Article archives

How maternal vaginal microbiome can bring you to madness

How maternal vaginal microbiome can bring you to madness

BiologyBiomedicineMicrobiologyNeurobiology

By Raúl Delgado-Morales

Maternal and paternal stress have been proved to be critical aspects of off-spring brain development. High levels of stress on pregnant mothers can alter both placental and embryonic gene expression patterns, misprogramming the brain of the newborn towards psychiatric disorders such as anxiety or depression. At the same level, paternal stress alters microRNAs and other […]

MI weekly selection #300

MI weekly selection #300

Weekly Selection

By César Tomé

Flu outbreaks likely influenced by city size, crowding A city itself influences the contours of its flu season – whether flu cases rise to a wintertime peak or plateau from fall to spring. ScienceNews Review shows vitamin D does not prevent falls, fractures A review of data from 81 studies found vitamin D supplements do […]

How to build structures atom by atom using a scanning transmission electron microscope

How to build structures atom by atom using a scanning transmission electron microscope

Condensed matterMaterialsNanotechnology

By DIPC

“What would happen if we could arrange the atoms one by one the way we want them?” Richard Feynman Fabrication of matter atom by atom remains a long-standing dream and ultimate goal of nanotechnology, following the famous challenge by Feynman 58 years ago. For 30 years, the atom-by-atom fabrication remained the province of visionary thinking […]

Gold Open Access Journals: From scientists’ “publish or perish” to publishers’ “publish to get rich”

Gold Open Access Journals: From scientists’ “publish or perish” to publishers’ “publish to get rich”

Philosophy of scienceSociology

By Invited Researcher

I’m a man slowly sliding into the old age. Being a scientist (a simple science worker), this means that for decades I’ve become familiar with the uncomfortable feeling of struggling to adapt to a constant, quick change of everything. In the very beginning of my career, still an undergrad, I joined a lab where my […]

Molecular mechanisms underlying the link between cannabis abuse and schizophrenia

Molecular mechanisms underlying the link between cannabis abuse and schizophrenia

HealthMolecular biologyPharmacy

By Invited Researcher

Author: Leyre Urigüen is a researcher at the Department of Pharmacology, University of the Basque Country UPV/EHU and Centro de Investigación Biomédica en Red de Salud Mental CIBERSAM Cannabis, also called marijuana, is a drug that comes from the plant Cannabis sativa (hemp plant). The plant contains more than 400 different chemicals, of which approximately […]

MI weekly selection #299

MI weekly selection #299

Weekly Selection

By César Tomé

Huge Jurassic-period dinosaur had crouching posture An enormous Jurassic-period dinosaur that walked on all fours with an unusual crouching posture has been described in a new study after its remains were fully unearthed last year. The 200 million-year-old sauropodomorph has been dubbed Ledumahadi mafube, which translates to “a giant thunderclap at dawn.” Live Science Mayan […]

Structurally well-defined boundaries in a fully accessible quantum spin Hall insulator

Structurally well-defined boundaries in a fully accessible quantum spin Hall insulator

MaterialsNanotechnologyQuantum physics

By DIPC

Imagine that we have a conductor or a semiconductor through which a current is flowing. Then we apply a strong transverse magnetic field. As a result, we can measure a potential difference at right angles to both the current and the field caused by the deflection of charge carriers by the field. This effect was […]

Genetics of educational attainment

Genetics of educational attainment

GeneticsNeurobiology

By José Ramón Alonso

Educational attainment, the years a person spends within the education system, generates interest among scientists because statistical analysis shows that there is a relationship between that value and different aspects of life including income when adults, state of health and even life expectancy. Geneticists analyze trends that can explain variations within a population by exploring […]

MI weekly selection #298

MI weekly selection #298

Weekly Selection

By César Tomé

Plastisphere studies reveal myriad microbes that may one day clean it up Oceanographer Maria-Luiza Pedrotti and her research team are studying the plastisphere — plastic waste and its byproducts — in the Pacific Ocean and Mediterranean Sea to identify the microbes that populate plastic and determine their biological activities to understand how they affect the […]