Existing patterning methods for thin metal films rely on prefabricated rigid masks incompatible with soft substrates. Here, the authors report printable and stretchable metal-vapor-desorption layers that facilitate high-fidelity patterning, enabling circuits and devices on 3D curvilinear and stretchable substrates.
AI systems mass-producing cheap research would be bad news for an already struggling scientific ecosystem.
There are two different ways to measure the expansion rate of the Universe, and they don’t agree. And no, new measurements don’t help.
A study appearing in Journal of Bioethical Inquiry explored the legal and ethical challenges expected to arise in human brain organoid research.
Human brain organoids are three-dimensional neural tissues derived from stem cells that can mimic some aspects of the human brain. Their use holds incredible promise for medical advancements, but this also raises complex ethical and legal questions that need careful consideration.
Seeking to examine the various legal challenges that might arise in the context of human brain organoid research and its applications, the team of researchers, which included a legal scholar, identified and outlined potential legal issues.
Single crystals of atomically thin sapphire have been prepared at room temperature, opening the way to miniaturized chips.
Advances in synthetic biology are moving biopharma closer to a world where treatments can be tailored while remaining cost-effective.
The future of medicine lies in synthetic biology! In this video, you’ll learn how synthetic biology is used in healthcare and why it can help develop cancer treatments and much more.
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In celebration of Earth Day and Earth Month, we’ve rounded up five sustainability discoveries made possible by advancements in synthetic biology.
Posted in chemistry, computing, quantum physics
Quantum computers have the potential to revolutionize our understanding of the world around us—and teach us how to manipulate it. The technology could enable the rapid design and development of life-saving drugs, simulate superconducting materials that would revolutionize technology and clean energy, and even offer insight into the underlying structure of space and time. Like the qubits that sit in superposition at the heart of quantum computers, the possibilities seem endless.
“Right now, you will find people who see quantum computing as a panacea,” says Susanne Yelin, a professor of physics in residence at Harvard’s Faculty of Arts and Sciences. “I am not one of them. But quantum computing could help us better understand fundamental physics, such as problems in condensed matter or particle physics. It could also advance quantum chemistry [which uses quantum physics to understand chemical systems]—and with it, better development of drugs and materials.”
At the Harvard Kenneth C. Griffin Graduate School of Arts and Sciences (Harvard Griffin GSAS), PhD physics students Maddie Cain, on whose dissertation committee Yelin sits, and Dolev Bluvstein are working to make the promise of quantum computing a reality. In the laboratory of Professor Mikhail Lukin, Cain and Bluvstein push the boundaries of science, advancing the prospects of transformative applications that could reshape our world.
In rainbow trout, classification of ionocytes based on the expressed transporters is still in progress. The Nhe3-positive ionocytes expressing basolateral Nka and Nkcc1 and apical Nhe3b have been found in both freshwater-and seawater-acclimated rainbow trout. Colocalization of an Rh glycoprotein (Rhcg1, ammonium transporter) and Nhe3b at the apical membrane was also observed, suggesting ammonia-dependent Na+ uptake by Nhe3-positive ionocytes (Hiroi and McCormick 2012). The Nhe3-negative ionocytes, which also lack Nkcc1, are observed mainly in freshwater (Katoh et al. 2008; Hiroi and McCormick 2012). Ncc2, the apical Cl− pathway in tilapia type-II ionocytes, is thought to be absent in the gill of salmonids (Hiroi and McCormick 2012). The Nhe3-positive ionocytes showed basolateral Nka and Nkcc1 both in freshwater and seawater, suggesting that Nhe3-positive ionocytes are analogous to tilapia types-III and-IV and could be equipped with apical Cftr in seawater (Hiroi and McCormick 2012; Takei et al. 2014). However, localization of Cftr proteins by immunohistochemistry has not been successful in salmonids even with homologous antibodies (Takei et al. 2014). The mRNA of slc26a6 has been reported to be highly expressed in the gills of freshwater-acclimated rainbow trout (Boyle et al. 2015; Leguen et al. 2015) and it is very likely that this transporter is responsible for the uptake of Cl− in freshwater, but detailed localization of this protein in the gills has not been elucidated. In short, the molecules responsible for the Cl− transport across the apical membrane have not been identified in both freshwater-and seawater-acclimated rainbow trout.
Salmonids possess two cftr genes, cftr1 and cftr2 (Chen et al. 2001), and it has been reported that the expression level of both genes increases in the gill of chum salmon Oncorhynchus keta after the transfer to seawater during the juvenile stage (Wong et al. 2019). Expression of cftr1 in the gills increased also in rainbow trout after seawater transfer (Gerber et al. 2018). On the other hand, dietary salt loading reduced cftr2 expression in the gill of rainbow trout in freshwater (Kolosov and Kelly 2016). At this time, it is not clear which of these two molecules is mainly responsible for hypo-osmoregulatory Cl− secretion in the gills of salmonids.
The objective of the present study is to examine molecules responsible for the active transport of Cl− in gill ionocytes of rainbow trout. To achieve this goal, we conducted tissue distribution analyses on the expression of slc26a6, cftr1, and cftr2 in rainbow trout acclimated to freshwater or seawater. Time-course changes in the expression of these genes were also examined during seawater transfer. We localized these proteins in the gill filaments of rainbow trout acclimated to freshwater or seawater by whole-mount immunohistochemistry.
