Immortal quantum particles
Reading Time: < 1 minuteTHEORETICAL physicists at the Technical University of Munich (TUM) and the Max Planck Institute for the Physics of Complex Systems have discovered that things which seem inconceivable in the everyday world are possible on a microscopic level. “Until now, the assumption was that quasiparticles in interacting quantum systems decay after a certain time. We now […]
Sensory nanoparticles to detect disease
Reading Time: < 1 minuteINVESTIGATORS from Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston are taking advantage of a unique phenomenon of nanoparticles to develop a test for early detection of different types of diseases, including cancer. Through previous investigations, Morteza Mahmoudi and colleagues have shown that biomolecules in the blood of healthy individuals and patients form various corona profiles around […]
Biological evolution to inspire machine
Reading Time: < 1 minuteIN a new study published in the journal Artificial Life, a research team led by Nicholas Guttenberg and Nathaniel Virgo of the Earth- Life Science Institute (ELSI) at Tokyo Institute of Technology, Japan, and Alexandra Penn of The Centre for Evaluation of Complexity Across the Nexus (CECAN), University of Surrey UK (CRESS), examine the connection […]
How climate change affects crops in India
Reading Time: < 1 minuteIN a paper published in Environmental Research Letters, Kyle Davis environmental data scientist found that the yields from grains suchas millet, sorghum, and maize are more resilient to extreme weather;their yields vary significantly less due to year-to-year changes in climate and generally experience smaller declines during droughts. But yields from rice, India’s main crop, experience […]
Life in Antarctica’s ice mirrors human disease
Reading Time: 2 minutesTHE cooling of the Southern Ocean surrounding Antarctica, which began approximately 35 million years ago and gave rise to its present icy state, has for decades been considered a classic example of climate change triggering rapid adaptation. Using tens of thousands of genes mapped from across the genomes of a group of Antarctic fishes called […]
Russia aims to develop 30 gene-edited plant and animal varieties
Reading Time: < 1 minuteA 111-billion-rouble (US$1.7-billion) Russian federal programme aims to create 10 new varieties of gene-edited crops and animals by 2020 — and another 20 by 2027. The programme, which was announced in April, has also attracted interest because it suggests that some gene-edited products will now be exempt from a law passed in 2016 that prohibits […]
Battling antibiotic resistant bacteria
Reading Time: < 1 minuteNEW research from Cornell University offers a new pathway for targeting pathogens in the fight against antibiotic resistant bacteria. As antibiotic resistance rises, the search for new antibiotic strategies has become imperative. Researchers used the Cornell High Energy Synchotron Source (CHESS) to reveal an unexpected mechanism of activation and inactivation in the protein ribonucleotide reductase […]
Study: Biodegradable bags are not truly biodegradable
Reading Time: 3 minutesWHEN you see something labelled “biodegradable”, you instinctively assume it will degrade into nature much more quickly than conventional plastics. But, is that really the case? The word “biodegradable” has become beguiling to people trying to make fast bucks, throwing dubious claims about biodegradability – which may seem too good to be true. Plastics described as biodegradable can be made from bioplastics, […]
Retracing ancient routes to Australia
Reading Time: < 1 minuteNEW insights into how people first arrived in Australia have been revealed by a group of experts brought together to investigate the continent’s deep history. They used sophisticated modelling to determine not only the likely routes travelled by Aboriginal people tens of thousands of years ago, but also the sizes of groups required for the […]
Toxic proteins linked to Alzheimer’s
Reading Time: < 1 minuteA TEAM of researchers from McMaster University has mapped at atomic resolution a toxic protein linked to Alzheimer’s disease, allowing them to better under- stand what is happening deep within the brain during the earliest stages of the disease.The findings, published on the front cover of the current edition of the Royal Society of Chemistry flagship […]