For more than a century, electricity has flowed through wires, powering everything from the smallest gadgets to entire cities. However, what seemed like a distant dream—wireless energy transmission—may soon become a reality. This breakthrough technology, known as “power beaming”, promises to eliminate the need for physical infrastructure, delivering power directly from one point to another using electromagnetic waves.
Most cells in the human body each contain about six feet of DNA. Yet the nucleus, where DNA is coiled, is no larger than a single speck of dust. Despite its density, DNA is not a tangled ball of yarn. It is organized into intricate layers of loops that fold and unfold in response to cues from the cell.
Scientists know that the three-dimensional shape of DNA is important. This long helical thread is peppered with genes that are translated into proteins to drive cellular activity. And the structure of the genome —those layers of loops—determines which genes are active at any given time.
How the three-dimensional structure of the genome is maintained, however, is less clear. Structural changes and abnormalities are associated with many diseases, such as cancer and developmental disorders. Identifying what controls genome structure could yield targets for treatment.
Who knew that magnetic fields could be so useful?
Astronomers are able to use magnetic fields to map our environment within the Milky Way using a technique called Faraday rotation.
It works like this. There’s a bunch of dust – literal dust grains – floating within the galaxy.
The Big Bang likely brought our universe into existence. What will mark its grand finale? Scientists blend imagination and data to make predictions.
