Author: Roberto Rey Agudo, Research Assistant Professor of Spanish and Portuguese, Dartmouth College The idea of a humanlike artificial intelligence assistant that you can speak with has been alive in many people’s imaginations since the release of “Her,” Spike Jonze’s 2013 film about a man who falls in love with a Siri-like AI named Samantha […]
Authors: Joëlle Vanhamme, Professor of Marketing, EDHEC Business School, and Valerie Swaen, Professor of Marketing and Corporate Social Responsibility, Université catholique de Louvain Is renting clothes instead of buying them truly better for the planet? As the textile industry faces growing scrutiny for its environmental impact, clothing rental services promise consumers the opportunity to refresh […]
Scientists have long puzzled over how pterosaurs became the first vertebrates to master flight. Some pterosaur species, such as the Quetzalcoatlus were the largest known animals to ever take to the skies, with wingspans of over ten meters (on par with military aircraft like the Spitfire). My team’s new study may help solve the evolutionary […]
Two-dimensional (2D) materials have become a centrepiece of modern materials science, captivating researchers with their electronic, mechanical, and optical properties. Since Geim and Novoselov discovered the exfoliation technique in 2004, thousands of 2D materials have been discovered, synthesised, or predicted. In particular, anisotropic 2D materials display direction-dependent characteristics, promising cutting-edge applications in flexible electronics and […]
Hematopoietic stem cells (HSC) accumulate somatic mutations during ageing in healthy individuals . Despite most of these mutations are inconsequential, some HSC can acquire specific mutations providing a competitive advantage leading to a process known as “clonal hematopoiesis of indeterminant potential” (CHIP) . The most common CHIP mutations affects to DNMT3A and TET2 genes and […]
Physics, a cornerstone of engineering and science degrees, often becomes a daunting hurdle for many first-year students. Abstract concepts like Ohm’s Law or Lorentz Force, essential for any student, are frequently perceived as distant and disconnected from real-world applications. This classic challenge (physics courses being among the hardest) plays a significant role in academic failure […]
Author: Ramón Muñoz-Chápuli has been Professor of Animal Biology in the University of Málaga until his retirement. He has investigated for forty years in the fields of developmental biology and animal evolution. On December 12th, the British newspaper The Guardian published the following headline: “An Unprecedented Risk to Life on Earth“ The article wasn’t about […]
Authors: Pere Monràs i Riera, PhD candidate, Universitat de Barcelona and Elisenda Ballesté, assistant professor in Microbiology, Universitat de Barcelona Antarctica, the world’s most remote, harsh and pristine continent, is not free from marine pollution. Where human activity goes, plastic debris inevitably follows. What might the early explorers of this icy wilderness think today, upon […]
Author: Lluís Montoliu , researcher, Centro Nacional de Biotecnología (CNB – CSIC, Spain) Garfield, star of the eponymous comic strip created by Jim Davis in 1978, is, like many of the cats that roam our homes, orange. He is orange in the same way that some people are redheaded, some horses are brown, or some […]
T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia (T-ALL) is a devastating disease of T-cell progenitors that mainly affects children and young adults. Numerous genomic alterations are known to induce survival, proliferation, and differentiation of T-ALL cells . The interactions between leukemic cells and their microenvironment are known factors that contribute to T-ALL pathogenesis. The bone marrow (BM) microenvironment […]