Nature’s photocopiers caught ‘doodling’ – and scientists say it could revolutionise how DNA is written

University of Bristol

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Nanoscale view of several interwoven fragments of ‘doodled’ DNA (orange and white strands) imaged on a near perfectly flat mica surface (shown in blue) using a custom high-speed atomic force microscope built at the University of Bristol.

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Credit: Thomas Gorochowski

New research has discovered that the molecular machines responsible for copying our DNA have a surprising hidden talent – an ability to create entirely new and highly sophisticated DNA sequences from scratch.

The study, led by the University of Bristol and published in Nature Communications, analyses this curious ‘doodling’ activity, showing for the first time that it can be steered and controlled. The findings not only help shed further light on how genetic information emerges, but could also present exciting new ways of writing long DNA sequences.

Every time a cell divides, it needs to copy its DNA. This job falls to proteins called DNA polymerases – tiny biological machines that read an existing DNA strand and build a matching copy, letter by letter, essentially acting as nature’s photocopiers. It has been known, since the 1960s, that some of these machines can also build new DNA without anything to copy from, in a process scientists nicknamed ‘doodling’. Until now, the sequences produced by doodling have been poorly characterised and this study provides the most detailed assessment to date.

Co-lead author Simeon Castle, who conducted the research as part of his PhD in Engineering Biology at the University of Bristol School of Biological Sciences, said: “We used nanopore sequencing to read the full-length sequences of thousands of DNA molecules that polymerases had created entirely on their own. What we found was far more diverse and complex than anyone had appreciated – from simple two-base repeats to elaborate eight-base motifs, all varying depending on which polymerase was used and the reaction conditions.”

Current methods for writing DNA rely on slow chemical processes and struggle to produce sequences longer than a few hundred bases (a base being the single letters from which DNA is built). By contrast, doodling can generate much longer fragments in a single reaction, with some exceeding 85,000 bases.

Co-lead author Thea Irvine, a PhD student in Engineering Biology also at the University’s School of Biological Sciences, added: “One of the most exciting findings was that we could actually steer what the polymerases produced. By changing the temperature or limiting which DNA building blocks were available, we could shift the composition of the sequences generated.

“When we provided only two of the four building blocks present in DNA, the polymerase produced long stretches of highly regular repeating patterns – some over a thousand bases in length.”

The study was supported by Replay Holdings Inc., the Royal Society, the Alan Turing Institute, the Medical Research Council (MRC), the UKRI Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) and UKRI Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC). The research united multidisciplinary experts from the University of Bristol, University of St. Andrews, and the Medical Research Council (MRC) Laboratory of Molecular Biology in the UK, and The Centre of Excellence for Engineering Biology in New York and Replay Holdings Inc. in the USA.

Senior author Thomas Gorochowski, Professor of Biological Engineering and a Royal Society University Research Fellow at the University of Bristol, added: “Doodling by DNA polymerases has been known about for decades, but has largely been treated as a curiosity. Our work shows it is a tuneable process with implications for how new genetic material is created and a real potential for biotechnology.

“Combining our findings with advances in AI-powered protein design, we believe harnessing doodling for the guided synthesis of long DNA sequences could be closer than many think.”

Paper

‘Analysis and control of untemplated DNA polymerase activity for guided synthesis of kilobase-scale DNA sequences’ by S.D. Castle et al. in Nature Communications

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Journal

Nature Communications

DOI

10.5281/zenodo.17956595 

Subject of Research

People

Article Title

Analysis and control of untemplated DNA polymerase activity for guided synthesis of kilobase-scale DNA sequences

 

Human attitudes to predators shape prospects for coexistence

University of Helsinki

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Hyaenas photographed in Kenya.

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Credit: Miquel Torrents-Ticó

Human–wildlife coexistence is often far from straightforward, with predators particularly hard hit: their numbers tend to fall sharply in areas close to human settlements, fields and pastureland.

This is not, however, a simple case of inevitable decline but a question of choices, Postdoctoral Researcher Miquel Torrents-TicóOpens in a new tab of the University of Helsinki argues in his recent study. Human attitudes towards predators play a crucial role in determining whether coexistence is possible.

