Toggle light / dark theme

Circa 2004


On the largest scales, matter in the Universe is arranged in a vast network of filamentary structures known as the ‘cosmic web’, its tangled strands spanning hundreds of millions of light years. Dark matter, which emits no light, forms the backbone of this web, which is also suffused with primordial hydrogen gas left over from the Big Bang. Galaxies like our own Milky Way are embedded inside this web, but fill only a tiny fraction of its volume.

Now a team of astronomers led by Khee-Gan Lee, a post-doc at the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy, has managed to create a three-dimensional map of a large region of the far-flung cosmic web nearly 11 billion light years away, when the Universe was just a quarter of its current age. Similar to a medical CT scan, which reconstructs a three-dimensional image of the human body from the X-rays passing through a patient, Lee and his colleagues reconstructed their map from the light of distant background galaxies passing through the cosmic web’s hydrogen gas.

The use of the combined starlight of background galaxies for this purpose had been thought to be impossible with current telescopes – until Lee carried out calculations that suggested otherwise. Lee says: “I was surprised to find that existing large telescopes should already be able to collect sufficient light from these faint galaxies to map the foreground absorption, albeit at a lower resolution than would be feasible with future telescopes. Still, this would provide an unprecedented view of the cosmic web which has never been mapped at such vast distances.”

Adv Exp Med Biol. 1987;218:569–76.

Feline infectious peritonitis (FIP) is caused by one of several strains of feline coronaviruses which are grouped into 2 general types of viruses. Infection of cats with FIP virus results in production of serum antibodies which may be protective in conjunction with cell mediated immunity, may provided no protection at all, or may produce an immune enhancement to subsequent exposure to another FIP virus or a recrudescence of the original infecting virus. Attempts at immunization of cats against FIP with inactivated or live FIP viruses have been generally unsuccessful, and often sensitizing the cat through immune enhancement rather than providing protection. Heterologous live virus vaccines using viruses of the same antigenic cluster (transmissible gastroenteritis of swine, canine coronavirus, and human coronavirus 229E) have failed to provide protection against FIP virus.

Circa 2019


Researchers at Delft University of Technology have created a quantum circuit to listen to the weakest radio signal allowed by quantum mechanics. This new quantum circuit opens the door to possible future applications in areas such as radio astronomy and medicine (MRI). It also enables experiments to shed light on the interplay between quantum mechanics and gravity. The results have been published in Science.

The usual solution to a weak radio signal is to find a bigger signal, for instance, by picking a different radio station or by moving to the other side of the room. However, m what if we could just listen more carefully?

Weak radio signals are not just a challenge for people trying to find their favourite radio station, but also for imaging (MRI) scanners at hospitals, as well as for the telescopes scientists use to peer into space. In a in radio frequency detection, researchers in the group of Prof. Gary Steele in Delft demonstrated the detection of photons or quanta of energy, the weakest signals allowed by the theory of mechanics.

We’re proud to announce that will premier at the 2020 Phoenix Film Festival with two theatrical showings this March/April. This will be your only chance to view the film in a theatre! Dates and more information on the premiere to follow shortly. Digital release information to follow shortly thereafter. Thank you all for your patients. We’re so glad to finally be able to share the film and hope to see you all at the premiere!


This will be your only chance to view the film in a theatre! Dates and more information on the premiere to follow shortly. Digital release information to follow shortly thereafter. Thank you all for your patients. We’re so glad to finally be able to share the film and hope to see you all at the premiere!

A scrupulous gatekeeper stands between the brain and its circulatory system to let in the good and keep out the bad, but this porter, called the blood-brain barrier, also blocks trial drugs to treat diseases like Alzheimer’s or cancer from getting into the brain.

Now a team led by researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology has engineered a way of studying the barrier more closely with the intent of helping drug developers do the same. In a new study, the researchers cultured the human on a , recreating its physiology more realistically than predecessor chips.

The new chip devised a healthy environment for the barrier’s central component, a brain cell called the , which is not a neuron, but which acts as neurons’ intercessors with the circulatory system. Astrocytes interface in with cells in the vasculature called endothelial cells to collaborate with them as the blood-brain barrier.

Identifying biological correlates of late life cognitive function is important if we are to ascertain biomarkers for, and develop treatments to help reduce, age-related cognitive decline. Here, we investigated the associations between plasma levels of 90 neurology-related proteins (Olink® Proteomics) and general fluid cognitive ability in the Lothian Birth Cohort 1936 (LBC1936, N = 798), Lothian Birth Cohort 1921 (LBC1921, N = 165), and the INTERVAL BioResource (N = 4451). In the LBC1936, 22 of the proteins were significantly associated with general fluid cognitive ability (β between −0.11 and −0.17). MRI-assessed total brain volume partially mediated the association between 10 of these proteins and general fluid cognitive ability. In an age-matched subsample of INTERVAL, effect sizes for the 22 proteins, although smaller, were all in the same direction as in LBC1936. Plasma levels of a number of neurology-related proteins are associated with general fluid cognitive ability in later life, mediated by brain volume in some cases.

Osteoarthritis is one of the most common ailments of an aging population, but there aren’t many treatment options besides taking pain killers or getting a full joint replacement. Now, researchers at the Salk Institute have found that a combination of two experimental drugs appears to reverse the symptoms of the disorder, with successful tests conducted in rats and in human cells in the lab.

As we age, our bodies gradually lose the ability to repair damage as fast as it needs to. That means that tissues subjected to high-intensity long-term use, such as cartilage in joints, are especially prone to wearing out. That manifests itself in the common condition of osteoarthritis, resulting in pain when that joint moves.

In the past, two molecules have been identified as having decent potential for treating the disease – alpha-KLOTHO (αKLOTHO) and TGF beta receptor 2 (TGFβR2). Previous tests only showed moderate success, so the researchers on the new study decided to see if they fared any better when used together.