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May 11, 2021

Structure And Function Of Proteins

Posted by in category: futurism

This video explains the structure and function of proteins.

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May 11, 2021

A New Window to See Unexplored Hidden Side of Magnetized Universe

Posted by in categories: cosmology, particle physics

New observations and simulations show that jets of high-energy particles emitted from the central massive black hole in the brightest galaxy in galaxy clusters can be used to map the structure of invisible inter-cluster magnetic fields. These findings provide astronomers with a new tool for investigating previously unexplored aspects of clusters of galaxies.

As clusters of galaxies grow through collisions with surrounding matter, they create bow shocks and wakes in their dilute plasma. The plasma motion induced by these activities can drape intra-cluster magnetic layers, forming virtual walls of magnetic force. These magnetic layers, however, can only be observed indirectly when something interacts with them. Because it is simply difficult to identify such interactions, the nature of intra-cluster magnetic fields remains poorly understood. A new approach to map/characterize magnetic layers is highly desired.

May 10, 2021

3D Printing ‘Artificial Leaves’ Could Solve Our Energy Problem on Mars /

Posted by in categories: 3D printing, energy, space

Microalgae 3D printed onto bacterial cellulose allows for a new oxygen-producing material.

May 10, 2021

Toyota Introduces Beyond Zero Electric SUV At Shanghai Auto Show

Posted by in categories: sustainability, transportation

Toyota’s first car in its new Beyond Zero brand will be the bZ4X electric SUV. Look for it before the end of 2022.


Car companies love to create new brands. The Japanese Big Three gave us Lexus, Infiniti, and Acura 30+ years ago when they wanted to go upmarket with high profit premium cars. People who would never consider dropping $30000 on a Toyota were happy to spend double that on a Lexus. Such is the power of branding.

In the electric car era, several companies have have created new brands for their battery powered cars. Mercedes has its EQ division, Volkswagen its ID branded cars, BMW uses a simple “i,” while Hyundai is employing the Ioniq moniker for its battery electric cars. While all those companies have been ramping up EV offerings, Toyota has been largely content to hang out in the background and sell variations of its Synergy hybrid powertrain, cars it often misleadingly characterizes as “self charging electric cars.”

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May 10, 2021

A new Method Simulates the Universe 1000 Times Faster

Posted by in categories: cosmology, information science, robotics/AI

Cosmologists love universe simulations. Even models covering hundreds of millions of light years can be useful for understanding fundamental aspects of cosmology and the early universe. There’s just one problem – they’re extremely computationally intensive. A 500 million light year swath of the universe could take more than 3 weeks to simulate… Now, scientists led by Yin Li at the Flatiron Institute have developed a way to run these cosmically huge models 1000 times faster. That 500 million year light year swath could then be simulated in 36 minutes.

Older algorithms took such a long time in part because of a tradeoff. Existing models could either simulate a very detailed, very small slice of the cosmos or a vaguely detailed larger slice of it. They could provide either high resolution or a large area to study, not both.

To overcome this dichotomy, Dr. Li turned to an AI technique called a generative adversarial network (GAN). This algorithm pits two competing algorithms again each other, and then iterates on those algorithms with slight changes to them and judges whether those incremental changes improved the algorithm or not. Eventually, with enough iterations, both algorithms become much more accurate naturally on their own.

May 10, 2021

The process of combining maternal and paternal genetic information is surprisingly error-prone

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, chemistry, genetics

Only one in three fertilizations leads to a successful pregnancy. Many embryos fail to progress beyond early development. Cell biologists at the Max Planck Institute (MPI) for Biophysical Chemistry in Göttingen (Germany), together with researchers at the Institute of Farm Animal Genetics in Mariensee and other international colleagues, have now developed a new model system for studying early embryonic development. With the help of this system, they discovered that errors often occur when the genetic material from each parent combines immediately after fertilization. This is due to a remarkably inefficient process.

Human somatic cells typically have 46 , which together carry the genetic information. These chromosomes are first brought together at fertilization, 23 from the father’s sperm, and 23 from the mother’s egg. After fertilization, the parental chromosomes initially exist in two separate compartments, known as pronuclei. These pronuclei slowly move towards each other until they come into contact. The pronuclear envelopes then dissolve, and the parental chromosomes unite.

The majority of human embryos, however, end up with an incorrect number of chromosomes. These embryos are often not viable, making erroneous genome unification a leading cause of miscarriage and infertility.

