Charles Lullin knew that the figures and people he was seeing were illusions. It was 1759, Charles Lullin was almost ninety years old and he had lost most of his vision: he was still able to distinguish some objects but he was not able to read or write. A servant used to read him the […]
Biochemistry • Chemistry • Condensed matter • Molecular biology
Nanopore DNA sequencing was one the ten scientific breakthroughs of 2016 highlighted by Science magazine. In principle, graphene is the perfect pore material for DNA sequencing . Its monoatomic thickness of 0.35 nm is similar to the DNA base spacing and graphene nanopores can be fabricated with a diameter of only 1.0 nm, about the […]
Massive crack in Antarctic ice shelf grows The giant crack in the Larsen C Ice Shelf in Antarctica is continuing to grow, threatening to soon break off a large iceberg. The crack has grown about 6.2 miles, or about 10 kilometers, since the beginning of the year. BBC 3D-printed model helps researchers understand ancient portable […]
Predation is a biological interaction between a hunting organism, the predator, and another organism that is hunted, the prey. Predators may hunt actively for prey in pursuit predation, or sit and wait for prey as in ambush predators. In all cases, it is a complex behavior requiring honed skills and perfect and fast coordination among […]
Chemistry • Condensed matter • Materials • Physics • Quantum physics
Faster. That is the word that describes de evolution of electronics. Any new development has to be faster than anything before, if it is going to cope with the huge amount of information that the device where it may be incorporated will have to process in almost no time. Graphene has just demonstrated once again […]
This article summarizes the work by Baker, Bloom and Davis (2016) published in the last issue of the Quarterly Journal of Economics. The economy does not like uncertainty. Or so goes a common saying among economic agents. In fact, economic analysis has formalized this idea at least since the theoretical works of Friedman (1968) and […]
It is said that Washington Irving’s biography of Christopher Columbus, published in 1828, was the work that started the legend that the discoverer of America was the person that convinced the ‘nearly medieval’ Europeans of his time of the sphericity of the earth, a legend that has captured the popular imagination since then. Nothing could […]
Protein found in bacteria can act like a prion A portion of a protein within the microbe Clostridium botulinum can act like a prion when placed into yeast or Escherichia coli. This is the first time prions, which are usually found in plants and animals, have been observed in bacteria. Nature World’s tightest knot created […]
The other day I came across an article about the revolution of cultured meat at El País Semanal, although that was not the first time I read about this. Still, I have to admit is such a shocking subject that I thought it may deserve a post explaining how advanced this technology is at the […]
Carbon has four valence electrons. To fill its octet, it requires four additional electrons, which can be obtained through the formation of four covalent bonds. Carbon forms single, double, and triple bonds to achieve a filled octet. As a result, carbon can have a tetrahedral, trigonal planar, or linear geometry, respectively. A unique feature of […]