news 2014

An international team of researchers including a group from the London Centre for Nanotechnology (LCN) at UCL have uncovered vital information regarding the "quantum melting" of the magnetic structure of Thallium Copper Trichloride (TlCuCl 3 ), reports Nature Physics. The findings of team from the UK, Switzerland, France and China establish for the first time that thermal and quantum routes to melting behave largely independently of one another.

By attaching short sequences of single-stranded DNA to nanoscale building blocks, researchers can design structures that can effectively build themselves. The building blocks that are meant to connect have complementary DNA sequences on their surfaces, ensuring only the correct pieces bind together as they jostle into one another while suspended in a test tube.

University of Illinois cell and developmental biology professor Fei Wang, left; visiting scholar Qiuhao Qu, center; materials science and engineering professor Jianjun Cheng; and their colleagues improved the process of converting stem cells into motor neurons. (Neurons are green; motor neurons are red in the image on the screen).

The flight muscles moving inside flies have been filmed for the first time using a new 3D X-ray scanning technique. 3D movies of the muscles were created by a team from Oxford University, Imperial College London, and the Paul Scherrer Institute (PSI), using the PSI's Swiss Light Source, a powerful X-ray source.

Scientists have used a particle accelerator to obtain high-speed 3D X-ray visualizations of the flight muscles of flies. The team developed a groundbreaking new CT scanning technique at the PSI's Swiss Light Source to allow them to film inside live flying insects. 3D movies of the blowfly flight motor offer a glimpse into the inner workings of one of nature's most complex mechanisms, showing that structural deformations are the key to understanding how a fly controls its wingbeat.

Experiments have identified a dedicated information highway that combines visual cues with body motion. This mechanism triggers responses to cues before the conscious brain has become aware of them. The study shows that our brains also have separate hard-wired systems to track our own bodies visually even when we are not paying attention to them.

Your brain's ability to instantly link what you see with what you do is down to a dedicated information 'highway', suggests new UCL-led research. For the first time, researchers from UCL and Cambridge University have found evidence of a specialised mechanism for spatial self-awareness that combines visual cues with body motion.

Research on more than 46,000 Pinterest users reveals new insights about gender and the use of the popular social media site MINNEAPOLIS / ST. PAUL (02/12/2014) —Male users of Pinterest pin more content about photography, art, design, and home decor than sports, technology and cars, says a new study by researchers at the University of Minnesota and Georgia Tech.

An international research group of scientists and engineers led by the University of Bristol, UK, has made an important advance towards a quantum computer by shrinking down key components and integrating them onto a silicon microchip. Scientists and engineers from an international collaboration led by Dr Mark Thompson from the University of Bristol have, for the first time, generated and manipulated single particles of light (photons) on a silicon chip - a major step forward in the race to build a quantum computer.

Press Release: Carnegie Mellon Researchers Develop Novel Tools To Improve Manufacturing Processes for Aerospace and Medical Device Industries-Carnegie Mellon News - Carnegie Mellon University Press Release: Carnegie Mellon Researchers Develop Novel Tools To Improve Manufacturing Processes for Aerospace and Medical Device Industries Engineering Professors To Begin $1.

Study reveals immune cells that are critical to combating the parasite in early stages of infection. The parasites that cause malaria are exquisitely adapted to the various hosts they infect - so studying the disease in mice doesn't necessarily reveal information that could lead to drugs effective against human disease.