news 2017

By organizing pigments on a DNA scaffold, an MIT-led team of researchers has designed a light-harvesting material that closely mimics the structure of naturally occurring photosynthetic structures. The researchers showed that their synthetic material can absorb light and efficiently transfer its energy along precisely controlled pathways.

In a new study, MIT researchers have developed nanoparticles that can deliver the CRISPR genome-editing system and specifically modify genes in mice. The team used nanoparticles to carry the CRISPR components, eliminating the need to use viruses for delivery. Using the new delivery technique, the researchers were able to cut out certain genes in about 80 percent of liver cells, the best success rate ever achieved with CRISPR in adult animals.

Like a well-tended greenhouse garden, a specialized type of hydrogen fuel cell - which shows promise as a clean, renewable next-generation power source for vehicles and other uses - requires precise temperature and moisture controls to be at its best. If the internal conditions are too dry or too wet, the fuel cell won't function well.

Professor Alice Roberts , Professor of Public Engagement in Science answers questions about her new book 'Tamed: 10 Species That Changed Our World' . What is the latest book about? Tamed is about the deep histories of ten familiar species: dogs, apples and wheat; cattle; potatoes and chickens; rice, maize, horses, and finally, humans.

Research news A healthy heart beats about two billion times during a lifetime - thanks to the interplay of more than 10,000 proteins. Researchers from the Max Planck Institute of Biochemistry (MPIB) and the German Heart Centre at the Technical University of Munich (TUM) have now determined which and how many individual proteins are present in each type of cell that occurs in the heart.

Researchers at Lund University in Sweden have compared how much energy bats use when flying, depending on whether they have large or small ears. Large ears increase air resistance, meaning that long-eared bats are forced to expend more energy than species with small ears. On the plus side, large ears generate more lift and provide better hearing.

UCL research - Press release While immunotherapy generated undreamt-of results in the treatment of aggressive and advanced metastatic cancer , they occurred in only one-fourth to one-third of patients, leaving a large majority that didn't respond. Explaining why and increasing immunotherapy's efficiency were the research objectives of Benoît Van den Eynde, a researcher at UCL's de Duve Institute and director of the Brussels Branch of the Ludwig Cancer Research Institute .

AUSTIN, Texas - DNA molecules that follow specific instructions could offer more precise molecular control of synthetic chemical systems, a discovery that opens the door for engineers to create molecular machines with new and complex behaviors. Researchers have created chemical amplifiers and a chemical oscillator using a systematic method that has the potential to embed sophisticated circuit computation within molecular systems designed for applications in health care, advanced materials and nanotechnology.

In a new study, a Yale-led research team uncovers how a very low calorie diet can rapidly reverse type 2 diabetes in animal models. If confirmed in people, the insight provides potential new drug targets for treating this common chronic disease, said the researchers. The study is published in Cell Metabolism.

Scientists at Queen Mary University of London (QMUL) have shown for the first time that it is possible to incorporate DNA analysis into antenatal screening for three serious chromosome disorders, including Down's syndrome, in a way that is far more accurate, and safer and less stressful for mothers.

A new type of cell has been found in the eye of a deep-sea fish, and scientists say the discovery opens a new world of understanding about vision in a variety of light conditions. University of Queensland scientists found the new cell type in the deep-sea pearlside fish ( Maurolicus spp. ), which have an unusual visual system adapted for twilight conditions.

The Goffin's cockatoo is not a specialised tool user in the wild but has shown the capacity to invent and use different types of tools in captivity. Now cognitive biologists from the University of Vienna and the University of Veterinary Medicine Vienna tested these parrots in a tool use task, requiring the birds to move objects in relation to a surface.

A new miniature robot developed by EPFL researchers can swim with fish, learn how they communicate with each other and make them change direction or come together. These capabilities have been proven on schools of zebrafish. Researchers at EPFL's Robotic Systems Laboratory (LSRO), which is headed by Professor Francesco Mondada, have developed a miniature robot that can integrate perfectly into schools of zebrafish.

A team involving UCL scientists has developed a new device that could revolutionise our understanding of the brain by allowing researchers to map the activity of complex neural networks that control behaviour and decision making, in a way never before possible. The Neuropixels probes are described in a paper .

The largest study to date of body sizes over millions of years finds a "pulse and stasis" pattern to hominin evolution, with surges of growth in stature and bulk occurring at different times. At one stage, our ancestors got taller around a million years before body mass caught up.

Sheep can be trained to recognise human faces from photographic portraits - and can even identify the picture of their handler without prior training - according to new research from scientists at the University of Cambridge. We've shown that sheep have advanced face-recognition abilities, comparable with those of humans and monkeys Jenny Morton Sheep can be trained to recognise human faces from photographic portraits - and can even identify the picture of their handler without prior training - according to new research from scientists at the University of Cambridge.

Recalling the names of old classmates 50 years after graduation or of favorite childhood television series illustrates the amazing abilities of human memory. Emotion and repeated exposure are both known to play a role in long-term memorization, but why do we remember things that are not emotionally charged and have only been seen or experienced a few times in the past?

ANN ARBOR-Researchers at the University of Michigan Life Sciences Institute found that a previously dismissed genetic mechanism may contribute to nicotine dependence, and to the withdrawal effects that can make quitting smoking so difficult. Scientists in the lab of Shawn Xu examined withdrawal responses in the millimeter-long roundworms Caenorhabditis elegans, which get hooked on nicotine just like humans.

Research news Computer Tomography (CT) is a standard procedure in hospitals, but so far, the technology has not been suitable for imaging extremely small objects. In PNAS, a team from the Technical University of Munich (TUM) describes a Nano-CT device that creates three-dimensional x-ray images at resolutions up to 100 nanometers.

ANN ARBOR-The rising obesity epidemic has brought with it an army of maladies. One, in particular, is threatening to outpace many of the disorders that accompany obesity, in terms of occurrence and severity: nonalcoholic fatty liver disease. "I think in the coming decades, it's going to be a bigger problem than even diabetes," said University of Michigan cell biologist Jiandie Lin, senior author of a new study that identified a key driver of the progression to the most harmful form of the disease-nonalcoholic steatohepatitis, or NASH.