. et al. DNA interference states of the hypercompact CRISPR–CasΦ effector. Nat. Struct. Mol. Biol. 28, 652–661 (2021).

    Article 
    PubMed 
    PubMed Central 

    Google Scholar 

  • Sun, A. et al. The compact Casπ (Cas12l) ‘bracelet’ provides a unique structural platform for DNA manipulation. Cell Res. 33, 229–244 (2023).

    Article 
    PubMed 
    PubMed Central 

    Google Scholar 

  • Omura, S. N. et al. Mechanistic and evolutionary insights into a type V-M CRISPR–Cas effector enzyme. Nat. Struct. Mol. Biol. 30, 1172–1182 (2023).

    Article 
    PubMed 
    PubMed Central 

    Google Scholar 

  • Al-Shayeb, B. et al. Diverse virus-encoded CRISPR–Cas systems include streamlined genome editors. Cell 185, 4574–4586.e16 (2022).

    Article 
    PubMed 

    Google Scholar 

  • Duan, Z. et al. Structure and genome editing activity of the novel CRISPR–Cas12o1 effector. Cell Res. 35, 145–148 (2025).

    Article 
    PubMed 

    Google Scholar 

  • Sasnauskas, G. et al. TnpB structure reveals minimal functional core of Cas12 nuclease family. Nature 616, 384–389 (2023).

    Article 
    PubMed 

    Google Scholar 

  • Chamberlin, M. Isolation and characterization of prototrophic mutants of Escherichia coli unable to support the intracellular growth of T7. J. Virol. 14, 509–516 (1974).

    Article 
    PubMed 
    PubMed Central 

    Google Scholar 

  • Hamdan, S. M. et al. A unique loop in T7 DNA polymerase mediates the binding of helicase–primase, DNA binding protein, and processivity factor. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 102, 5096–5101 (2005).

    Article 
    PubMed 
    PubMed Central 

    Google Scholar 

  • Evans, R. et al. Protein complex prediction with AlphaFold-Multimer. Preprint at bioRxiv https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.10.04.463034 (2021).

  • Omidi, A., Møller, M. H., Malhis, N., Bui, J. M. & Gsponer, J. AlphaFold-Multimer accurately captures interactions and dynamics of intrinsically disordered protein regions. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 121, e2406407121 (2024).

    Article 
    PubMed 
    PubMed Central 

    Google Scholar 

  • Wilson, C. J., Choy, W.-Y. & Karttunen, M. AlphaFold2: a role for disordered protein/region prediction?. Int. J. Mol. Sci. 23, 4591 (2022).

    Article 
    PubMed 
    PubMed Central 

    Google Scholar 

  • Holehouse, A. S. & Kragelund, B. B. The molecular basis for cellular function of intrinsically disordered protein regions. Nat. Rev. Mol. Cell Biol. 25, 187–211 (2024).

    Article 
    PubMed 

    Google Scholar 

  • Bryant, P., Pozzati, G. & Elofsson, A. Improved prediction of protein-protein interactions using AlphaFold2. Nat. Commun. 13, 1265 (2022).

    Article 
    PubMed 
    PubMed Central 

    Google Scholar 

  • Tang, N. & Ji, Q. Miniature CRISPR–Cas12 systems: mechanisms, engineering, and genome editing applications. ACS Chem. Biol. 19, 1399–1408 (2024).

    Article 
    PubMed 

    Google Scholar 

  • Karvelis, T. et al. Transposon-associated TnpB is a programmable RNA-guided DNA endonuclease. Nature 599, 692–696 (2021).

    Article 
    PubMed 
    PubMed Central 

    Google Scholar 

  • Wu, W. Y., Adiego-Pérez, B. & Van Der Oost, J. Biology and applications of CRISPR–Cas12 and transposon-associated homologs. Nat. Biotechnol. 42, 1807–1821 (2024).

    Article 
    PubMed 

    Google Scholar 

  • Chen, W. et al. Cas12n nucleases, early evolutionary intermediates of type V CRISPR, comprise a distinct family of miniature genome editors. Mol. Cell 83, 2768–2780.e6 (2023).

    Article 
    PubMed 

    Google Scholar 

  • Xu, X. et al. Engineered miniature CRISPR–Cas system for mammalian genome regulation and editing. Mol. Cell 81, 4333–4345.e4 (2021).

    Article 
    PubMed 

    Google Scholar 

  • Kim, D. Y. et al. Efficient CRISPR editing with a hypercompact Cas12f1 and engineered guide RNAs delivered by adeno-associated virus. Nat. Biotechnol. 40, 94–102 (2022).

