Thanks to the development of antiretroviral drugs, human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) is considered a manageable chronic disease today. However, if left undiagnosed or untreated, HIV can develop into AIDS (acquired immune deficiency syndrome), a disease which led to the deaths of nearly 1 million people worldwide in 2017. The life-saving drugs don’t cure HIV, though, … Read more
Hydrogen fuel cells are a promising technology for producing clean and renewable energy, but the cost and activity of their cathode materials is a major challenge for commercialization. Many fuel cells require expensive platinum-based catalysts—substances that initiate and speed up chemical reactions—to help convert renewable fuels into electrical energy. To make hydrogen fuel cells commercially … Read more
Northwestern Medicine scientists have discovered two successful therapies that slowed the progression of pediatric leukaemia in mice, according to three studies published over the last two years in the journal Cell, and the final paper published Dec. 20 in Genes & Development. When a key protein responsible for leukaemia, MLL, is stabilized, it slows the … Read more
As a non-noble metal, copper oxidizes more easily to a positive valence (Cu+ or Cu2+) than same-family elements Au or Ag. In general, this chemical property is mainly determined by electron structure. Can we change the chemical properties of an element by regulating its electron structure? Can Cu act as a noble metal in catalytic … Read more
Greg McKenna, Horn Professor and the John R. Bradford Chair in the Department of Chemical Engineering in Texas Tech University’s Edward E. Whitacre Jr. College of Engineering has published his paper, “Testing the Paradigm of an Ideal Glass Transition: Dynamics of an Ultra-stable Polymeric Glass,” in the journal Science Advances. The paper’s results go against … Read more
While examining a skull from an ancient burial ground in a pre-Columbian village in Panama, Nicole Smith-Guzmán, bioarchaeologist at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (STRI), was surprised to discover an example of surfers’ ear: a small, bony bump in the ear canal common among surfers, kayakers and free divers in cold climates. After inspecting more … Read more
Colourful figures of the human body are helping Vanderbilt University researchers understand how people experience emotion through their bodies and how this process is radically altered in people with schizophrenia. Sohee Park, Gertrude Conaway Vanderbilt Professor of Psychology, and Ph.D. student Lénie J. Torregrossa compared individuals with schizophrenia with matched control participants, asking each to … Read more
These days, movies and video games render increasingly realistic 3-D images on 2-D screens, giving viewers the illusion of gazing into another world. For many physicists, though, keeping things flat is far more interesting. One reason is that flat landscapes can unlock new movement patterns in the quantum world of atoms and electrons. For instance, … Read more
Genetic detective work has illuminated the important role of Jewish culture in the widespread adoption of citrus fruit by early Mediterranean societies. The fascinating find came to light in an investigation into a bizarre acidless mutation which makes citrus juice 1000 times less acidic. John Innes Centre researchers used genetic analysis to trace the acidless mutations … Read more
Surfers spend much of their time watching long waves come onto the shoreline as they attempt to catch one right as it begins to curve and break. In a similar vein, scientists are working to create twisting helical electromagnetic waves whose curvature allows more accurate imaging of the magnetic properties of different materials at the atomic … Read more
The Earth’s core is an exceptionally difficult place to study. Its depths descend a staggering 2,900 kilometers—about the distance from New York City to Denver—and its extreme, otherworldly conditions are extraordinarily challenging to simulate in the lab. For scientists like Florida State University Assistant Professor Mainak Mookherjee and his postdoctoral scholar Suraj Bajgain, whose lives’ … Read more
About 3.4 million Americans, or 1.2% of the population, have active epilepsy. Although the majority respond to medication, between 20 and 40% of patients with epilepsy continue to have seizures even after trying multiple anti-seizure drugs. Even when the drugs do work, people may develop cognitive and memory problems and depression, likely from the combination … Read more
Rice University scientists have created a rubbery, shape-shifting material that morphs from one sophisticated form to another on demand. The shapes programmed into a polymer by materials scientist Rafael Verduzco and graduate student Morgan Barnes appear in ambient conditions and melt away when heat is applied. The process also works in reverse. The smooth operation belies … Read more
A trio of researchers at the University of Bristol has found that adding a drop of silicone oil to oppositely charged ribbons significantly enhanced their ability to perform as self-zipping origami robots. In their paper published in the journal Science Robotics, Majid Taghavi, Tim Helps and Jonathan Rossiter describes their experiments with the oil and … Read more
Magnetic recording is the primary technology underpinning today’s large-scale data storage. Now, companies are racing to develop new hard disk devices (HDDs) capable of recording densities greater than 1 terabit per square inch. Perpendicular recording HDDs store data as tiny areas of “up” or “down” magnetization within a thin layer on the surfaces of the … Read more