A new class of magnets that expand their volume when placed in a magnetic field and generate negligible amounts of wasteful heat during energy harvesting, has been discovered.
A new process has been developed for spontaneously incorporating and assembling carbon nanotubes and oxygen-scavenging nanoparticles into chloroplasts, the part of plant cells that conduct photosynthesis. Incorporation enhanced electron flow associated with photosynthesis.
U.S. residents' exposure to extreme heat could increase four- to six-fold by mid-century, due to both a warming climate and a population that's growing especially fast in the hottest regions of the country, according to new research by NCAR scientists.
Utah engineers have developed an ultracompact beamsplitter — the smallest on record — for dividing light waves into two separate channels of information. The device brings researchers closer to producing silicon photonic chips that compute and shuttle data with light instead of electrons.
A team of NYU neuroscientists has identified a part of the brain exclusively devoted to processing speech, helping settle a long-standing debate about role-specific neurological functions.
Climate change may be the driving force behind fewer, yet more powerful hurricanes and tropical storms, says a Florida State geography professor.
In a study using functional magnetic resonance imaging, Virginia Tech Carilion Research Institute scientists found that our inherent risk-taking preferences affect how we view and act on information from other people.
Researchers have developed a microfluidic chip that can capture rare clusters of circulating tumor cells, which could yield important new insights into how cancer spreads. The work was funded by the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering (NIBIB), part of the National Institutes of Health.
New results provide an important benchmark for researchers, helping to define the most accurate methods for identifying somatic mutations in cancer genomes.
A new metal oxide was discovered whose atomic structure includes highly ordered arrays of missing oxygen atoms. This structure allows oxygen ions to move through the material quickly and easily at low temperatures.
Chewing, breathing, and other regular bodily functions that we undertake “without thinking” actually do require the involvement of our brain, but the question of how the brain programs such regular functions intrigues scientists. Arlette Kolta, a professor at the University of Montreal’s Faculty of Dentistry, has shown that astrocytes play a key role. Astrocytes are star-shaped glial cells in our brain. Glial cells are not neurons – they play a supporting role.
Two experiments at the Large Hadron Collider at the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) in Geneva, Switzerland, have combined their results and observed a previously unseen subatomic process.
If you walk into a dark room, you can still find your way to the light switch. That’s because your brain keeps track of landmarks and the direction in which you are moving. Fruit flies also boast an internal compass that works when the lights go out, scientists at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Janelia Research Campus have discovered. Their findings suggest that dissecting how fruit flies navigate through the world could help researchers understand how humans and other mammals perform similar tasks.
A new technique invented at MIT can measure the relative positions of tiny particles as they flow through a fluidic channel, potentially offering an easy way to monitor the assembly of nanoparticles, or to study how mass is distributed within a cell. With further advancements, this technology has the potential to resolve the shape of objects in flow as small as viruses, the researchers say.
Scientists at South Dakota State University analyzed a half-mile slice of Western Antarctica ice core to help determine that climate change begins in the Arctic and moves southward, according to chemistry professor Jihong Cole-Dai of the SDSU Ice Core and Environmental Chemistry Lab. Since 2006, the SDSU research team have been part of a National Science Foundation project to uncover the secrets within the 2-mile long Western Antarctica Ice Sheet Divide ice core.
Understanding how to overrule a signaling pathway that can cause treatments to fail in metastatic melanoma patients should help physicians extend the benefits of recently approved immunity-boosting drugs known as checkpoint inhibitors to more patients.
The culmination of two decades of research, a new study reveals the genetic causes of a curious, rare syndrome that manifests as hypertension (high blood pressure) accompanied by short fingers (brachydactyly type E). Six, unrelated families with the syndrome come from across the globe – United States, Turkey, France, South America, and two from Canada – yet share mutations that cluster in a small region of phosphodiesterase 3A (PDE3A). Functional studies imply the mutations change resistance of blood vessels, an underappreciated mechanism for regulating blood pressure. The findings, published in Nature Genetics, suggest new directions for investigating causes of hypertension in the general population.
Diamond Blackfan anemia (DBA), a rare inherited bone marrow failure syndrome is typically treated with glucocorticoids that cause a host of often dangerous side effects. Using a mouse model, Whitehead scientists have determined that combining the drug fenofibrate with glucocorticoids could allow for dramatically lower steroid doses in the treatment of DBA and other erythropoietin-resistant anemias. These promising results are the foundation for a clinical trial that will begin soon.
Climate helps drive the erosion process that exposes economically valuable copper deposits and shapes the pattern of their global distribution, according to a new study from researchers at the University of Idaho and the University of Michigan.
A new population genetics model developed by researchers at The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston (UTHealth) School of Public Health could explain why the genetic composition of Finnish people is so different from that of other European populations.
Researchers at the University of Illinois at Chicago have determined the molecular structure of one of the proteins in the fine fibers of the brain plaques that are a hallmark of Alzheimer’s disease. This molecule, called amyloid beta-42, is toxic to nerve cells and is believed to provoke the disease cascade.
New paper and flexible polymer substrates were combined with special sensing devices for rapid and accurate detection of HIV and other pathogens for point-of-care medicine in remote areas, where there is minimal diagnostic infrastructure and a lack of trained medical technicians.
Salk Institute scientists discover new type of stem cell that could potentially generate mature, functional tissues
A new technique to create long strands of DNA could make it more economical to assemble DNA nanostructures for applications such as smart drug-delivery systems, according to a research team led by McGill University chemistry professor Hanadi Sleiman.
Data collected on Mars by NASA’s Curiosity rover and analyzed by University of Arkansas researchers indicate that water, in the form of brine, may exist under certain conditions on the planet’s surface.