Torrents-Ticó’s study compared spotted hyaena populations at two Kenyan sites, both shared with humans, grazing livestock and wild prey. While spotted hyaenas were mostly limited to the southern regions of Sibiloi National Park, they ranged across a wide area in the Laikipia conservancies regardless of human and livestock presence.

The crucial difference between the two sites, Torrents-Ticó notes, lies in human attitudes towards spotted hyaenas.

“Whereas herders in Sibiloi carried firearms and used lethal measures against spotted hyenas, those in Laikipia protected their livestock without killing predators. In other words, the distribution of spotted hyaenas was determined not by the number of livestock or humans, but by the level of human tolerance."

Torrents-Ticó suggests that the observations bring a new perspective to the human–nature relationship.

“Human attitudes and actions can directly influence the distribution of predators. Predators tend to avoid areas where they face high human intolerance, but where they are allowed to exist, coexistence with humans is more likely to succeed.”

In Finland, the findings may offer a new angle on the debate on wolves and other large predators living alongside humans, and underline just how significant human attitudes are to the survival of predator populations.

The study ‘The human propensity to kill carnivores is associated with the distribution of spotted hyaenas’ was published in the Journal for Nature Conservation.

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Journal

Journal for Nature Conservation

DOI

10.1016/j.jnc.2026.127279 

Method of Research

Observational study

Subject of Research

Animals

Article Title

The human propensity to kill carnivores is associated with the distribution of spotted hyaenas

Article Publication Date

23-Mar-2026

 

A Wisconsin-sized chunk of Alaskan permafrost is thawing; Arctic and global climate may never be the same

When permafrost is perma-lost, the global carbon cycle is altered and coastal ecosystem are affected

University of Massachusetts Amherst

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“How much DOC finds its way to the ocean via rivers and streams is a part of the carbon cycle we don’t know much about,” says Rawlins.

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Credit: Mike Rawlins

April 1, 2026

 

 

AMHERST, Mass. — In a first-of-its-kind study, a team of researchers led by geoscientist Michael Rawlins at the University of Massachusetts Amherst has shown in fine-grained detail what happens when Arctic permafrost thaws.

Focusing on a Wisconsin-sized area of Alaska’s North Slope containing hundreds of rivers and streams flowing into the Beaufort Sea, the team analyzed 44 years of model data at one-kilometer grid resolution, revealing how massively runoff is increasing, the increased loads of previously frozen carbon flowing through northern Alaska’s rivers and how the thawing season has extended into late-summer and fall. The results, published recently in Global Biogeochemical Cycles, helps us better understand just how one of the fastest-warming parts of the world is rapidly changing.

It’s hard to overestimate just how important Arctic rivers are to the planetary ecosystem. They deliver 11% of the world’s river water to an ocean that contains just 1% of the world’s ocean volume, making the Arctic, one of the fastest-changing parts of the globe, incredibly sensitive to whatever is happening in the rivers and stream. While much of that river water, and all the stuff carried in it, come from melting snow, permafrost thaw also plays a key role.

“Permafrost” is a bit of a misnomer, because there is a part of the permafrost called the “active layer” which freezes and thaws again every year. The active layer has been deepening in recent decades due to the warming climate, and this change is causing proportionally more groundwater to be delivered into Arctic rivers.

The active layer also contains vast stores of frozen organic carbon. When the active layer deepens, more of this carbon, in the form of dissolved organic carbon (DOC), washes into the rivers and, ultimately, the ocean. The Arctic Ocean receives a disproportionate share of the DOC delivered from rivers to oceans worldwide, and some of this carbon—more than 275 million tons, gets released as planet-warming carbon dioxide every year, which can create a vicious warming feedback loop.

That’s for the Arctic as a whole. But what about individual rivers, even small streams themselves? How are they faring as the world warms?

“What makes this question so hard to answer is that direct observations are very sparse in northern Alaska,” says Rawlins, extension associate professor of Earth, Geographic, and Climate Sciences at UMass Amherst. “There are nowhere near enough river sample measurements to quantify inputs to estuaries along the entire Alaskan North Slope.”

