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Jun 17, 2021

Mars Perseverance rover wouldnt exist without these 6 groundbreaking missions — look

Posted by in category: space

Perseverance, NASA’s rover that landed on Mars in February, is looking for signs of ancient microbial life and determining if the Red Planet is habitable for humans.


From Mariner 4 to Curiosity, these historical missions have shaped our understanding of the Red Planet.

Jun 17, 2021

Omega-3s May Hold Key to Unlocking Blood-Brain Barrier

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, neuroscience

Summary: A new imaging study reveals how the MFSD2A transporter protein provides a gateway for omega-3 fatty acids to enter the brain.

Source: Columbia University.

Spectacular images of a molecule that shuttles omega-3 fatty acids into the brain may open a doorway for delivering neurological therapeutics to the brain.

Jun 17, 2021

IBM’s first quantum computer outside of the US has just gone live

Posted by in categories: computing, quantum physics

Big Blue has, for the first time, built a quantum computer that is not physically located in its US data centers. For the company, this is the start of global quantum expansion.

Jun 16, 2021

Marvelous Machines: NVIDIA Omniverse Launches A New Contest

Posted by in category: computing

Don’t miss another chance to win a powerful GPU.

Jun 16, 2021

Talking quantum dots could be used as qubits

Posted by in categories: computing, quantum physics

Computer model simulates how interactions extend exciton lifetimes.

Jun 16, 2021

Quasiprobabilities shed light on quantum advantage

Posted by in category: quantum physics

Given the importance of the Kirkwood–Dirac quasiprobability’s nonclassical values, two natural questions arise: Under what conditions does this quasiprobability behave anomalously? And how anomalous can its behaviour get? That’s what we wanted to explore.

What did you do in the paper?

We pinned down conditions under which the Kirkwood–Dirac quasiprobability assumes nonclassical values. Using these conditions, one can calculate which experiments can exhibit certain types of quantum advantages. We also put a “ceiling” on how much nonclassicality one Kirkwood–Dirac quasiprobability distribution can contain.

Jun 16, 2021

Philanthropist MacKenzie Scott gives away $2.7bn to hundreds of charities

Posted by in category: education

It was the third round of announcements Scott has made regarding her philanthropy, which rivals the largest of foundations. In 2020, she made two similar surprise announcements and donated about $6bn to causes including Covid relief, gender equity, historically Black colleges and universities and other schools.


Ex-wife of Jeff Bezos gives to 286 groups and says she wants to donate ‘fortune that was enabled by systems in need of change’

Jun 16, 2021

Genetically engineered nanoparticle delivers dexamethasone directly to inflamed lungs

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, engineering, genetics, nanotechnology

Nanoengineers at the University of California San Diego have developed immune cell-mimicking nanoparticles that target inflammation in the lungs and deliver drugs directly where they’re needed. As a proof of concept, the researchers filled the nanoparticles with the drug dexamethasone and administered them to mice with inflamed lung tissue. Inflammation was completely treated in mice given the nanoparticles, at a drug concentration where standard delivery methods did not have any efficacy.

The researchers reported their findings in Science Advances on June 16.

What’s special about these is that they are coated in a cell membrane that’s been genetically engineered to look for and bind to inflamed . They are the latest in the line of so-called cell membrane-coated nanoparticles that have been developed by the lab of UC San Diego nanoengineering professor Liangfang Zhang. His lab has previously used cell membrane-coated nanoparticles to absorb toxins produced by MRSA; treat sepsis; and train the immune system to fight cancer. But while these previous cell membranes were naturally derived from the body’s , the cell membranes used to coat this dexamethasone-filled nanoparticle were not.

Jun 16, 2021

Synthetic protein lattices explained

Posted by in categories: bioengineering, biotech/medical, computing, nanotechnology, neuroscience

Check out my short video in which I explain some super exciting research in the area of nanotechnology: de novo protein lattices! I specifically discuss a journal article by Ben-Sasson et al. titled “Design of biologically active binary protein 2D materials”.


Here, I explain an exciting nanotechnology paper “Design of biologically active binary protein 2D materials” (https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-020-03120-8).

Continue reading “Synthetic protein lattices explained” »

Jun 16, 2021

Bioinspired, roughness-induced, water and oil super-philic and super-phobic coatings prepared

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, nanotechnology

Circa 2015


Coatings that attract water (hydrophilic) are useful for anti-fogging applications6; any liquid water spreads out into a thin film thereby maintaining transparency. This is more favorable than using hydrophobic surfaces for anti-fogging as this requires a surface to be tilted for the droplets to roll off and transparency be maintained. Hydrophilic surfaces can also be used for self-cleaning7. Previous examples of superhydrophilic surfaces include the use of polymer–nanoparticle coatings8,9,10,11 however mechanical durability was not investigated.

Coatings with surface tensions lower than that of water (72 mN m–1) but higher than that of oils12 (20–30 mN m–1) will attract oils (oleophilic) but repel water and can be used to create oil–water separators13,14,15. When applied to a porous substrate, the coating will allow the passage of oil but block the passage of water, resulting in their separation. In addition, their water repellency also makes them ideal for self-cleaning4,16 and anti-icing17,18,19 applications. Anti-icing surfaces are typically superhydrophobic as supercooled droplets of water are able to roll off the cold surface before freezing and any ice formed is weakly adhered compared to hydrophilic surfaces due to an air cushion18,20.

Continue reading “Bioinspired, roughness-induced, water and oil super-philic and super-phobic coatings prepared” »