    Article 
    PubMed 

    Google Scholar 

  • Bland, C. et al. CRISPR Recognition Tool (CRT): a tool for automatic detection of clustered regularly interspaced palindromic repeats. BMC Bioinformatics 8, 209 (2007).

    Article 
    PubMed 
    PubMed Central 

    Google Scholar 

  • Hyatt, D. et al. Prodigal: prokaryotic gene recognition and translation initiation site identification. BMC Bioinformatics 11, 119 (2010).

    Article 
    PubMed 
    PubMed Central 

    Google Scholar 

  • Pausch, P. et al. CRISPR–CasΦ from huge phages is a hypercompact genome editor. Science 369, 333–337 (2020).

    Article 
    PubMed 
    PubMed Central 

    Google Scholar 

  • Katoh, K. & Standley, D. M. MAFFT multiple sequence alignment software version 7: improvements in performance and usability. Mol. Biol. Evol. 30, 772–780 (2013).

    Article 
    PubMed 
    PubMed Central 

    Google Scholar 

  • Eddy, S. R. Accelerated profile HMM searches. PLoS Comput. Biol. 7, e1002195 (2011).

    Article 
    PubMed 
    PubMed Central 

    Google Scholar 

  • Steinegger, M. & Söding, J. MMseqs2 enables sensitive protein sequence searching for the analysis of massive data sets. Nat. Biotechnol. 35, 1026–1028 (2017).

    Article 
    PubMed 

    Google Scholar 

  • Jumper, J. et al. Highly accurate protein structure prediction with AlphaFold. Nature 596, 583–589 (2021).

    Article 
    PubMed 
    PubMed Central 

    Google Scholar 

  • Mirdita, M. et al. ColabFold: making protein folding accessible to all. Nat. Methods 19, 679–682 (2022).

    Article 
    PubMed 
    PubMed Central 

    Google Scholar 

  • Edgar, R. C. Muscle5: high-accuracy alignment ensembles enable unbiased assessments of sequence homology and phylogeny. Nat. Commun. 13, 6968 (2022).

    Article 
    PubMed 
    PubMed Central 

    Google Scholar 

  • Minh, B. Q. et al. IQ-TREE 2: new models and efficient methods for phylogenetic inference in the genomic era. Mol. Biol. Evol. 37, 1530–1534 (2020).

    Article 
    PubMed 
    PubMed Central 

    Google Scholar 

  • Letunic, I. & Bork, P. Interactive Tree of Life (iTOL) v6: recent updates to the phylogenetic tree display and annotation tool. Nucleic Acids Res. 52, W78–W82 (2024).

    Article 
    PubMed 
    PubMed Central 

    Google Scholar 

  • Yu, D., Chojnowski, G., Rosenthal, M. & Kosinski, J. AlphaPulldown—a Python package for protein–protein interaction screens using AlphaFold-Multimer. Bioinformatics 39, btac749 (2023).

    Article 
    PubMed 

    Google Scholar 

  • Wang, Y. et al. CRISPR–Cas9 and CRISPR-assisted cytidine deaminase enable precise and efficient genome editing in Klebsiella pneumoniae. Appl. Environ. Microbiol. 84, e01834–18 (2018).

    Article 
    PubMed 
    PubMed Central 

    Google Scholar 

  • Wang, Y. et al. A highly efficient CRISPR–Cas9-based genome engineering platform in Acinetobacter baumannii to understand the H2O2-sensing mechanism of OxyR. Cell Chem. Biol. 26, 1732–1742.e5 (2019).

    Article 
    PubMed 

    Google Scholar 

  • Quan, J. & Tian, J. Circular polymerase extension cloning of complex gene libraries and pathways. PLoS ONE 4, e6441 (2009).

    Article 
    PubMed 
    PubMed Central 

    Google Scholar 

  • Zhu, J. et al. Design of bacteriophage T4-based artificial viral vectors for human genome remodeling. Nat. Commun. 14, 2928 (2023).

  • He, Y. & Chen, J. CRISPR–Cas9-mediated genome editing of T4 bacteriophage for high-throughput antimicrobial susceptibility testing. Anal. Chem. 96, 18301–18310 (2024).

    Article 
    PubMed 
    PubMed Central 

    Google Scholar 

  • Kim, D., Paggi, J. M., Park, C., Bennett, C. & Salzberg, S. L. Graph-based genome alignment and genotyping with HISAT2 and HISAT-genotype. Nat. Biotechnol. 37, 907–915 (2019).