One way to get around the paucity of data is with a model—the more precise the better, and Rawlins has spent the last 25 years developing the Permafrost Water Balance Model, which estimates a wide range of data, including snow accumulation and melt, changes in the active layer and much more to get the best possible estimate of what is happening out in the field. In 2021, Rawlins expanded the model to simulate DOC, and in 2024 he and his colleagues modelled 22.45 million square kilometers of Arctic land and found that over the next 80 years the region would see up to 25% more runoff, 30% more subsurface runoff and a progressively drier southern Arctic.

“We’ve typically run the model on 25-kilometer grid cells,” says Rawlins. “This new study is the first time anyone has captured such a wide area of the Arctic—about the size of Wisconsin—down to the kilometer scale, and over such a long period of time: our model simulates daily river flows and coastal exports over 44 years from 1980 to 2023.”

It takes the supercomputer at the Massachusetts Green High Performance Computing Center 10 continuous days to crunch all the data for each model run—and it’s worth it. “Our freshwater and DOC inputs to coastal estuaries will be useful to a broad range of stakeholders interested in these unique ecosystems in coastal northern Alaska,” says Rawlins, “including the Beaufort Lagoon Ecosystems project, which is helping to quantify exactly what’s coming through these coastal estuaries.”

The team discovered that, while thawing and runoff is increasing everywhere, the largest increases in DOC export are emanating from northwest Alaska. “It’s flatter over there,” says Rawlins, “which means there’s much more carbon from decaying matter in the permafrost that has been accumulating for tens of thousands of years. This is ancient carbon. The further east you go, the more mountainous it becomes. The soil is rockier and sandier, and so far less DOC is mobilized as the permafrost thaws.”

The most surprising result is how thawing of the permafrost is really what’s driving much of the change—and the permafrost thaw season has extended into September and even October, weeks longer than it has been in the recent past.

All of these changes are likely altering salinity, biogeochemical processes and food web relationships in the coastal Beaufort Sea. Rawlins and his colleagues are now trying to understand how thawing of ice wedge polygons, which are ubiquitous across the high Arctic, is altering the flow of water and carbon to coastal zones.

“How much DOC finds its way to the ocean via rivers and streams is a part of the carbon cycle we don’t know much about,” says Rawlins. “We desperately need more of these land-to-ocean connection studies if we’re to fully grapple with the problem of global warming and the effects it will have on coastal ecosystems.”

This research was supported by the U.S. National Science Foundation and NASA.

  

“This new study is the first time anyone has captured such a wide area of the Arctic—about the size of Wisconsin—down to the kilometer scale,” says Rawlins. The study domain includes all land areas draining to the coast from the Clarence River at the easternmost edge to Point Barrow in the west.

The new study models individual rivers and small streams in unprecedented detail, as in this image showing the two-week average maximum DOC concentration for scores of outlets in the Deadhorse/Prudhoe Bay region.

Credit

Mike Rawlins

 

About the University of Massachusetts Amherst 

The flagship of the commonwealth, the University of Massachusetts Amherst is a nationally ranked public land-grant research university that seeks to expand educational access, fuel innovation and creativity and share and use its knowledge for the common good. Founded in 1863, UMass Amherst sits on nearly 1,450-acres in scenic Western Massachusetts and boasts state-of-the-art facilities for teaching, research, scholarship and creative activity. The institution advances a diverse, equitable, and inclusive community where everyone feels connected and valued—and thrives, and offers a full range of undergraduate, graduate and professional degrees across 10 schools and colleges and 100 undergraduate majors.  

 

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Journal

Global Biogeochemical Cycles

DOI

10.1029/2025GB008822 

Article Title

Hydrological Cycle Intensification and Permafrost 2 Thaw Drive Increased Freshwater and Organic Carbon 3 Inputs to Northern Alaska Estuaries

Article Publication Date

1-Apr-2026

 

Air surveillance reveals hidden reservoirs of antibiotic resistance genes

Hiroshima University

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An international team of researchers found that urban pollution and infrastructure shape the air microbiome, releasing clinically relevant ARGs—the kind most likely to reduce the effectiveness of medical treatments—into the air

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Credit: Fumito Maruyama/Hiroshima University

The air we breathe serves as a silent vector of antimicrobial resistance, calling for the need to integrate air monitoring into global public health strategies, according to a review by an international team of researchers.

