Strange But True
The chemical memory of seawater
October 2, 2012 8:52 am | News | CommentsWater does not forget, says Prof. Boris Koch, a chemist at the Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research. With the combination of some new techniques, Koch and colleagues can now identify and retrace some of the biomolecular tracks left by living organism. This dissolved organic matter, detectable with mass spectrometry, is one of the largest active, organic carbon reservoirs on earth.
Egyptian toes likely to be the world's oldest prosthetics
October 2, 2012 6:28 am | News | CommentsThe results of scientific tests using replicas of two ancient Egyptian artificial toes, including one that was found on the foot of a mummy, suggest that they're likely to be the world's first prosthetic body parts.
Skydiver aims to break sound barrier in free fall
October 2, 2012 3:55 am | by Marcia Dunn, AP Aerospace Writer | News | CommentsHis blood could boil. His lungs could overinflate. The vessels in his brain could burst. His eyes could hemorrhage. And, yes, he could break his neck while jumping from a mind-boggling altitude of 23 miles. But the risk of a gruesome death has never stopped "Fearless Felix" Baumgartner it won’t likely stop him next Monday over New Mexico, where he will attempt the highest, fastest free fall in history and try to become the first skydiver to break the sound barrier.
First images of Landau levels revealed
October 1, 2012 7:28 am | News | CommentsUsing scanning tunnelling spectroscopy, physicists have directly imaged Landau Levels—the quantum levels that determine electron behavior in a strong magnetic field—for the first time since they were theoretically conceived of by Nobel prize winner Lev Landau in 1930. The internal ring-like structure of these levels was revealed at the surface of a semiconductor.
Solar cell consists of a single molecule
October 1, 2012 5:39 am | News | CommentsResearchers in Germany and Israel have developed a method to measure photocurrents of a single functionalized photosynthetic protein system. The proteins represent light-driven, highly efficient single-molecule electron pumps that can act as current generators in nanoscale electrical circuits. According to the findings these proteins can be integrated and selectively addressed in artificial photovoltaic device architectures while retaining their biomolecular functional properties.
zarre tumor case may lead to custom cancer care
October 1, 2012 5:01 am | by Marilynn Marchone, AP Chief Medical Writer | News | CommentsIt's a medical nightmare: a 24-year-old man endures 350 surgeries since childhood to remove growths that keep coming back in his throat and have spread to his lungs, threatening his life. A new discovery, however, allows doctors to grow "mini tumors" from each patient's cancer in a lab dish, then test various drugs or combinations on them to see which works best.
New study says nanoparticles don't penetrate the skin
October 1, 2012 3:46 am | News | CommentsResearch by scientists at the University of Bath is challenging claims that nanoparticles in medicated and cosmetic creams are able to transport and deliver active ingredients deep inside the skin. The study discovered that even the tiniest of nanoparticles did not penetrate the skin's surface.
Artificially intelligent game bots pass the Turing test
September 28, 2012 10:15 am | News | CommentsOne hundred years after the birth of mathematician and computer scientist Alan Turing, whose “Turing test” stands as one of the foundational definitions of what constitutes true machine intelligence, a virtual “gamer” created by computer scientists at The University of Texas at Austin has won the annual BotPrize by convincing a panel of judges that their software-based robot was more human-like than half the humans it competed against.
All systems go at the biofactory
September 28, 2012 9:52 am | News | CommentsIn order to assemble novel biomolecular machines, individual protein molecules must be installed at their site of operation with nanometer precision. In a technique called “single-molecule cut & paste”, researchers in Germany have found a way to do this using atomic force microscopy. At first, the method was limited only to DNA molecules, but it has since been expanded to proteins.
Laundry additive helps bust pollution
September 28, 2012 4:44 am | News | CommentsPlans are now proceeding to commercialize a new liquid laundry additive called CatClo, which contains microscopic pollution-eating particles. The chemical, developed in the U.K., contains nanoparticles of titanium dioxide that grip onto fabric tightly. When the particles then come into contact with nitrogen oxides in the air, they react with these pollutants and oxidize them in the fabric, removing up to 5 g of nitrogen oxides per day.
Bioengineers introduce 'Bi-Fi, the biological Internet
September 27, 2012 11:32 am | News | CommentsIf you were a bacterium, the virus M13 might seem innocuous enough. It insinuates more than it invades, setting up shop like a freeloading house guest, not a killer. Once inside it makes itself at home, eating your food, texting indiscriminately. Recently, however, bioengineers at Stanford University have given M13 a bit of a makeover; they have parasitized the parasite and harnessed M13's key attributes to create what might be termed as the biological Internet, or "Bi-Fi."
Biologist discovers mammal with salamander-like regenerative abilities
September 26, 2012 5:38 pm | News | CommentsFor years biologists have studied salamanders for their ability to regrow lost limbs. But amphibian biology is very different than human biology, which makes the recent discovery of a small African mammal with an unusual ability to regrow damaged tissues potentially crucial to new research in regenerative medicine.