    Article 
    PubMed 
    PubMed Central 

    Google Scholar 

  • Danecek, P. et al. Twelve years of SAMtools and BCFtools. GigaScience 10, giab008 (2021).

  • Mastronarde, D. N. Automated electron microscope tomography using robust prediction of specimen movements. J. Struct. Biol. 152, 36–51 (2005).

    Article 
    PubMed 

    Google Scholar 

  • Zheng, S. Q. et al. MotionCor2: anisotropic correction of beam-induced motion for improved cryo-electron microscopy. Nat. Methods 14, 331–332 (2017).

    Article 
    PubMed 
    PubMed Central 

    Google Scholar 

  • Zivanov, J. et al. New tools for automated high-resolution cryo-EM structure determination in RELION-3. eLife 7, e42166 (2018).

    Article 
    PubMed 
    PubMed Central 

    Google Scholar 

  • Punjani, A., Zhang, H. & Fleet, D. J. Non-uniform refinement: adaptive regularization improves single-particle cryo-EM reconstruction. Nat. Methods 17, 1214–1221 (2020).

    Article 
    PubMed 

    Google Scholar 

  • Punjani, A., Rubinstein, J. L., Fleet, D. J. & Brubaker, M. A. cryoSPARC: algorithms for rapid unsupervised cryo-EM structure determination. Nat. Methods 14, 290–296 (2017).

    Article 
    PubMed 

    Google Scholar 

  • Sanchez-Garcia, R. et al. DeepEMhancer: a deep learning solution for cryo-EM volume post-processing. Commun. Biol. 4, 874 (2021).

    Article 
    PubMed 
    PubMed Central 

    Google Scholar 

  • Emsley, P. & Cowtan, K. Coot: model-building tools for molecular graphics. Acta Crystallogr. D 60, 2126–2132 (2004).

    Article 
    PubMed 

    Google Scholar 

  • Adams, P. D. et al. PHENIX: a comprehensive Python-based system for macromolecular structure solution. Acta Crystallogr. D 66, 213–221 (2010).

    Article 
    PubMed 
    PubMed Central 

    Google Scholar 

  • Meng, E. C. et al. UCSF ChimeraX: tools for structure building and analysis. Protein Sci. 32, e4792 (2023).

    Article 
    PubMed 
    PubMed Central 

    Google Scholar 

Continue Reading

  • Oxford Bus Company reveals list of unusual lost property

    Oxford Bus Company reveals list of unusual lost property

    The company said that about a quarter of the lost property had been reunited with its owners.

    “Misplacing a personal item can be a stressful experience, so we use technology to help make it easier for people to get their belongings back,” said Andy Morison, the firm’s head of digital and customer experience.

    “We encourage people who misplace their items to use our NotLost service via the website which has helped us effectively manage lost property and minimise stress to affected passengers.”

    Passengers who reclaim items pay a £1 administration and storage fee, with a postal return option also available.

    Items left behind in previous years have included a bar stool, a Donald Trump toilet roll and a letter detailing unusual fantasies.

    Last year a suitcase full of retro adult magazines topped the list.

    Continue Reading

  • Belgian venue operator Be•at sells more than three million tickets for first time

    Belgian venue operator Be•at sells more than three million tickets for first time

    Belgian live entertainment company be•at, which operates major venues including the AFAS Dome (formerly the Sportpaleis), Lotto Arena and Forest National, sold more than three million tickets in 2025 for the first time, the company said. Ticket…

    Continue Reading

  • ASUS Intros Pro WS B850M-ACE SE Motherboard with IPMI for Home and SMB Servers

    ASUS Intros Pro WS B850M-ACE SE Motherboard with IPMI for Home and SMB Servers

    ASUS introduced the Pro WS B850M-ACE SE, an AMD Socket AM5 motherboard in the microATX form-factor that’s laid out like a server motherboard, but targets a range of consumers spanning from home and small-business servers, to workstations with…

    Continue Reading

  • Ultrasensitive X-ray detection enabled by graphene/perovskite heterostructures

    Researchers from Dongguan University of Technology have developed a high-performance X-ray detector based on a graphene/perovskite heterostructure, addressing the limitations of traditional perovskite detectors that suffer from charge…

    Continue Reading

  • Our experts have found the best New Year deals on OLED TVs, stereo speakers, Dolby Atmos soundbars and more

    Our experts have found the best New Year deals on OLED TVs, stereo speakers, Dolby Atmos soundbars and more

    Happy New Year from all of us at What Hi-Fi?.