While the fight against antimicrobial resistance (AMR) has traditionally focused on soil, water, and clinical settings, new research highlights that the air resistome—the collection of antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) found in the atmosphere—is a critical but overlooked pathway for transmission. 

ARGs can spread both on their own and through microorganisms that carry them. Urban environments often carry a high diversity of these genes due to dense human activity and wastewater infrastructure. However, even rural air, thought to be “cleaner”, harbors ARGs linked to agricultural practices, such as livestock farming, manure and sludge application, wastewater treatment plants, composting facilities, and aquaculture, the researchers explained. “This means every breath we take can potentially connect us to the global challenge of antimicrobial resistance,” said Professor Fumito Maruyama at Hiroshima University’s The IDEC Institute, who led the team.

In a review published in Critical Reviews in Environmental Science and Technology, an international research team has examined how ARGs are distributed across different environments.

The team found that urban pollution and infrastructure shape the air microbiome, releasing clinically relevant ARGs—the kind most likely to reduce the effectiveness of medical treatments—into the air. In rural areas, the air resistome changes with the seasons because it is tied to the timing of specific agricultural tasks. For example, when farmers apply manure as fertilizer or manage large groups of livestock, they inadvertently release different sets of resistance genes into the air.

The researchers describe the air as an invisible library of ARGs that circulate silently between humans, animals, and the environment. By recognizing air as a key reservoir, scientists can begin to design more effective preventive strategies. Currently, the lack of standardized monitoring systems across different regions and seasons makes it difficult to assess the full scale of the risk. The researchers emphasize that understanding these airborne patterns is essential for strengthening global AMR control frameworks.

Moving forward, the team aims to establish standardized surveillance systems to track the air resistome across various cities and rural landscapes. The ultimate goal is to ensure that international health policies consider this atmospheric transmission route alongside waterborne and soilborne routes. By integrating air monitoring into global strategies, policymakers can better protect public health from hidden environmental risks.

The research team also includes Salametu Saibu of Lagos State University, Nigeria; Kyoko Yarimizu, Ishara Uhanie Perera, Yin Yue, and So Fujiyoshi of Hiroshima University, Japan; Sofya Pozdniakova of the Barcelona Institute for Global Health, Spain; Pierre Amato of CNRS–Université Clermont Auvergne, France; and Naomichi Yamamoto and Florent Rossi of Seoul National University, South Korea. Perera is also affiliated with Yamaguchi University, Japan, while Rossi and Fujiyoshi are additionally affiliated with Université du Québec à Chicoutimi, Canada. Fujiyoshi is also affiliated with Toyama Prefectural University, Japan.

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About Hiroshima University

Since its foundation in 1949, Hiroshima University has striven to become one of the most prominent and comprehensive universities in Japan for the promotion and development of scholarship and education. Consisting of 12 schools for undergraduate level and 5 graduate schools, ranging from natural sciences to humanities and social sciences, the university has grown into one of the most distinguished comprehensive research universities in Japan. English website: https://www.hiroshima-u.ac.jp/en

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Journal

Critical Reviews in Environmental Science and Technology

DOI

10.1080/10643389.2026.2646509 

Article Title

Air resistome in urban and rural environments – review

Article Publication Date

27-Mar-2026

FAU study finds some dark web users share traits with those involved in crime

Florida Atlantic University

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Dark web users are far more likely to have criminal histories, low self-control and deviant peers – revealing who is drawn to these hidden online spaces.

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Credit: Florida Atlantic University

The dark web is sometimes seen as a shadowy part of the internet, but it also has legitimate uses, including accessing censored information and sharing files securely. Its anonymity and privacy features, however, can make it appealing to those drawn to riskier or illicit online activity.

