Researchers have mapped 50,000 of DNA’s mysterious “knots” in the human genome. The innovative study of DNA’s hidden structures may open up new approaches for treatment and diagnosis of diseases, including cancer.
Category: innovation – Page 37
The Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) Collaboration has enhanced its observational capabilities, achieving unprecedented resolutions by detecting light at a 345 GHz frequency.
This breakthrough allows for detailed imaging of black holes, promising images 50% more detailed than previous ones and the potential to view more black holes than ever before.
Breakthrough in Black Hole Imaging.
Scientists are working on a “breakthrough” cancer vaccine after discovering how the body’s immune system targets cells devastated by the disease.
A study led by researchers from the University of Southampton found the body’s natural “killer” cells – from the immune system which protects against disease and infections – instinctively recognise and attack a protein that drives cancer growth.
The scientists believe that by using this protein – known as XPO1 – they may be able to activate more killer cells to destroy the disease, paving the way for new and less invasive forms of cancer treatment.
“DNA, RNA and proteins are the key players to regulate all processes in the cells of our body,” Leiden Professor John van Noort explains. “To understand the (mis-)functioning of these molecules, it is essential to uncover how their 3D structure depends on their sequence and for this it is necessary to measure them one molecule at a time. However, single-molecule measurements are laborious and slow, and the number of possible sequence variations is massive.”
Now the team of scientists developed an innovative tool, called SPARXS (Single-molecule Parallel Analysis for Rapid eXploration of Sequence space), that allows for studying millions of DNA molecules simultaneously.
“Traditional techniques that allow one sequence to be probed at a time usually take hours of measurement time per sequence. With SPARXS, we can measure millions of molecules within a day to a week. Without SPARXS, such a measurement would take several years to decades,” says Delft Professor Chirlmin Joo.
Get a 20% discount on The Economist’s annual digital subscriptions at https://www.economist.com/TOEProfessor Ivette Fuentes is a leading theoretical physicis…
Scientists at PPPL have developed innovative solutions to manage the intense heat generated within fusion reactors.
Integrated photonic circuits operating at room temperature combined with optical nonlinear effects could revolutionize both classical and quantum signal processing. Scientists from the Faculty of Physics at the University of Warsaw, in collaboration with other institutions from Poland as well as Italy, Iceland, and Australia, have demonstrated the creation of perovskite crystals with predefined shapes that can serve in nonlinear photonics as waveguides, couplers, splitters, and modulators.
Researchers are developing an innovative device designed to deliver chemotherapy directly to the surgical site, aiming to reduce the risk of pancreatic cancer recurrence.
Researchers discovered a significant anomalous Hall effect in the magnetic material SrCo6O11 at temperatures above its magnetic transition, where it exhibits a phenomenon known as the “Spin-Fluctuating Devil’s Staircase.” This observation could revolutionize the design of materials for magneto-thermoelectric conversion, impacting the development of new thermoelectric materials.
Here’s a bit of background: When an electric current flows through a metal sample in a magnetic field, it experiences the Lorentz force. This force generates a voltage perpendicular to the magnetic field and current—a phenomenon referred to as the Hall effect.
In magnetic metals, a similar phenomenon—known as the anomalous Hall effect—may occur independently of an external magnetic field, particularly in ferromagnetic materials wherein electron spins are aligned. Generally, this alignment—and thus the anomalous Hall effect—only manifests below a certain temperature, known as the magnetic transition temperature.
Researchers at the University of Texas have developed an AI that predicted 70% of earthquakes during a trial in China, indicating potential for future quake risk mitigation.
The AI, trained on seismic data, also ranked first in an international competition, underscoring its effectiveness and opening doors for further enhancements in regions like California and Texas.
AI Earthquake Prediction Breakthrough