    Whether you’ve entered 2026 swinging or are still taking a well-deserved break, there are plenty of great deals around for you to peruse.

    Continue Reading

  • All you need to know about putting solar panels on your roof

    All you need to know about putting solar panels on your roof

    Analysis: you can expect a simple system of six to eight solar panels to generate about one third of your home’s electricity needs

    This article is now available above as a Brainstorm podcast. You can subscribe to the Brainstorm podcast via Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.

    The proverb “Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; teach him to fish and you feed him for life” has an unlikely resonance in the current fossil fuel crisis, especially when it comes to measures than are needed to help homeowners deal with soaring electricity costs. While giving someone a rebate or discount on their energy bill will help them once, giving them the power to generate their own electricity will endure for their lifetime. This is where an unlikely electricity source for Ireland, in the form of sunshine, could be a lifeline to many families struggling to pay energy bills.

    Ireland is known more for wind and waves rather than sunshine, but advances in solar technology and reductions in cost now make it an attractive option for residential electricity generation in Ireland. Solar panels that produce electricity are known as solar photovoltaic (PV) modules. These panels generate electricity when exposed to light and it has been one of the fastest growing power generation technologies worldwide.

    We need your consent to load this rte-player contentWe use rte-player to manage extra content that can set cookies on your device and collect data about your activity. Please review their details and accept them to load the content.Manage Preferences

    From RTÉ News, a new study has found that solar panels could provide 25% of Ireland’s electricity needs

    The systems produce electricity that can be used to power your home appliances and heat water via your immersion. The homeowner won’t notice any difference in how appliances work and there is no need to notify or change your electricity supplier.

    Naturally, solar systems need sunlight to work but most will still function on overcast days in Ireland although not at their full capacity. You can expect a simple system of six to eight panels on your roof to generate about one third of your annual electricity needs, with most of this between the months of May and September. This means you will still be relying on your electricity supplier, especially in winter and darker months, but you will be buying less electricity from them overall.

    Solar PV systems are sized in technical units called kilowatts (kW) and a simple 2.4kW system would have about six to eight panels. Most small systems of this size do not need planning permission, but you should check with your local authority as rules differ from location to location.

    We need your consent to load this rte-player contentWe use rte-player to manage extra content that can set cookies on your device and collect data about your activity. Please review their details and accept them to load the content.Manage Preferences

    From RTÉ Radio 1’s Morning Ireland, Dr Paul Deane on how over one million Irish homes have roofs suitable for solar panels

    While the fuel in the form of sunlight is free, the installation of the panels isn’t and will cost about €4,000 for a simple system with six to eight panels [2.4kW]. There is a Government grant available to help reduce costs, bringing the overall price down to about €3,000. These are ballpark costs and will vary from supplier to supplier. If you are interested in getting solar panels, it is very important to shop around for several quotes and use a reputable certified installer.

    A typical home with six to eight solar panels on the roof could save about €400 per year in electricity bills, with the system paying back for itself in seven to 10 years. The deployment of residential solar PV in Ireland addresses key energy and climate issues such as affordability but also helps Ireland at a national level in terms of Increasing security of supply and reducing the pollution from greenhouse gas emissions.

    In UCC, we carried out a study, funded by the Irish Solar Energy Association, to understand how many homes can use sunlight to generate electricity. We were surprised to find that about half the homes in Ireland have potential for this technology and, if all this was achieved, we could produce enough electricity to meet a quarter of all residential electricity demand.

    We need your consent to load this rte-player contentWe use rte-player to manage extra content that can set cookies on your device and collect data about your activity. Please review their details and accept them to load the content.Manage Preferences

    From RTÉ Radio 1’s Today With Claire Byrne, would solar panels work for your home?

    But there are very real challenges in rolling out this technology at scale at a national level. For a start, there is a shortage of skilled workers to do the work. Furthermore, while the economic and environmental arguments for the technology are very compelling, it still requires a significant upfront investment by the homeowner.

    In this regard SEAI have a range of grants available to homeowners to reduce costs, but many families will still find the investment prohibitive. This is where Government policy needs to intervene and provide 100% grants to fund solar panels for homes in receipt of fuel allowance as low-income families need the highest level of financial protection during this crisis.