Bizarre tumor case may lead to custom cancer care
September 26, 2012 1:40 pm | by Marilynne Marchione, AP Chief Medical Writer - Associated Press | News | CommentsIt's a medical nightmare: a 24-year-old man endures 350 surgeries since childhood to remove growths that keep coming back in his throat and have spread to his lungs, threatening his life. Now doctors have found a way to help him by way of a scientific coup that holds promise for millions of cancer...
Study: Computers match humans in understanding art
September 26, 2012 6:24 am | News | CommentsUntil now, understanding and evaluating art has widely been considered as a task meant for humans. Recent research in Michigan with a new algorithm surprisingly shows that computers are able to "understand" art in a fashion very similar to how art historians perform their analysis, mimicking the perception of expert art critiques.
The colors of fall: Are autumn reds and golds passing us by?
September 26, 2012 6:11 am | News | CommentsAccording to research done at the Harvard Forest Long-Term Ecological Research site in Masschusetts, autumn colors were different there a century, or even a half-century, ago. And they will likely continue to change as alterations to the landscape occur through changing climate, tree disease, and harvesting practices.
The smallest ice crystals in the world
September 26, 2012 4:53 am | News | CommentsAn ingenious experiment has recently revealed the minimum number of molecules needed before water forms a crystalline structure. It was previously thought that around 1,000 molecules were the minimum necessary for a complete crystal, but now crystal formation can be detected from as little as 275 molecules.
Exposing cancer's lethal couriers with nanochains
September 25, 2012 8:02 am | News | CommentsMalignant cells that leave a primary tumor, travel the bloodstream and grow out of control in new locations cause the vast majority of cancer deaths. New nanotechnology developed at Case Western Reserve University detects these metastases in mouse models of breast cancer far earlier than current methods, a step toward earlier, life-saving diagnosis and treatment.
Eye proteins have germ-killing power
September 25, 2012 5:03 am | News | CommentsWhen it comes to germ-busting power, the eyes have it, according to a discovery by University of California, Berkeley researchers that could lead to new, inexpensive antimicrobal drugs. A team of vision scientists has found that small fragments of keratin protein in the eye play a key role in warding off pathogens.
Automatic building mapping could help emergency responders
September 24, 2012 2:47 pm | by Larry Hardesty, MIT News Office | News | CommentsA prototype sensor array built by Massachusetts Institute of Technology engineers can be worn on the chest and automatically maps the wearer’s environment, recognizing movement between floors. The prototype system is envisioned as a tool to help emergency responders coordinate disaster response.
Researchers engineer novel DNA barcode
September 24, 2012 10:17 am | News | CommentsScientists at the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard University have created a new kind of barcode that uses DNA origami technology. Colored dots can be arranged into geometric patterns or fluorescent linear DNA barcodes, and the combinations are almost limitless—substantially increasing the number of distinct molecules or cells scientists can observe in a sample.
Slow-moving rocks better odds that life crashed to Earth from space
September 24, 2012 9:54 am | News | CommentsMicroorganisms that crashed to Earth embedded in the fragments of distant planets might have been the sprouts of life on this one, according to new research. The research team reports that under certain conditions there is a high probability that life came to Earth during the solar system's infancy when Earth and its planetary neighbors orbiting other stars would have been close enough to each other to exchange lots of solid materials.
A clock that will last forever
September 24, 2012 9:03 am | News | CommentsImagine a clock that will keep perfect time forever or a device that opens new dimensions into the study of such quantum phenomena as emergence and entanglement. Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory researchers have proposed a space-time crystal based on an electric-field ion trap and the Coulomb repulsion of particles that carry the same electrical charge.
Cancer research yields unexpected way to produce nylon
September 24, 2012 3:50 am | News | CommentsIn their quest for a cancer cure, researchers at the Duke Cancer Institute made a serendipitous discovery: a molecule necessary for cheaper and greener way to produce nylon. The finding arose from an intriguing notion that some of the genetic and chemical changes in cancer tumors might be harnessed for beneficial uses.
Researchers push boundaries of light measurement
September 21, 2012 9:10 am | News | CommentsAn international team of physicists has pushed the boundaries on ultra-precise measurement by harnessing quantum light waves in a new way. It is possible to measure spectacularly small distances using "squeezed" light, but recent work done by scientists in Australia and Japan show that it is now possible to do this even while the target is moving around.
Bacteria’s key innovation helps us understand evolution
September 21, 2012 9:04 am | News | CommentsSeveral years ago researchers at Michigan State University reported discovering a novel, evolutionary trait in a long-studied population of Escherichia coli . These same biologists have now analyzed this new trait's genetic origins and found that in multiple cases, the bacteria needed more than one mutational step. The finding documents this step-by-step process and highlights the importance of evolutionary changes that alter the physical arrangement of genes, leading to new patterns of gene regulation.
