Cilia are filamentous, hair-like structures that can be found on nearly all cells of the human body. Depending on the tissue, they fulfill a plethora of essential tasks, such as the transport of mucus in trachea, providing access to nutrients and inducing the left-right asymmetry during embryonic development. In their role as controllers of large-scale fluid transport, motile cilia undergo cyclic beating strokes. By this, they communicate mechanical signals to neighboring cilia and collectively create so-called metachronal waves. Typically, thousands…
Bacterial infections relating to medical implants place a huge burden on healthcare and cause great suffering to patients worldwide. Now, researchers at Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden, have developed a new method to prevent such infections, by covering a graphene-based material with bactericidal molecules. “Through our research, we have succeeded in binding water-insoluble antibacterial molecules to the graphene, and having the molecules release in a controlled, continuous manner from the material” says Santosh Pandit, researcher at the Department of Biology…
A new type of atomic sensor made of boron nitride is presented by researchers in “Nature Communications”. The sensor is based on a qubit in the crystal lattice and is superior to comparable sensors. An artificially created spin defect (qubit) in a crystal lattice of boron nitride is suitable as a sensor enabling the measurement of different changes in its local environment. The qubit is a boron vacancy located in a two-dimensional layer of hexagonal boron nitride and has an…
Holocentric plant species such as Cyperus papyrus were already of great importance to the ancient Egyptians. “This fibre plant was used to make one of the first papers back then,” says Prof. Dr. Andreas Houben, head of the Chromosome Structure and Function research group at the IPK Leibniz Institute. What all these species have in common is an evolutionary advantage. If a piece of the chromosome breaks off due to mutagenesis, the corresponding fragment is lost in monocentric species. “This…
Brain-inspired electronics are the subject of intense research. Scientists from CNRS and the Ecole Normale Supérieure – PSL have theorized how to develop artificial neurons using, as nerve cells, ions to carry the information. Their work, published in Science on 6 August 2021, reports that devices made of a single layer of water transporting ions within graphene nanoslits have the same transmission capacity as a neuron. With an energy consumption equivalent to two bananas per day, the human brain can…
The tabletop diagnostic yields results in an hour and can be programmed to detect variants of the SARS-CoV-2 virus. Engineers at MIT and Harvard University have designed a small tabletop device that can detect SARS-CoV-2 from a saliva sample in about an hour. In a new study, they showed that the diagnostic is just as accurate as the PCR tests now used. The device can also be used to detect specific viral mutations linked to some of the SARS-CoV-2 variants…
Australian researchers have revealed how the bacterium Streptococcus pneumoniae (pneumococcus) obtains the essential nutrient, manganese, from our bodies, which could lead to better therapies to target what is a life-threatening, antibiotic-resistant pathogen. Pneumococcus is one of the world’s deadliest organisms, responsible for more than one million deaths each year and is the leading infectious cause of mortality in children under five. It is the main cause of bacterial pneumonia, as well as a major cause of meningitis, sepsis and inner…
Patented technology will improve production of many electronic and computer components. University of Minnesota Twin Cities College of Science and Engineering researchers have invented a cheaper, safer, and simpler technology that will allow a “stubborn” group of metals and metal oxides to be made into thin films used in many electronics, computer components, and other applications. The research is published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America (PNAS), a peer-reviewed, multidisciplinary, high-impact…
International study provides new insights into the basis of the marine ecosystem. All life starts at a small scale, also in the ocean. Microscopic organisms, phytoplankton, form an important basis for the entire marine ecosystem, which ultimately determines how fish stocks develop and how much atmospheric carbon dioxide is taken up by the ocean. In this respect, understanding the basis of the marine ecosystem is important for two elementary questions for the future of our human population: nutrition and climate….
Nanotubes with designed defects allow better performance for next-generation optical telecommunications. The Science Scientists have learned how to place crystalline defects in new materials with atomic-scale precision. This enables materials that can control excitons—energy carriers that are similar to subatomic particles. New research shows that, by precisely attaching specific chemical compounds to a carbon nanotube surface, scientists can create local energy wells that “capture” the excitons. The wells lower the excitons’ energy state. This prevents the loss of their energy…
Emergent magnetic monopoles are observed in a class of magnetic materials called spin ices. However, the atomic scales and required low temperatures for their stability limit their controllability. This led to the development of 2D artificial spin ice, where the single atomic moments are replaced by magnetic nano-islands arranged on different lattices. The up-scaling allowed the study of emergent magnetic monopoles on more accessible platforms. Reversing the magnetic orientation of specific nano-islands propagates the monopoles one vertex further, leaving a…
Researchers find three immunotherapy drugs given together can eliminate pancreatic tumors in mice. Pancreatic cancer, which affects about 60,000 Americans every year, is one of the deadliest forms of cancer. After diagnosis, fewer than 10 percent of patients survive for five years. While some chemotherapies are initially effective, pancreatic tumors often become resistant to them. The disease has also proven difficult to treat with newer approaches such as immunotherapy. However, a team of MIT researchers has now developed an immunotherapy…
Study demonstrates a long-predicted process for generating matter directly from light — plus evidence that magnetism can bend polarized photons along different paths in a vacuum. Scientists studying particle collisions at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC)—a U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science user facility for nuclear physics research at DOE’s Brookhaven National Laboratory—have produced definitive evidence for two physics phenomena predicted more than 80 years ago. The results were derived from a detailed analysis of more than 6,000 pairs of…
Significant earthquakes, from gentle shaking to devastating tremors, are hazards caused by a sudden release of stress that has built up in geological faults. More subtle events called slow slips are attracting increasing attention as nonshaky versions of the dramatic seismic fractures of the largest earthquakes. A database of information on previous slow slips to develop a model of the mechanisms of these geological events has now been compiled by KAUST and University of Geneva researchers, in collaboration with colleagues…
Multi-institutional team provides a foundation for unraveling the mysteries of magnetic materials. The Science Researchers have for the first time used a quantum computer to generate accurate results from materials science simulations that can be verified with practical techniques. The team used a form of quantum computing called quantum annealing. This approach uses quantum physics to simplify a computer model. The team overcame quantum hardware limitations by programming various parameters into a materials science model. Next, they embedded the model into team…
Researchers may have discovered a new and better genome editing technology than the existing CRISPR-Cas9, which has proved itself a revolution within biotechnology and medical sciences. The similar but much smaller CRISPR-Cas12j system was recently found within the archenemy of bacteria – bacteriophages. These tiny organisms are viruses that can infect and kill bacteria while not being harmful to plants, animals or humans. Researchers from the University of Copenhagen have now mapped the structure of CRISPR-Cas12j3 from bacteriophages. This is…
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