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While setting out to fabricate new springs to support a cephalopod-inspired imaging project, a group of Harvard researchers stumbled upon a surprising discovery: the hemihelix, a shape rarely seen in nature. This made the researchers wonder: Were the three-dimensional structures they observed randomly occurring, or are there specific factors that control their formation? The scientists answered that question by performing experiments in which they stretched, joined, and then released rubber strips.

Tissue engineering has been used to construct natural oesophagi, which in combination with bone marrow stem cells have been safely and effectively transplanted in rats. The study epithelial cells and blood vessels. The new method has been developed by researchers at Karolinska Institutet in Sweden, within an international collaboration lead by Professor Paolo Macchiarini.

Scientists at Yale University have devised a dramatically faster way of identifying and characterizing complex alloys known as bulk metallic glasses (BMGs), a versatile type of pliable glass that's stronger than steel. Using traditional methods, it usually takes a full day to identify a single metal alloy appropriate for making BMGs.

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.

The idea of growing replacement tissue to repair an organ, or to swap it out for an entirely new one, is rapidly transitioning from science fiction to fact. Tissue engineering techniques are improving in their ability to generate three-dimensional masses of cells and provide them with vascular systems for keeping them alive, but a more mathematically rigorous approach for designing these tissues is still needed.

Contrary to many textbook illustrations, electrons aren't just balls floating around an atom. In quantum theory, they're more like little tops, exhibiting "spin," and each creating its own tiny magnetic field. Learning how best to manipulate these spins could open up technological advances in everything from quantum computers to encryption protocols to highly sensitive detectors.

A Stanford study highlights the critical importance of strong technical skills in launching tech ventures, casting doubt on the conventional wisdom that a founding team with diverse business skills is the best approach. New research on entrepreneurship shows that diverse business skills are not always the secret to success in the world of tech start-ups.

MIT research could aid ice prevention, wing efficiency, and more. Those who study hydrophobic materials - water-shedding surfaces such as those found in nature and created in the laboratory - are familiar with a theoretical limit on the time it takes for a water droplet to bounce away from such a surface.

A new modelling technique has been developed that could eliminate the need to build costly prototypes, which are used to test engineering structures such as aeroplanes. The study, by Dr Róbert Szalai at the University of Bristol, is published in the latest issue of the Proceedings of the Royal Society A .

The remarkable mechanism by which the tiny ears of locusts can hear and distinguish between different tones has been discovered by researchers from the University of Bristol. Understanding how the nanoscale features of the insect eardrum mechanically process sound could open up practical possibilities for the fabrication of embedded signal processing in extremely small microphones.