For the first time ever, scientists have identified the existence of a new DNA structure that looks more like a twisted, four-stranded knot than the double helix we all know from high school biology. The newly identified structure, detailed Monday in the journal Nature Chemistry, could play a crucial role in how DNA is expressed. Read more about Forget the Double Helix—Scientists Discovered a New DNA Structure Inside Human Cells[…]

In a step that could change the definition of death, researchers have restored circulation to the brains of decapitated pigs and kept the reanimated organs alive for as long as 36 hours. The feat offers scientists a new way to study intact brains in the lab in stunning detail. But it also inaugurates a bizarre Read more about Researchers are keeping pig brains alive outside the body[…]

From dice to modern electronic circuits, there have been many attempts to build better devices to generate random numbers. Randomness is fundamental to security and cryptographic systems and to safeguarding privacy. A key challenge with random-number generators is that it is hard to ensure that their outputs are unpredictable1,2,3. For a random-number generator based on a Read more about Properly random random number generator generated[…]

In brief: It’s called the interstitium, or a layer of fluid-filled pockets hemmed in by collagen and it can be found all over our bodies, from skin to muscles to our digestive system. The interstitium likely acts as a kind of shock absorber for the rest of our interior bits and bobs and the workings of Read more about The Interstitium Is Important, But Don’t Call It An Organ (Yet)[…]

On May 25, 1798, the HMS DeBraak was entering Delaware Bay when a squall struck without warning. The British ship that originally belonged to the Dutch capsized and sank, taking 34 sailors and a dozen Spanish prisoners down with it. Rumored to contain a hoard of gold and jewelry, the DeBraak became a popular target Read more about Here’s What Protects Shipwrecks From Looters and Hacks[…]

D Doctors have taken a major step towards curing the most common form of blindness in the UK – age-related macular degeneration. Douglas Waters, 86, could not see out of his right eye, but “I can now read the newspaper” with it, he says. He was one of two patients given pioneering stem cell therapy Read more about Stem cell therapy cures most common cause of blindness in UK[…]

The ability to sense the spatial position and movements of one’s own body (kinesthetic sense) is critical for limb use. Because prostheses do not provide physical feedback during movement, amputees may not feel that they are in control of their bodily movements (sense of agency) when manipulating a prosthesis. Marasco et al. developed an automated Read more about Illusory movement perception improves motor control for prosthetic hands[…]

Household cleaners, paints and perfumes have become substantial sources of urban air pollution as strict controls on vehicles have reduced road traffic emissions, scientists say. Researchers in the US looked at levels of synthetic “volatile organic compounds”, or VOCs, in roadside air in Los Angeles and found that as much came from industrial and household Read more about Cleaning products as large a source of urban air pollution as cars[…]

With two billion people worldwide lacking access to clean and safe drinking water, joint research by Monash University, CSIRO and the University of Texas at Austin published today in Sciences Advances may offer a breakthrough new solution. It all comes down to metal-organic frameworks (MOFs), an amazing next generation material that have the largest internal Read more about Researchers discover efficient and sustainable way to filter salt and metal ions from water[…]

Geologists matching rocks from opposite sides of the globe have found that part of Australia was once attached to North America 1.7 billion years ago. Researchers from Curtin University in Australia examinedrocks from the Georgetown region of northern Queensland. The rocks — sandstone sedimentary rocks that formed in a shallow sea — had signatures that Read more about 1.7-Billion-Year-Old Chunk of North America Found Sticking to Australia[…]

Plants lack eyes and ears, but they can still see, hear, smell and respond to environmental cues and dangers—especially to virulent pathogens. They do this with the aid of hundreds of membrane proteins that can sense microbes or other stresses. Only a small portion of these sensing proteins have been studied through classical genetics, and Read more about Breakthrough study shows how plants sense the world[…]

Physicists have experimentally demonstrated an information engine—a device that converts information into work—with an efficiency that exceeds the conventional second law of thermodynamics. Instead, the engine’s efficiency is bounded by a recently proposed generalized second law of thermodynamics, and it is the first information engine to approach this new bound. The results demonstrate both the Read more about Information engine operates with nearly perfect efficiency[…]

a new study in IEEE Transactions on Intelligent Transportation Systems mathematically models the implications of the larger problem: You’re not keeping the right distance from the car behind you. That may seem counterintuitive, since you don’t have much control over how far you are from the car behind you—especially when that person is a tailgater. Read more about To drive faster we all need to keep the same distance to the car behind us as the car in front[…]