As interest in the dark web grows, researchers are taking a closer look at who accesses it. The platform creates conditions where motivated offenders, potential victims and little oversight converge, and traits like low self-control and peer influence may help explain who is drawn to it. Yet criminology-based studies comparing dark web and surface web users are scarce.

To help fill that gap, research from Florida Atlantic University and collaborators analyzed survey data collected from a national sample of 1,750 adults in the United States, examining whether factors such as prior criminal behavior, low self-control, deviant peer groups and attitudes toward crime are linked to self-reported dark web use.

The researchers first examined whether people who reported having a criminal record were more likely to have accessed the dark web. Next, they looked at self-control, assessing whether individuals with lower self-control – a trait tied to impulsive and risk-taking behavior – were more likely to use the platform. Finally, they explored the role of social influences and attitudes by analyzing whether having more peers who engage in online deviance, as well as holding more favorable views toward rule-breaking and violence, were associated with dark web access.

Results of the study, published in the Journal of Crime and Justice, reveal clear differences between dark web users and surface web users across each of the criminological factors examined. About one-third of dark web users reported a prior criminal conviction – nearly three times the rate of surface web users (33.6% vs. 12.6%). They also scored significantly higher on measures of low self-control, peer cyber deviance, and criminal attitudes, including support for larceny, online deviance, and especially concerning, physical violence against others.

Across all models, being male and being younger were also linked to a higher likelihood of dark web use, with some models also suggesting that being heterosexual and having more education is also associated with dark web use.

Overall, these findings suggest that past criminal behavior, impulsiveness, social influences and favorable attitudes toward deviance all play a role in who chooses to access the dark web, providing strong empirical support for criminological theories in this digital context.

“It’s important to be clear: accessing the dark web is not inherently deviant or illegal, and it supports many legitimate activities, from private communication to accessing censored information,” said  Ryan C. Meldrum, Ph.D., senior author and director of the School of Criminology and Criminal Justice within FAU’s College of Social Work and Criminal Justice. “What our research shows, however, is that the platform also tends to attract some individuals whose behavioral, social and attitudinal profiles resemble those involved in criminal activity. In this sense, the dark web is a risky digital environment – one that can facilitate crime and increase the likelihood of victimization, all while operating under limited law enforcement oversight.”

Supplemental analyses from the study reveal that social learning factors may help explain why low self-control links to dark web access. Specifically, nearly half of the connection between low self-control and using the platform appears to be explained through the peers individuals associate with and the attitudes they form. This suggests that people with lower self-control may select peers who reinforce risky or deviant behaviors and attitudes, giving them the knowledge and skills needed to navigate the dark web.

The study underscores the need for further research into the small but important subpopulation of internet users who access the dark web, particularly those with the intent to engage in illicit activities.

“As the internet continues to evolve, understanding who accesses the dark web and why is critical,” Meldrum said. “Our study points to the importance of balancing awareness of potential risks with recognition of the legitimate, everyday uses of these hidden online spaces.”

Study co-authors are Raymond D. Partin, Ph.D., Department of Criminology and Criminal Justice, University of Alabama; and Peter S. Lehmann, Ph.D., Department of Criminal Justice and Criminology, Sam Houston State University.

- FAU -

About Florida Atlantic University:

Florida Atlantic University serves more than 32,000 undergraduate and graduate students across six campuses along Florida’s Southeast coast. Recognized as one of only 13 institutions nationwide to achieve three Carnegie Foundation designations - R1: Very High Research Spending and Doctorate Production,” “Opportunity College and University,” and Carnegie Community Engagement Classification - FAU stands at the intersection of academic excellence and social mobility. Ranked among the Top 100 Public Universities by U.S. News & World Report, FAU is also nationally recognized as a Top 25 Best-In-Class College and cited by Washington Monthly as “one of the country’s most effective engines of upward mobility.” To learn more, visit www.fau.edu.

 

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Journal

Journal of Crime and Justice

DOI

10.1080/0735648X.2026.2621153 

Method of Research

Survey

Subject of Research

People

Article Title

The role of criminal history, low self-control, and sociallearning variables in accessing the Dark Web