Tech
Researchers at the Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) have used one of the most advanced microscopes in the world to reveal the structure of a large protein complex crucial to photosynthesis, the process by which plants convert sunlight into cellular energy.
The finding, published in the journal Nature, will allow scientists to explore for the first time how the complex functions and could have implications for the production of a variety of bioproducts, including plastic alternatives and biofuels.
GOLDEN, Colorado (Feb. 13, 2019) -- Shape memory alloys are well known for their remarkable properties -- superelasticity, shape memory and actuation allow them to be crumpled up and then spring back to a "remembered" original shape.
But the advanced material remains drastically underutilized in commercial applications, uses that could include morphing the shape of airplane structures to make flight more efficient or deploying communication dishes and solar arrays in space.
Potentially lethal heart conditions may become easier to spot and may lead to improvements in prevention and treatment thanks to innovative new software that measures electrical activity in the organ.
The heart's pumping ability is controlled by electrical activity that triggers the heart muscle cells to contract and relax. In certain heart diseases such as arrhythmia, the organ's electrical activity is affected.
The option to measure the gravitational waves of two merging neutron stars has offered the chance to answer some of the fundamental questions about the structure of matter. At the extremely high temperatures and densities in the merger scientists conjecture a phase-transition where neutrons dissolve into their constituents: quarks and gluons. In the current issue of Physical Review Letters, two international research groups report on their calculations of what the signature of such a phase transition in a gravitational wave would look like.
Using sophisticated gene sequencing and computing techniques, researchers at Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC) and the San Diego Supercomputer Center have achieved a first-of-its-kind glimpse into how the body's immune system gears up to fight off infection.
Their findings, published this week in the journal Nature, could aid development of "rational vaccine design," as well as improve detection, treatment and prevention of autoimmune diseases, infectious diseases, and cancer.
In today's science and business worlds, it's increasingly common to hear that solving big problems requires a big team. But a new analysis of more than 65 million papers, patents and software projects found that smaller teams produce much more disruptive and innovative research.
In a new paper published by Nature, University of Chicago researchers examined 60 years of publications and found that smaller teams were far more likely to introduce new ideas to science and technology, while larger teams more often developed and consolidated existing knowledge.
Suppose you are visually tracking a moving light swinging side to side. Your attention is naturally diverted to that movement, and what was in your mind before gets placed to the side. This alternating bilateral sensory stimulation (ABS), as part of eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR) is assumed to support the neural integrating of new perspectives and healing of negatively charged memories. Though this treatment has been recognized for long-lasting healing effects, its underlying neural basis has remained unclear.
ANN ARBOR--In a finding that runs counter to a common assumption in physics, researchers at the University of Michigan ran a light emitting diode (LED) with electrodes reversed in order to cool another device mere nanometers away.
The approach could lead to new solid-state cooling technology for future microprocessors, which will have so many transistors packed into a small space that current methods can't remove heat quickly enough.
Vivid dreams involving drinking and drug use are common among individuals in recovery. A study from the Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) Recovery Research Institute, published in the January issue of the Journal of Substance Abuse Treatment after online release in October 2018, finds these relapse dreams are more common in those with more severe clinical histories of alcohol and other drug problems.
Human beings are not the only ones who suffer from stress - even microorganisms can be affected. Now, researchers from Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden, have devised a new method to study how single biological cells react to stressful situations. Understanding these responses could help develop more effective drugs for serious diseases. As well as that, the research could even help to brew better beer.
A team of scientists led by researchers at the University of Georgia Center for Food Safety in Griffin has developed a machine-learning approach that could lead to quicker identification of the animal source of certain Salmonella outbreaks.
In the research, published in the January 2019 issue of Emerging Infectious Diseases, Xiangyu Deng and his colleagues used more than a thousand genomes to predict the animal sources, especially livestock, of Salmonella Typhimurium.
PITTSBURGH, Feb. 11, 2019 - Every 40 seconds, someone in the United States suffers a stroke and available therapies, such as clot busting drugs or clot removal devices, are focused on limiting the extent of brain damage. Now, research from the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine and the VA Pittsburgh Healthcare System shows that a brain protein called UCHL1 may be critical to how nerve cells repair themselves after stroke damage.
Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and questioning (LGBTQ) youths are more likely to end up in foster care or unstable housing and suffer negative outcomes, such as substance abuse or mental health issues, while living in the child welfare system, according to new research from The University of Texas at Austin.
AUGUSTA, Ga. (Feb. 11, 2019) - When a car crash or explosion results in an optic nerve injury, eliminating an enzyme known to promote inflammation appears to aid recovery, scientists report.
They have shown for the first time in a mouse model of tough-to-treat optic nerve trauma, that removing the enzyme arginase 2, which increases with injury, decreases neuron death in the retina as well as the degeneration of nerve fibers that connect neurons to each other and ultimately the brain, they report in the journal Frontiers in Neuroscience.
Researchers from Aarhus University, Denmark, have discovered that insects leave tiny DNA traces on the flowers they visit. This newly developed eDNA method holds a vast potential for documenting unknown insect-plant interactions, keeping track of endangered pollinators, such as wild bees and butterflies, as well as in the management of unwanted pest species.