First, they walked. Then, they saw the light. Now, miniature biological robots have gained a new trick: remote control. The hybrid “eBiobots” are the first to combine soft materials, living muscle and microelectronics, said researchers at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Northwestern University and collaborating institutions. They described their centimeter-scale biological machines in the journal Science Robotics. Rashid Bashir Photo by L. Brian Stauffer “Integrating microelectronics allows the merger of the biological world and the electronics world, both with many…
Illuminating study from Rice, UT, Stanford advances ‘green’ reducing agents. There are many ways to initiate chemical reactions in liquids, but placing free electrons directly into water, ammonia and other liquid solutions is especially attractive for green chemistry because solvated electrons are inherently clean, leaving behind no side products after they react. In theory, solvated electrons could be used to safely and sustainably break down carbon dioxide or chemical pollutants in contaminated water, but it has been impractical to find…
Biomedical engineers at the University of California, Davis, have created semi-living “cyborg cells.” Retaining the capabilities of living cells, but unable to replicate, the cyborg cells could have a wide range of applications, from producing therapeutic drugs to cleaning up pollution. The work was published Jan. 11 in Advanced Science. Synthetic biology aims to engineer cells that can carry out novel functions. There are essentially two approaches in use, said Cheemeng Tan, associate professor of biomedical engineering at UC Davis and…
The search for nectar costs insects a lot of energy, so they have to be as efficient as possible. Colourful patterns on the petals can help with that. Be it mallow, foxglove or forget-me-not: many flowers bear colourful patterns, which are known as nectar guides in biology. They are assumed to show the pollinating insects the shortest way to the nectary. This guiding function could increase the efficiency of the insects in their search for food, and at the same…
An internal circadian clock controls the distinctive concentric rings of flowering in sunflowers, maximizing visits from pollinators, a new study from plant biologists at the University of California, Davis shows. The work is published Jan. 13 in eLife. A sunflower head is made up of hundreds of tiny florets. Because of the way sunflowers grow, the youngest florets are in the center of the flower face and the most mature at the edges, forming a distinctive spiral pattern from the…
Hacking system converts split gene drives into full drives, offering new experimentation flexibility… but also reveals surprising fitness costs of full drive systems. Scientists continue to expand the technological frontiers of CRISPR, along with its enormous potential, in areas ranging from human health to global food supplies. Such is the case with CRISPR-based gene drives, a genetic editing tool designed to influence how genetic elements are passed from one generation to the next. Gene drives designed for mosquitoes have the…
Researchers find the genes and proteins involved in heliozoan arms withdrawal in response to environmental changes, which is one of the fastest examples of cell motility. Raphidocystis contractilis belongs to Heliozoa, a group of eukaryotes commonly found in fresh, brackish, and sea water. The organisms of this group have finger-like arms—axopodia—which radiate out from their body, giving them a sun-like appearance. Hence, they are also known as “solar worms”. Each axopodium is composed of the proteins, alpha-beta tubulin heterodimers, which…
Scientists at the Max Planck Institute of Molecular Plant Physiology in Potsdam (Germany) analyzed the inheritance of chloroplasts under different environmental conditions in almost 4 million tobacco plants. Contrary to the prevailing view that chloroplasts are only passed on by the mother plant, paternal chloroplasts can also be transmitted to the offspring under cold conditions, raising the possibility that the chloroplasts of the two parents exchange genetic material with each other. The new findings will facilitate the targeted use of…
Analyzing a person’s gene expression requires mapping their RNA landscape to a standard reference to gain insight into the degree to which genes are “turned on” and perform functions in the body. But researchers can run into issues when the reference does not provide enough information to allow for accurate mapping, an issue known as reference bias. In a new paper published in the journal Nature Methods, researchers at UC Santa Cruz introduce the first-ever method for analyzing RNA sequencing…
This study compares the efficacy of three mass spectrometry instruments and sample preparation techniques for the clinical diagnosis of mold. In recent years, filamentous fungi or molds have emerged as causative agents underlying life-threatening infections in immunocompromised individuals. The timely management of these infections requires the rapid and accurate diagnosis of mold in clinical settings. Unfortunately, traditional methods are time consuming, given the long incubation periods required to culture and examine molds. On the other hand, advanced molecular techniques are…
… on label-free proteins with a single tryptophan. Proteins are naturally fluorescent in the ultraviolet, offering an appealing approach to probe proteins in their native state without introducing any external fluorescent label. The UV autofluorescence of proteins is based on the presence of tryptophan amino acids, which typically occur as 1 to 5 tryptophan per protein. However, due to weak signals and large backgrounds in the UV, the current technology was restricted to large proteins featuring several tens of tryptophan…
Researchers have observed steric effects—the interactions of molecules depending on their spatial orientation (not just between their electrons involved in bonding)—in a chemical reaction involving non-polar molecules for the first time. The breakthrough opens the door to an entirely new way to control the products of chemical reactions. A paper describing the research team’s findings was published in the journal Science on Jan. 12. One of the central goals of chemistry is to develop new methods of controlling chemical reactions….
Tiny motor one day could drive innovations in materials science and medicine. Electric vehicles, powered by macroscopic electric motors, are increasingly prevalent on our streets and highways. These quiet and eco-friendly machines got their start nearly 200 years ago when physicists took the first tiny steps to bring electric motors into the world. Now a multidisciplinary team led by Northwestern University has made an electric motor you can’t see with the naked eye: an electric motor on the molecular scale….
New OHSU, OSU research uses lipid nanoparticles to target light-sensitive cells in the eye. Using nanotechnology that enabled mRNA-based COVID-19 vaccines, a new approach to gene therapy may improve how physicians treat inherited forms of blindness. A collaborative team of researchers with Oregon Health & Science University and Oregon State University have developed an approach that uses lipid nanoparticles — tiny, lab-made balls of fat — to deliver strands of messenger ribonucleic acid, or mRNA, inside the eye. To treat blindness, the…
… for efficient one-pot chemoenzymatic reactions. The merging of different types of catalysis including enzymatic, homogeneous, and heterogeneous catalysis is fundamentally important for both understanding catalysis at the atom level and the design of novel hybrid catalysts. The latter points to a direction toward the ideal catalyst that can drive complex tandem reactions efficiently in one-pot manner, and simplify the whole chemical production and separation process. Artificial enzymes that merge enzymatic, homogeneous, and heterogeneous catalysis provide such a promising platform…
… calls for revision of current classification. Munidopsid squat lobsters (from the family Munidopsidae) are among the most abundant decapods found at abyssal depths of the ocean. They are the most diverse squat lobster group in the East Pacific region and make their homes in one of the harshest ocean environments. Squat lobsters, named due to the folding of the tail (or abdomen) beneath the body, are more related to hermit crabs than to well-known lobsters or crabs. There are…
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