Science

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Blue Bursts of Hot Young Stars Captured by Hubble

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Temp-controlled 'nanopores' may allow detailed blood analysis

Tiny biomolecular chambers called nanopores that can be selectively heated may help doctors diagnose disease more effectively if recent research by a team at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), Wheaton College, and Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) proves effective. Though the findings* may be years away from application in the clinic, they may one day improve doctors' ability to search the bloodstream quickly for indicators of disease—a longstanding goal of medical research.

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By tethering gold nanoparticles (large spheres in top image) to the nanopore (violet), the temperature around the nanopore can be changed quickly and precisely with laser light, allowing scientists to distinguish between similar molecules in the pore that behave differently under varied temperature conditions.

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University of Illinois researchers develop novel technique for chemical identification at the nanometer scale

For more than 20 years, researchers have been using atomic force microscopy (AFM) to measure and characterize materials at the nanometer scale. However AFM-based measurements of chemistry and chemical properties of materials were generally not possible, until now.

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Atomic force microscope infrared spectroscopy (AFM-IR) of polymer nanostructures.

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Russian Scientists Might Have Found New Life Under Antarctic Ice

Russian scientists say they might have found new life forms in a fresh-water Antarctic lake that has been sealed off from the world for 14 million years.

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Measuring the Universe More Accurately Than Ever Before — New results pin down the distance to the galaxy next door

New results pin down the distance to the galaxy next door

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Biobatteries catch breath

An air-breathing bio-battery has been constructed by researchers from the Institute of Physical Chemistry of the Polish Academy of Sciences in Warsaw. The core element providing the new power source with relatively high voltage and long lifetime is a carefully designed cathode taking up oxygen from air and composed of an enzyme, carbon nanotubes and silicate.

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New air-breathing cathode for miniaturised biofuel cells, developed by a team of researchers from the Institute of Physical Chemistry of the Polish Academy of Sciences in Warsaw. The cathode consumes oxygen from air. Pictured above: Adrianna Złoczewska, a PhD student at the IPC PAS.

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Comet PANSTARRS Rises to the Occasion Mid-March

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For those in search of comet L4 PANSTARRS, look to the west after sunset in early and mid-March. This graphic shows the comet's expected positions in the sky.

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NASA Mission Helps Craft 3-D Image Of Buried Mars Flood Channels

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This illustration schematically shows where the Shallow Radar instrument on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter detected flood channels that had been buried by lava flows in the Elysium Planitia region of Mars.

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Measuring the Universe More Accurately Than Ever Before

After nearly a decade of careful observations an international team of astronomers has measured the distance to our neighbouring galaxy, the Large Magellanic Cloud, more accurately than ever before. This new measurement also improves our knowledge of the rate of expansion of the Universe — the Hubble Constant — and is a crucial step towards understanding the nature of the mysterious dark energy that is causing the expansion to accelerate. The team used telescopes at ESO’s La Silla Observatory in Chile as well as others around the globe.

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Stressed proteins can cause blood clots for hours: Physicists probe stress-induced changes in clot-forming protein

New research from Rice University, Baylor College of Medicine (BCM) and the Puget Sound Blood Center (PSBC) has revealed how stresses of flow in the small blood vessels of the heart and brain could cause a common protein to change shape and form dangerous blood clots. The scientists were surprised to find that the proteins could remain in the dangerous, clot-initiating shape for up to five hours before returning to their normal, healthy shape.

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Rice University researchers in the lab of Ching-Hwa Kiang use the bobbing needle from an atomic force microscope to grab and pull individual protein molecules. By stretching the proteins, Kiang's team can measure the precise physical forces that shape them.

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