May 10, 2021

Nanotechnology Breakthrough: A Material-Keyboard Made of Graphene

Posted by in categories: nanotechnology, quantum physics

Researchers at ETH Zurich have succeeded in turning specially prepared graphene flakes either into insulators or into superconductors by applying an electric voltage. This technique even works locally, meaning that in the same graphene flake regions with completely different physical properties can be realized side by side.

The production of modern electronic components requires materials with very diverse properties. There are isolators, for instance, which do not conduct electric current, and superconductors which transport it without any losses. To obtain a particular functionality of a component one usually has to join several such materials together. Often that is not easy, in particular when dealing with nanostructures that are in widespread use today.

A team of researchers at ETH Zurich led by Klaus Ensslin and Thomas Ihn at the Laboratory for Solid State Physics have now succeeded in making a material behave alternately as an insulator or as a superconductor – or even as both at different locations in the same material – by simply applying an electric voltage. Their results have been published in the scientific journal Nature Nanotechnology. The work was supported by the National Centre of Competence in Research QSIT (Quantum Science and Technology).

May 10, 2021

Self-repairing cells: How single cells heal membrane ruptures and restore lost structures

Posted by in category: biotech/medical

Many organisms and tissues display the ability to heal and regenerate as needed for normal physiology and as a result of pathogenesis. However, these repair activities can also be observed at the single-cell level. The physical and molecular mechanisms by which a cell can heal membrane ruptures and rebuild damaged or missing cellular structures remain poorly understood. This Review presents current understanding in wound healing and regeneration as two distinct aspects of cellular self-repair by examining a few model organisms that have displayed robust repair capacity, including Xenopus oocytes, Chlamydomonas, and Stentor coeruleus. Although many open questions remain, elucidating how cells repair themselves is important for our mechanistic understanding of cell biology. It also holds the potential for new applications and therapeutic approaches for treating human disease.

Cells are generally soft and easily damaged. However, many can repair themselves after being punctured, torn, or even ripped in half when damaged during the ordinary wear and tear of normal physiology or as a result of injury or pathology. A cell is like a spacecraft: When it is punctured, cytoplasm spills out like oxygen escaping from a damaged space module. Like Apollo 13, a damaged cell cannot rely on anyone to fix it. It must repair itself, first by stopping the loss of cytoplasm, and then regenerate by rebuilding structures that were damaged or lost. Knowledge of how single cells repair and regenerate themselves underpins our mechanistic understanding of cell biology and could guide treatments for conditions involving cellular damage.

A standard question that students are asked is to define what it means to be alive. This is surprisingly hard to answer in a precise way, but surely one of the remarkable features of living systems that distinguishes them from human-made machines is their ability to heal and repair themselves. At the multicellular level, repair and regeneration are effected by generating new cells to replace the ones that were lost. This type of repair thus ends up being a direct consequence of another basic feature of living systems—the ability of a cell to reproduce itself. No additional processes need to be invoked beyond cell division. At the single-cell level, it is much less obvious how self-repair is accomplished.

May 10, 2021

Grow Wood Without Trees

Posted by in categories: solar power, sustainability

Pretty soon, you’ll start seeing this term on very expensive items.

New Material Absorbs and Stores Solar Energy ‘The light that is thus trapped can be released by making a small spark near the glass.’ — L. Sprague de Camp, 1940.

3D Printed Damascus Steel Now Possible ‘… lined with durite, that strange close-packed laboratory product.’ — Robert Heinlein, 1939.

May 10, 2021

Complex shapes of photons to boost future quantum technologies

Posted by in categories: computing, neuroscience, quantum physics

As the digital revolution has now become mainstream, quantum computing and quantum communication are rising in the consciousness of the field. The enhanced measurement technologies enabled by quantum phenomena, and the possibility of scientific progress using new methods, are of particular interest to researchers around the world.

Recently two researchers at Tampere University, Assistant Professor Robert Fickler and Doctoral Researcher Markus Hiekkamäki, demonstrated that two– interference can be controlled in a near-perfect way using the spatial shape of the photon. Their findings were recently published in the prestigious journal Physical Review Letters.

“Our report shows how a complex light-shaping method can be used to make two quanta of light interfere with each other in a novel and easily tuneable way,” explains Markus Hiekkamäki.