One of the priority objectives in autism research is to have a biological marker that allows early, rapid and reliable diagnosis. In the past year there have been several important studies that identified children with autism at ages as early as 6 or 12 months measuring volumetric changes in various regions of the brain or […]
Reported sightings of Tasmanian tigers to be investigated Recent possible sightings have raised hopes that a marsupial known as the Tasmanian tiger, last seen more than 80 years ago, may not be extinct. Researchers with James Cook University in Australia are mounting a search, placing cameras in areas where there have been sightings in an […]
Chemistry • Condensed matter • Materials • Nanotechnology • Physics • Quantum physics
Worldwide research efforts on plasmons and metamaterials have been growing exponentially for the past ten years. Now, Antonio I. Fernández-Domínguez (IFIMAC), Francisco J. García-Vidal (IFIMAC & DIPC), and Luis Martín-Moreno (ICMA) discuss new directions for the future, such as the use of 2D materials and strong coupling phenomena, which are likely to shape the field […]
Can radiotherapy with laser-produced ionizing radiation be an alternative to conventional radiotherapy? Can we deep our understanding of the basic mechanisms of radiation damage? Can we study the very early biological response of the living matter and use this knowledge to design more efficient radiotherapy treatments? Contrary to popular belief, when tumoral tissue is irradiated […]
What determines being left or right handed? As a scientific question might seem irrelevant, but actually handedness is a good example of a brain phenomenon called lateralization which basically refers to the location of certain brain activities in one brain hemisphere or the other (for example, language areas are located in the left hemisphere). There […]
Experiment hopes to shine intense light on hydrogen fuel production Nearly 150 powerful lamps that together produce light more intense than natural sunlight are the focus of the Synlight experiment in Germany that scientists hope can help create hydrogen fuel. Researchers suspect that, with the right setup, the “artificial sun” can create a reaction that […]
Chemistry • Condensed matter • Quantum physics • Theoretical physics
Imagine there exist a material in which an electron could be split into two quasiparticles. These two quasiparticles both would carry electric charge, move in opposite directions but could not move backwards. Furthermore these quasiparticles would be massless. And we can give them a fancy name, Weyl fermions. This seems to be at odds with […]
This article summarizes the Babcock et al . (2017) , recently published in the American Economic Review. Among the different reasons to explain the gender gap in the labor market one is the process by which men and women advance in the workplace, and among the variables that can affect this advance is the time […]
Biology • Biomedicine • Genetics • Medicine • Pharmacy
Patients suffering from rare diseases (defined by the European as those affecting less than 5 in 10000 people) have traditionally been overlooked by pharmaceutical companies. They are usually looking for the next blockbuster drug, so the lack of a large patient pool means they may not generate the revenue needed to justify the R&D financial […]
Special genes help tardigrades survive desiccation The sturdy tardigrade, or water bear, can survive desiccation for years, pulling itself into its exoskeleton and rolling up into a ball. Unique genes create tardigrade-specific intrinsically disordered proteins that protect the water bear’s cells when the creature is dried out. The New York Times Parentage of ancient rocks […]