group at position 30 was important for dual 5-LOX/COX inhibitory activity; furthermore, its combination with a carbonyl group at C-11 considerably increased 5- LOX inhibition. Also, the presence of an α -hydroxy group at C-2 or a carboxylic acid group at C-23 markedly suppressed the 5-LOX activity. The present findings reveal that the types and configurations of polar moieties at positions C-2, -3, -11, -24, and -30 are important structural aspects of pentacyclic triterpenes for their potential as anti-inflammatory lead compounds.

Volkov, D.S., Rogova, O.B., Proskurnin, M.A., 2020. Photoacoustic and photothermal methods in spectroscopy and characterization of soils and soil organic matter. Photoacoustics 17, 100151.

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2213597919300746 Review sums up the application of photoacoustic and photothermal spectroscopies for the analysis and characterization of soils and soil organic matter and discusses the outlooks in this area.

von Hegner, I., 2020. Extremophiles: a special or general case in the search for extra-terrestrial life? Extremophiles 24, 167-175.

https://doi.org/10.1007/s00792-019-01144-1 Since time immemorial life has been viewed as fragile, yet over the past few decades it has been found that many extreme environments are inhabited by organisms known as extremophiles. Knowledge of their emergence, adaptability, and limitations seems to provide a guideline for the search of extra-terrestrial life, since some extremophiles presumably can survive in extreme environments such as Mars, Europa, and Enceladus. Due to physico-chemical constraints, the first life necessarily came into existence at the lower limit of its conceivable complexity. Thus, the first life could not have been an extremophile; furthermore, since biological evolution occurs over time, then the dual knowledge regarding what specific extremophiles are capable of, and to the analogue environment on extreme worlds, will not be sufficient as a search criterion. This is because, even though an extremophile can live in an extreme environment here-and-now, its ancestor however could not live in that very same environment in the past, which means that no contemporary extremophiles exist in that environment. Furthermore, a theoretical framework should be able to predict whether extremophiles can be considered a special or general case in the galaxy. Thus, a question is raised: does Earth' s continuous habitability represent an extreme or average value for planets? Thus, dependent on whether it is difficult or easy for worlds to maintain the habitability, the search for extra-terrestrial life with a focus on extremophiles will either represent a search for dying worlds, or a search for special life on living worlds, focusing too narrowly on extreme values.

Voosen, P., 2020. Planetary turmoil unleashed during Solar System infancy. Science 367, 350-351.

http://science.sciencemag.org/content/367/6476/350.abstract An early maelstrom shaped our Solar System. Sometime after the planets took shape from primordial gas and dust, resonant tugs between the giant planets threw their orbits out of kilter. The gravity of the errant giants blasted Pluto and its many icy neighbors into the far-out Kuiper belt. The instability also scattered oddball moons and asteroids and triggered smaller bodies to pummel the inner planets. Now, that scenario is experiencing some upheaval of its own. Scars on the Moon had convinced many planetary scientists that the storm hit about 3.95 billion years ago, 650 million years after the Solar System formed. But this model has long had a flaw: Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars would likely not have survived such a late assault. And over the past few years, a new timeline has begun to emerge, one that shifts the chaos earlier, to less than 100 million years after the system's creation - and perhaps as few as 10 million years. 'The tides are moving and people are now more and more convinced that the instabilit y happened early,' says David Nesvorný, a planetary scientist at the Southwest Research Institute