Biochemistry • Chemistry • DIPC Biochemistry • Pharmacy • Quantum chemistry
Fats do far more than store energy. They form the membranes that enclose every cell and act as chemical signals. Cells build and reshape them with enzymes, and one of these, ELOVL6, lengthens fatty acids by two carbon atoms. Embedded […]
Authors: Chloe Noteboom, student of the European Master’s in Clinical Linguistics, EMCL and Adrià Rofes, associate professor of neurolinguistics, University of Groningen. A hypnotist and a neurosurgeon walk into an O.R…. no, there’s not a punchline coming. Hypnosis is a […]
Large language models (LLMs), such as ChatGPT and Claude, are increasingly being used to provide health information to the public. Although this is beneficial for improving access to treatment information, their limitations were revealed by a new study that found […]
A gene identifier enters a spreadsheet and emerges as a date. The transformation can look like a clerical nuisance, remote from the serious business of scientific reasoning. Yet a 2021 study of PubMed Central articles from 2014–2020 found gene name […]
Chemistry • Condensed matter • DIPC Advanced materials • Materials
Graphene, a honeycomb sheet of carbon atoms just one atom thick, was first isolated in 2004 with adhesive tape and a lump of graphite, work that earned a Nobel Prize in 2010. Large sheets of graphene conduct electricity superbly, but […]
As we saw in our last entry, we must grant Gabriel that he does not conceive of the spirit and spiritual as an “immortal soul” or any similar ghostlike entity, but rather as something grounded in human thought—more specifically, in […]
Condensed matter • DIPC Advanced materials • Materials • Quantum physics
When we study solid-state physics, we usually begin with crystals. In a crystal, atoms repeat in a strict and regular pattern, much like tiles on a bathroom floor. Because every small region looks the same as every other, electrons move […]
From the burning of wood to the action of medicines, the properties and behavior of matter are governed by the way chemical elements bond with one another. For many of the 118 known elements, the intricate electronic structures of the […]
Imagine electrons as tiny particles zipping through a material, each carrying two key properties: charge, which powers our everyday electronics, and spin, like a little internal compass needle that points up or down. Charge flow is what we call electric […]
The main ontological thesis of the German philosopher Markus Gabriel could be summed up in the phrase: “the Whole does not exist, but everything exists.” If we replace “the Whole” with a more familiar word (“the world”), the first part […]
Lithium and sodium are neighbours in the periodic table. Both are alkali metals, both have a single electron in their outer shell, and both can be used to shuttle ions between two electrodes to store and release electrical energy. At […]
When I taught physics, chemistry and mathematics to secondary-school and sixth-form students, a correct answer was sometimes where the interesting part began. I would ask why they had used a particular equation. A solution that had looked perfectly sound could […]
One of the ideas most of us learn early in biology is that only a few specialized cells can communicate through electrical signals. Neurons do it. Muscle cells do it. Epithelial cells, the cells that form our skin and line […]
Authors: Mary M. Hausfeld, Assistant Professor in Management, University of Limerick and Jochen Menges, Director of the Center for Leadership in the Future of Work, University of Zurich Who comes to mind when you think of someone emotionally intelligent? Someone […]
Biotechnology • Chemical engineering • Food processing • Microbiology
Probiotics are part of a rapidly expanding field of research. They are live microorganisms that, when administered in adequate amounts, may confer health benefits[1]. Among the most extensively studied probiotics, some species of Lactobacillus and Bifidobacterium have been associated with […]