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 […]
The study of the formation and evolution of galaxies through cosmic time has been addressed in the last decades by understanding how their physical properties leave footprints in the spectral energy distribution. Both the analysis of the light coming from stars and the ionized interstellar gas can be converted by well-known recipes to physical quantities […]
The eastern North American population of monarch butterflies are famous for their annual, multi-generational, round-trip migration from the oyamel fir forests of Central Mexico through the United States to Canada and back. Sadly, the population of monarch butterflies is declining, and the future of the monarch migratory phenomenon is uncertain. Scientists can study migrations by […]
Author: Martha R. Villabona works at Subdirección General de Cooperación Territorial e Innovación Educativa of the Spanish Ministry of Education and Vocational Training, where she coordinates the area of multiple literacies. Communication trough networks has changed how relationships between governments, citizens, politicians and other social actors develop. This form of communication, interconnection and interaction is […]
Humans walked the Americas earlier than once thought Archaeologists have uncovered footprints in New Mexico that date back as much as 23,000 years, suggesting humans traversed the Americas much earlier than previously believed. The 61 footprints, described in the journal Science, were found near a dry lake bed and hint that humans were trying to […]