Eurekalert

A University of Bristol-led team of international scientists with an interest in protoliving technologies, has today published research which paves the way to building new semi-autonomous devices with potential applications in miniaturized soft robotics, microscale sensing and bioengineering.

Researchers led by Peter Zoller have developed a method to make previously hardly accessible properties in quantum systems measurable. The new method for determining the quantum state in quantum simulators reduces the number of necessary measurements and makes work with quantum simulators much more efficient.

Engineering, biochemistry and medical researchers at McMaster University have combined their skills to create a hand-held rapid test for bacterial infections that can produce accurate, reliable results in less than an hour, eliminating the need to send samples to a lab.

Engineers at MIT, Caltech, and ETH Zürich find "nanoarchitected" materials designed from precisely patterned nanoscale structures may be a promising route to lightweight armor, protective coatings, blast shields, and other impact-resistant materials.

'Precision agriculture' where farmers respond in real time to changes in crop growth using nanotechnology and artificial intelligence (AI) could offer a practical solution to the challenges threatening global food security, a new study reveals.

New research led by scientists at La Jolla Institute for Immunology (LJI) and the University of Liverpool may explain why many cancer patients do not respond to anti-PD-1 cancer immunotherapies--also called checkpoint inhibitors.The team reports that these patients may have tumors with high numbers of T follicular regulatory (Tfr) cells.

The 'anterior cingulate cortex' is key brain region involved in linking behaviors to their outcomes. When this region was temporarily silenced, monkeys did not change behavior even when it stopped having the expected outcome.The finding is a step towards targeted treatment of human disorders involving compulsive behavior, such as OCD and eating disorders, thought to involve impaired function in this brain region.

Images of dinosaurs as cold-blooded creatures needing tropical temperatures could be a relic of the past. University of Alaska Fairbanks and Florida State University scientists have found that nearly all types of Arctic dinosaurs, from small bird-like animals to giant tyrannosaurs, reproduced in the region and likely remained there year-round.

In the 1950s, researchers made the first unexpected discoveries of dinosaur remains at frigid polar latitudes. Now, researchers reporting in the journal Current Biology on June 24 have uncovered the first convincing evidence that several species of dinosaur not only lived in what's now Northern Alaska, but they also nested there.

An international study has discovered a coronavirus epidemic broke out in the East Asia region more than 20,000 years ago, with traces of the outbreak evident in the genetic makeup of people from that area.

Researchers at Osaka University and Kyoto University show that an excited state previously predicted to exist in neon-20 is real by using particle scattering experiments. By merging into five groups of four, the protons and neutrons in neon-20 can exist in a special condensed state. This work may help scientists understand low-density nucleon many-body systems and neutron stars.

Researchers from Skoltech and their colleagues have shown that adaptation to similar environments hardly involves similar genomic positions when species are distantly related.It is still poorly understood to what extent adaptation to similar conditions is associated with parallel changes in the genome. The team investigated recurrent adaptations of wildlife birds' mitochondria to high altitude, migration, diving, wintering, and flight. Repeatable substitutions are rather a coincidence than adaptation, which confirms the scientific opinion that distant species 'choose' different ways of similar trait evolution.

Dopamine is often called the 'happy' or 'feel-good' hormone. It can help explain both autistic behaviors and men's need for passion in order to succeed.

An international study led by Helmholtz Zentrum München has revealed the structure of a membrane-remodeling protein that builds and maintains photosynthetic membranes. These fundamental insights lay the groundwork for bioengineering efforts to strengthen plants against environmental stress, helping to sustaining human food supply and fight against climate change.

Toxoplasma gondii is an obligate intracellular parasite which, to survive, must absolutely penetrate its host's cells. Understanding how the parasite manages to enter host cells offers opportunities to develop more prevention. A team (UNIGE/UZH/PSI) has identified the key role of RON13, which is essential for the invasion process. The three-dimensional structure and the site of action of this enzyme are atypical, thus offering the possibility of designing specific inhibitors to stop the infection.

Palladium nanostructures in the shape of Christmas-tree had created using a simple electrodeposition approach on a Glassy Carbon Electrode (GCE). In alkaline conditions, the modified electrode showed eight times higher catalytic activity than the unmodified GCE for Ascorbic Acid (AA) electro-oxidation. The multiple sharp edges of the hierarchical nanostructures are account for this excellent efficiency.

Photosystem II (PSII) is an essential photosynthesis-involved enzyme, participating in sunlight-harvest, water splitting, oxygen release, and proton/electron generation and transfer. PSII combines with synthetic hierarchical structures via biomimetic assembly, which facilitates natural photosynthesis processes, including photocatalytic water splitting, electron transfer, and ATP synthesis, in vivo. PSII-based biomimetic assembly offers opportunities to forward semi-biohybrid research and synchronously inspire optimization of artificial light-harvest devices.

Are the traditional practices tied to endangered species at risk of being lost? The answer is yes, according to the authors of an ethnographic study published in the University of Guam peer-reviewed journal Pacific Asia Inquiry. But the authors also say a recovery plan can protect both the species as well as the traditional CHamoru practice of consuming them.

Ultrasound can overcome some of the detrimental effects of ageing and dementia without the need to cross the blood-brain barrier, Queensland Brain Institute researchers have found.

Researchers have found a further reason for the severity of dual infection by influenza and Streptococcus pneumonia -- a new virulence mechanism for a surface protein on the pneumonia-causing bacteria S. pneumoniae. This insight comes 30 years after discovery of that surface protein, called pneumococcal surface protein A. This mechanism had been missed in the past because it facilitates bacterial adherence only to dying lung epithelial cells, not to living cells.