Materials scientists are quite used to looking at nature to find inspiration for new designs and functionalities. The living world is full of complex and sophisticated materials (from bones and seashells to cartilage and skin) that provide the most varied and extraordinary properties and functions. We have paid attention to this strategy of ‘architecturing materials’ […]
Hint of our solar system’s future observed A planet the size of Jupiter circling a deceased white dwarf star about 6,500 light-years from Earth is offering a glimpse of what may happen when the sun burns out roughly 5 billion years from now. Researchers were surprised to discover that the gas giant survived its sun-like […]
The capacity of creating an electronic bonding network between localized units would be key to enhance the critical temperature in hydrogen-based superconductors, according to recent results. The field of hydrogen-based superconductivity has progressed enormously since 1968, when Ashcroft first proposed that pressurized hydrogen may become a high-temperature superconductor due to the high energy of its […]
The reason that ibuprofen treats headaches and ice cream tastes sweet is that their chemical components fit perfectly into certain receptors in your body. The better a drug or flavor molecule fits with its matching receptor, the more effective the medicine or tastier the treat. But an interesting quirk of nature is that many […]
Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, there were hints at particular genes which increased some people’s susceptibility to get infected and the severity of illness once infected. Now, an international study (nearly 3500 researchers from 25 countries) on more than 45000 people infected with SARS-CoV-2, showed a link between 13 genetic variants and the […]
Mysterious space object has dual personality A space object called 2005 QN173 is both a comet and an asteroid, according to a study set for publication in The Astrophysical Journal Letters. The object is icy, leaves a dust trail like a comet and has an orbit of an asteroid, circling the sun on the outer […]
CFM • DIPC • DIPC Photonics
Plasmonic cavities formed by metallic surfaces are nanostructures that confine light to dimensions far smaller than the free-space wavelength, as they mix optical fields with electronic excitations. I t was not until the 1990s, with the appearance of accurate and reliable nanofabrication techniques, that plasmonics blossomed. It was found then that local fields around nanostructures […]
You will have read and heard a lot of times that we are living in a new geological period, that has been baptized as ‘the Anthopocene’: the age of the Earth in which our species has become the predominant force in the shaping of the planet’s geological features. Well, perhaps ‘predominant’ is too strong a […]
A significant portion of an organism’s genome is non-coding; that is, it does not carry information to make proteins. Part of the non-coding DNA is transcribed into functional non-coding RNA molecules (e.g., transfer RNA, ribosomal RNA and regulatory RNA). Other functions of non-coding DNA include transcriptional and translational regulation of protein coding sequences, nuclear scaffold […]
Deep canyons on Mars created by ancient floods Deep canyons and valleys on Mars were likely carved by flooding caused by overflowing lakes billions of years ago. “Our results show that many Martian valleys are in fact more analogous to catastrophic floods on Earth, such as those that shaped the northwest United States at the […]