St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital scientists have developed a significantly better computer tool for finding genetic alterations that play an important role in many cancers but were difficult to identify with whole-genome sequencing. The findings appear today in the scientific journal Nature Methods. The tool is an algorithm called CONSERTING, short for Copy Number Segmentation by Regression Tree in Next Generation Sequencing.
Researchers led by St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital scientists have identified a mechanism that helps leukemia cells resist glucocorticoids, a finding that lays the foundation for more effective treatment of cancer and possibly a host of autoimmune diseases. The findings appear online today in the scientific journal Nature Genetics.
Researchers at the University of Rochester have shown that defects on an atomically thin semiconductor can produce light-emitting quantum dots. The quantum dots serve as a source of single photons and could be useful for the integration of quantum photonics with solid-state electronics - a combination known as integrated photonics.
Researchers at UT Southwestern Medical Center have identified mutations in two genes that cause a fatal lung scarring disease known as familial pulmonary fibrosis.
UT Southwestern Medical Center scientists have discovered that a certain class of receptors that inhibit immune response are crucial for the development of acute myeloid leukemia (AML), the most common acute leukemia affecting adults.
Researchers at The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston (UTHealth) are helping to make precision medicine a reality by sequencing entire exomes of people to assess chronic disease risk and drug efficacy. The results of a study on this topic were published in Nature Genetics on Monday.
Studying fruit fly larvae, Janelia scientists have mapped the entire neural circuit involved in combining vibration and pain sensations used in triggering an escape behavior.
Researchers at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine report that blocking or removing immune-suppressing cells allows a special type of chemotherapy — and the immune cells it activates — to destroy prostate tumors. This novel combination therapy, termed chemoimmunotherapy, achieved near complete remission in mouse models of advanced prostate cancer. The study is published April 29 in Nature.
New study in Nature Communications by Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai shows gene therapy can edit out genetic material linked to heart failure and replace it with the normal gene in human cardiac cells.
Researchers at the University of Louisville have detailed a critical connection associated with a major environmental cause of silicosis and a form of lung cancer. Their study is reported in today’s Nature Communications.
In certain types of cancer, nerves and cancer cells enter an often lethal and intricate waltz where cancer cells and nerves move toward one another and eventually engage in such a way that the cancer cells enter the nerves.
An international team of scientists led by a Cedars-Sinai researcher has identified a new genetic mutation that appears to protect people from developing Type 2 diabetes.
In studying the molecular biology of brain development, a team of researchers led by Ludwig Stockholm director Thomas Perlmann has discovered how disruption of a developmental mechanism alters the very nerve cells that are most affected in Parkinson’s disease. The results of their study, which took nearly four years to complete and involved the targeted manipulation of mouse genes to generate a model of the disease, are published in the current issue of the journal Nature Neuroscience.
Teasing out how slow, silent earthquakes respond to tidal forces lets researchers calculate the friction inside the fault, which could help understand when and how the more hazardous earthquakes occur.
By training a type of grasshopper to recognize odors, a team of biomedical engineers at Washington University in St. Louis is learning more about the brain and how it processes information from its senses.
Janelia Research Campus scientists have found that a set of neurons is responsible for the unpleasant feelings associated with hunger. The neurons do not drive an animal to eat, but rather teach an animal to respond to sensory cues that signal the presence of food.
ALCF resources being used to demonstrate a predictive modeling capability that can help accelerate the discovery of new materials to improve biofuel and petroleum production
An international team of scientists has discovered what amounts to a molecular reset button for our internal body clock. Their findings reveal a potential target to treat a range of disorders, from sleep disturbances to other behavioral, cognitive, and metabolic abnormalities.
Scientists have discovered that neurons are risk takers: They use minor “DNA surgeries” to toggle their activity levels all day, every day. Since these activity levels are important in learning, memory and brain disorders, the researchers think their finding will shed light on a range of important questions.
The drive to tame gnawing hunger can sabotage even the best-intentioned dieter. Now, investigators have identified the brain circuit that underlies this powerful physiological state, providing a promising new target for the development of weight-loss drugs.
Columbia Engineering Professor James Hone led a team in 2013 that dramatically improved the performance of graphene by encapsulating it in boron nitride. They’ve now shown they can similarly improve the performance of another 2D material, molybdenum disulfide (MoS2. Their findings provide a demonstration of how to study all 2D materials and hold great promise for a broad range of applications including high-performance electronics, detection and emission of light, and chemical/bio-sensing. Nature Nanotechnology , week of April 27, 2015
For the first time, nanomagnet islands or arrays were arranged into an exotic structure (called “shakti”) that does not directly relate to any known natural material. The “shakti” artificial spin ice configuration was fabricated and reproduced experimentally. The arrays are theoretical predictions of multiple ground states that are characteristic of frustrated magnetic materials. The results open the door to experiments on other artificial spin-ice lattices, predicted to host interesting phenomena.
The emergence of a new magnetic phase with a square lattice before the onset of superconductivity is revealed in some iron arsenide compounds, confirming theoretical predictions of the effects of doping on magnetic interactions between the iron atoms and their relationship to high temperature superconductivity. Understanding the origin of thermodynamic phases is vital in developing a unified theory for the elusive microscopic mechanism underlying high-temperature superconductivity.
Using a novel microscopy technique, scientists revealed a major enhancement of coupling between electric and magnetic dipoles. The discovery could lead to devices for use in computer memory or magnetic sensors.
Research from The University of Manchester is bringing scientists a step closer to developing new therapies for controlling the body’s response to allergies and parasitic worm infections.
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