    To get the best out of your panels, you will also have to change some behaviours about when you use appliances such as dishwashers and washing machines. If you have a solar system, it is best run these appliances when the sun is shining

    We need your consent to load this rte-player contentWe use rte-player to manage extra content that can set cookies on your device and collect data about your activity. Please review their details and accept them to load the content.Manage Preferences

    From RTÉ Brainstorm, all you need to know about putting solar panels on your roof

    While some homeowners will look to put in a battery system to store any excess electricity, this adds to the costs. However, if you have a hot water or immersion tank, you can set up your solar system to divert surplus electricity to heat your water. In essence this acts like a battery and stores the electricity as hot water, which can be used to offset the use of the immersion for hot showers etc.

    Any remaining electricity can be exported to the grid and homeowners can now get paid a small fee for this. But with current high electricity prices, it is best to use as much of your solar generated electricity in your own home as possible.


    The views expressed here are those of the author and do not represent or reflect the views of RTÉ


    Continue Reading

  • Full moon names 2026 (and how they came to be)

    Full moon names 2026 (and how they came to be)

    Many full moon names date back to Native Americans of what is now the northern and eastern United States. Those tribes of a few hundred years ago kept track of the seasons by giving distinctive names to each recurring full moon.

    Their names were…

    Continue Reading

  • The audacious plan to make rocket fuel on the moon

    The audacious plan to make rocket fuel on the moon

    Despite being one of the coldest places in the cosmos, the moon’s surface may one day have multiple heat sources. Reflected sunlight is one option. Alternatively, both the U.S. and China also plan to put nuclear reactors on the moon so that…

    Continue Reading

  • Americans drank more milk in 2024, reversing a decade-long decline

    Americans drank more milk in 2024, reversing a decade-long decline

    For more than a decade, Americans have been steadily drinking less milk each year.

    But the latest federal data show sales of milk beverages turned around in 2024, increasing by 358 million pounds or just under 1 percentage point from the previous year to 43.2 billion pounds.

    It’s the result of a resurgence in sales of whole milk, which have been trending upward since 2014. The category saw a 3% increase from 2023 and helped offset the continued declines in most other categories, including reduced-fat and skim milk.

    Whole milk has benefited from the diet craze around protein driven largely by health and fitness influencers, said Leonard Polzin, dairy markets and policy outreach specialist for the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Division of Extension.

    “The more protein, the better. Consumers are all about that,” Polzin said. “The other portion is kind of a shift towards healthy fats too. So for example, cottage cheese is having a real moment right now.”

    Industry data shows whole milk consumption is up in both households with children and those without, according to Karen Gefvert, chief policy officer for Edge Dairy Farmer Cooperative, which represents farmers in Wisconsin and Minnesota.

    Gefvert said whole milk has also benefited from increasing consumer interest in whole foods and foods that are minimally processed – a trend that has been promoted by the Trump administration’s Make America Healthy Again agenda.

    “There are a ton of really great things in whole milk, and I think that’s resonating with consumers,” Gefvert said.

    Federal data going back to 1975 show total U.S. milk sales peaked in 2009 at more than 55.4 billion pounds. That total steadily declined to a record low of 42.8 billion pounds in 2023.

    Consumption of plant-based milk alternatives has declined in recent years. But Polzin said it’s hard to know if those consumers are making the shift to dairy or simply cutting back on drinking milk of any kind.

    Polzin said increasing milk consumption is especially good for dairy farmers. That’s because milk sold as beverages, known in the industry as fluid milk, has a greater impact on the prices paid to farmers.

    But Gefvert said this effect is not as prominent in states like Wisconsin, where most milk is processed into cheese and other products. She said most farmers in the state have a more subdued take on last year’s sales increase.

    “It was not significant and is likely just sort of a pause in the inevitable continuous decline in fluid milk sales,” Gefvert said.

    She said there is hope that whole milk sales in particular will continue to increase. Congress recently passed federal legislation to reintroduce the option to the National School Lunch Program, which currently requires schools to offer low-fat or skim milk to students. The Whole Milk for Health Kids Act is expected to be signed by President Trump.

    Medical experts are divided on whether full fat dairy options, which contain high levels of saturated fat, negatively affect human health.

    Earlier this year, a scientific panel that advises the federal government on dietary guidelines concluded there wasn’t enough evidence to change the existing guidance, which recommends Americans drink low-fat or skim rather than whole milk.

    This story was produced in partnership with Harvest Public Media, a collaboration of public media newsrooms in the Midwest and Great Plains. It reports on food systems, agriculture and rural issues.

    Continue Reading