The recent news that stents inserted in patients with heart disease to keep arteries open work no better than a placebo ought to be shocking. Each year, hundreds of thousands of American patients receive stents for the relief of chest pain, and the cost of the procedure ranges from $11,000 to $41,000 in US hospitals. Read more about The evidence-based medicine problem: US doctors cling to procedures that don’t work. Just under half of expensive operations.[…]

Back in 2014, scientists at the Scripps Research Institute in California reported that they’d engineered bacteria whose DNA used a whole new pair of letters, nicknamed X and Y. That same team now reports that they’ve gotten the bacteria to actually use these new letters. The biological possibilities, as a result, now seem endless.“The resulting Read more about Scientists Added Two New Letters to DNA’s Code[…]

A group of physicists from Russia, Sweden and the U.S. has demonstrated a highly unusual optical effect. They managed to “virtually” absorb light using a material that has no light-absorbing capacity. The research findings, published in Optica, break new ground for the creation of memory elements for light. The absorption of electromagnetic radiation, including light, Read more about Scientists make transparent materials absorb light[…]

Scientists for the first time have tried editing a gene inside the body in a bold attempt to permanently change a person’s DNA to cure a disease. The experiment was done Monday in California on 44-year-old Brian Madeux. Through an IV, he received billions of copies of a corrective gene and a genetic tool to Read more about Scientists edit a person’s DNA to try to cure disease[…]

Welcome to the website of The Atlas of the underworld – the first complete mapping of subducted plates in the Earth’s mantle and their geological interpretation.The Earth’s rigid outer shell – the lithosphere – is broken into plates that move relative to one another along discrete plate boundaries – ridges, transforms, and subduction zones. At Read more about Atlas of the Underworld: a map of the tectonic plates (slabs) and their depth into the mantle[…]

A large, 18-country study may turn current nutritional thinking on its head. The new research suggests that it’s not the fat in your diet that’s raising your risk of premature death, it’s too many carbohydrates — especially the refined, processed kinds of carbs — that may be the real killer. The research also found that Read more about Large diet study suggests it’s carbs, not fats, that are bad for your health[…]

Scientists hope they have found a drug to stop all neurodegenerative brain diseases, including dementia.In 2013, a UK Medical Research Council team stopped brain cells dying in an animal for the first time, creating headline news around the world.But the compound used was unsuitable for people, as it caused organ damage.Now two drugs have been Read more about Experts excited by brain ‘wonder-drug’ – BBC News[…]

Here we experimentally demonstrate that polarization quantum states including general qubits of single photon and entangled states can survive well after travelling through seawater. We perform experiments with seawater collected over a range of 36 kilometers in the Yellow Sea. For single photons at 405 nm in a blue-green window, we obtain an average process Read more about Towards quantum communications in free-space seawater[…]

A small clinical trial conducted at the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute has led to two-thirds of children treated with an experimental immunotherapy treatment being cured of their allergy. Importantly, this desensitisation to peanuts persisted for up to four years after treatment. […] Forty-eight children were enrolled in the PPOIT trial and were randomly given either Read more about Peanut allergy cured for 4 years in majority of children in immunotherapy trial[…]

https://www.theverge.com/2016/10/5/13162476/nobel-prize-chemistry-tiny-machine-molecules-nanocar-stoddart-ferringa-sauvage This year’s Nobel Prize in Chemistry has been awarded to three scientists who figured out how to build tiny machines out of molecules. The machines, which include a nano-sized car, are invisible to the human eye and have important implications in medicine and other fields. The researchers — Jean-Pierre Sauvage, J. Fraser Stoddart, and Bernard Feringa Read more about Scientists win Nobel Prize in Chemistry for making tiny machines out of molecules[…]

Historically, it is believed that crystalline uraninite, produced via the abiotic reduction of hexavalent uranium (U(VI)) is the dominant reduced U species formed in low-temperature uranium roll-front ore deposits. Here we show that non-crystalline U(IV) generated through biologically mediated U(VI) reduction is the predominant U(IV) species in an undisturbed U roll-front ore deposit in Wyoming, Read more about Biogenic non-crystalline U(IV) revealed as major component in uranium ore deposits[…]

Researchers at the University of Waterloo have been able to capture the first composite image of a dark matter bridge that connects galaxies together. The scientists publish their work in a new paper in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. The composite image, which combines a number of individual images, confirms predictions that galaxies Read more about Researchers capture first ‘image’ of a dark matter web that connects galaxies[…]