Strange But True
Study uses Botox to find new wrinkle in brain communication
May 2, 2013 2:36 pm | News | Comments
National Institutes of Health researchers have used the popular anti-wrinkle agent Botox to discover a new and important role for a group of molecules that nerve cells use to quickly send messages. This novel role for the molecules, called SNARES, may be a missing piece that scientists have been searching for to fully understand how brain cells communicate under normal and disease conditions.
Scientists offer first definitive proof of bacteria-feeding behavior in green algae
May 23, 2013 11:21 pm | News | Comments
A team of researchers has captured images of green alga consuming bacteria, offering a glimpse...
Cockroaches quickly lose sweet tooth to survive
May 23, 2013 11:04 pm | by Malcolm Ritter, AP Science Writer | News | Comments
For decades, people have been getting rid of cockroaches by setting out bait mixed...
Bacterium from Arctic offers clues about life on Mars
May 23, 2013 2:04 pm | News | Comments
The temperature in the permafrost on Ellesmere Island in the Canadian high Arctic is...
Grammar errors? The brain detects them even when you are unaware
May 14, 2013 10:40 am | News | CommentsYour brain often works on autopilot when it comes to grammar. That theory has been around for years, but University of Oregon neuroscientists have captured elusive hard evidence that people indeed detect and process grammatical errors with no awareness of doing so.
Building protocells from inorganic nanoparticles
May 10, 2013 1:05 pm | News | CommentsResearchers at the University of Bristol in the U.K. have led a new enquiry into how extremely small particles of silica (sand) can be used to design and construct artificial protocells in the laboratory. By attaching a thin polymer layer to the external surface of an artificial inorganic protocell built from silica nanoparticles, the scientists have potentially the problem of controlling membrane permeability.
Quantum optics demonstrated with microwaves
May 8, 2013 12:21 pm | News | CommentsPhysicists in Switzerland have demonstrated one of the quintessential effects of quantum optics—known as the Hong-Ou-Mandel effect—with microwaves, which have a frequency that 100,000 times lower than that of visible light. The experiment takes quantum optics into a new frequency regime and could eventually lead to new technological applications.
Scientists make world’s smallest stop-motion film
May 2, 2013 9:22 am | News | CommentsEven without certification by Guinness World Records, it would be easy to believe a short, 250-frame film recently created by an IBM Research team is the world’s smallest. Named “A Boy and His Atom,” the movie was created by precisely placing thousands of atoms using a scanning tunneling microscope. This type of atomic-level control is the result of years of efforts by IBM to determine the lower limits for storing data.
Research find quantum phenomena can have effect on molecular level
April 29, 2013 10:42 am | News | CommentsUsing uniquely sensitive experimental techniques, scientists have found that laws of quantum physics—believed primarily to influence at only sub-atomic levels—can actually impact on a molecular level. The study shows that movement of the ring-like molecule pyrrole over a metal surface runs counter to the classical physics that govern our everyday world.
Researchers create shape-shifting mobile devices
April 29, 2013 8:19 am | News | CommentsAt a conference this week in Europe on human-machine interfaces, a research team from the U.K. will introduce the concept of “shape resolution”, which it has used to compare the resolution of six prototypes built using new technologies in shape-changing material, such as shape memory alloy and electro active polymer. One example is the Morphees, a self-actuated flexible mobile device that can change shape on-demand.
Rare galaxy found furiously burning fuel for stars
April 24, 2013 9:02 am | News | CommentsAstronomers have found a galaxy turning gas into stars with almost 100% efficiency, a rare phase of galaxy evolution that is the most extreme yet observed. The findings come from the IRAM Plateau de Bure interferometer in the French Alps, NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer, and NASA's Hubble Space Telescope.
Superstorm Sandy literally shook the United States
April 19, 2013 12:57 pm | News | CommentsWhen superstorm Sandy turned and took aim at New York City and Long Island last October, ocean waves hitting each other and the shore rattled the seafloor and much of the United States—shaking detected by seismometers across the country, University of Utah researchers have recently found. These “microseisms” generated by Sandy were detected by Earthscope, a network of 500 portable seismometers.
Scientists decode DNA of “living fossil” fish
April 17, 2013 9:04 pm | by Malcolm Ritter, AP Science Writer | News | CommentsThe lungfish is the closest living fish relative of animals with four limbs, called tetrapods. But the lungfish genome is too big to decode with current technology. Scientists have decoded the genome of the next best thing: the coelacanth. Thought to have gone extinct some 70 million years ago, the fish was surprisingly discovered alive in 1938 and could provide insights into the evolution of land animals.
Device launches plasma, holds it together through the air
April 16, 2013 10:12 pm | News | CommentsA University of Missouri engineer has built a system that is able to launch a ring of plasma as far as two feet. Plasma is commonly created in the laboratory using powerful electromagnets, but previous efforts to hold the super-hot material through air have been unsuccessful. The new device does this by changing how the magnetic field around the plasma is arranged.
Bad decisions arise from faulty information, not faulty brain circuits
April 16, 2013 8:11 am | News | CommentsMaking choices involves the evaluation of an accumulation of facts. If a wrong choice is made, Princeton University researchers have recently found, the problem may lie in the facts, or information, rather than the brain's decision-making process. The researchers report that erroneous decisions tend to arise from errors, or "noise," in the information coming into the brain.
Overcoming barriers to medical use of microrockets and micromotors
April 11, 2013 2:13 am | News | CommentsAn advance in micromotor technology akin to the invention of cars that fuel themselves from the pavement or air, rather than gasoline or batteries, is opening the door to broad new medical and industrial uses for these tiny devices, scientists said here today. Their update on development of the motors—so small that thousands would fit inside this "o"—was part of the American Chemical Society national meeting.
GUMBOS technology promises new drugs, electronic devices
April 10, 2013 1:06 pm | News | CommentsMention a breakthrough involving "gumbo" technology in this city, and people think of a new twist on The Local Dish, the stew that's the quintessence of southern Louisiana cooking. But scientific presentations at a meeting of the world's largest scientific society this week are focusing on what may be an advance in developing GUMBOS-based materials with far-reaching medical, electronic and other uses.
Researchers engineer “protein switch” to dissect role of cancer's key players
April 10, 2013 12:45 pm | News | CommentsScientists at the Uniersity of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Medicine have "rationally rewired" some of the cell's smallest components to create proteins that can be switched on or off by command. These "protein switches" can be used to interrogate the inner workings of each cell, helping scientists uncover the molecular mechanisms of human health and disease.
Recruiting engineered cells to work for warfighters
April 10, 2013 12:22 pm | News | CommentsThe Office of Naval Research (ONR) this week launched a collaborative initiative with university researchers focused on synthetic, or engineered, cells—part of a larger effort to use the smallest units of life to help Sailors and Marines execute their missions. ONR currently has multiple ongoing projects in the field of synthetic biology.
“Artificial leaf” gains ability to self-heal damage, produce energy from dirty water
April 9, 2013 5:47 am | News | CommentsAnother innovative feature has been added to the world’s first practical “artificial leaf,” making the device even more suitable for providing people in developing countries and remote areas with electricity, scientists reported at the American Chemical Society’s National Meeting & Exposition this week. It gives the leaf the ability to self-heal damage that occurs during production of energy.
Newly discovered blood protein solves 60-year-old riddle
April 9, 2013 5:21 am | News | CommentsResearchers at Lund University in Sweden have discovered a new protein that controls the presence of the Vel blood group antigen on our red blood cells. The discovery makes it possible to use simple DNA testing to find blood donors for patients who lack the Vel antigen and need a blood transfusion. This is significant because there is a global shortage of Vel-negative blood
Innovative method to treat Alzheimer's in mice
April 5, 2013 4:57 pm | News | CommentsResearchers from the RIKEN Brain Science Institute report that they successfully used a virus vector to restore the expression of a brain protein and improve cognitive functions, in a mouse model of Alzheimer's disease. Because it is impossible to deliver genes directly to the brain without surgery, the researchers injected the virus in the left ventricle of the heart, as this provides a direct route to the brain.
Engineers enable bulk silicon to emit visible light for the first time
March 27, 2013 2:56 pm | News | CommentsCertain semiconductors, when imparted with energy, in turn emit light; they directly produce photons, instead of producing heat. This phenomenon is commonplace and used in light-emitting diodes, or LEDs. Research from the University of Pennsylvania has enabled "bulk" silicon to emit broad-spectrum, visible light for the first time, opening the possibility of using the element in devices that have both electronic and photonic components.
Scientists build a nanoscale glass blower
March 25, 2013 3:43 pm | News | CommentsUsing a principle similar to the way plastic bags shrivel and crumple in a fire, researchers at EPFL in Switzerland are using the electrical properties of a scanning electron microscope to change the size of glass capillary tubes at the nanoscale. Their method has already been patented and it could pave the way to many novel applications.
Measuring the magnetism of antimatter
March 25, 2013 3:28 pm | News | CommentsIn a breakthrough that could one day yield important clues about the nature of matter itself, a team of Harvard University scientists have made a major leap in measuring the magnetic charge of single particles of matter and antimatter. By precisely measuring the oscillations of each particle, the team was able to measure the magnetism of a proton more than 1,000 times more accurately than an antiproton had been measured before.
Amazon CEO recovers Apollo engines from Atlantic
March 21, 2013 8:54 am | by Alicia Chang, AP Science Writer | News | CommentsRusted pieces of two Apollo-era rocket engines that helped boost astronauts to the moon have been fished out of the murky depths of the Atlantic by Amazon.com CEO Jeff Bezos. A privately funded expedition led by Bezos raised the main engine parts during three weeks at sea, about 360 miles from Cape Canaveral. The engine parts were resting nearly 3 miles deep in the Atlantic
Researchers discover third type of motor found in nature
March 20, 2013 3:21 pm | News | CommentsScientists have cracked a 35-year-old mystery about the workings of a revolving molecular motor that is now serving as a model for development of a futuristic genre of synthetic nanomotors that pump therapeutic DNA, RNA, or drugs into individual diseased cells. Their report reveals the mechanisms of these nanomotors in a bacteria-killing virus—and a new way to move DNA through cells
Under California: An ancient tectonic plate
March 18, 2013 4:39 pm | News | CommentsLarge chunks of an ancient tectonic plate that slid under North America millions of years ago are still present under parts of central California and Mexico, according to new research led by Brown University geophysicists. Called the Isabella anomaly—a large mass of cool, dehydrated material about 100 km beneath central California—is in fact a surviving slab of the ancient Farallon oceanic plate driven deep into the Earth’s mantle about 100 million years ago.
New research paper says we are still at risk of the plague
March 18, 2013 8:57 am | News | CommentsArchaeologists recently unearthed a “Black Death” grave in London, containing more than a dozen skeletons of people suspected to have died from the plague. The victims are thought to have died during the 14th century and archaeologists anticipate finding many more as they excavate the site. Results of their reveal a number of factors that show we are still at risk of plague today.
