Dip. Di Chemica, Università di Torino, via P. Giuria 7, 10125, Torino, Italy * adrian.matencioduran@unito.it The last articles of one of us (Matencio) [1,2,3,4] were about the different uses of a complexing agent called cyclodextrin (CD), a torus-shaped oligosaccharide made up of α-(1,4) linked glucose units, the most common CDs being α, β and γ-CD […]
When we perform Google searches, most of us assume that we all see the same results and that the first ones to appear are the most relevant from links to other pages. However, this is not the case. Since 2009, Google’s algorithm has provided results that are better for you. This personalization of pre-selected and […]
Conspiracy theories are one of the mechanisms to manipulate information intentionally. They present fact-resistant theories and tell unsubstantiated stories that try to explain reality in an alternative way with false information. According to the media context of the second decade of the 21st century, these theories are more visible and have greater reach due to […]
I n a 2017 interview, the famous actress Kate Walsh – whom you may know from the TV show Grey’s anatomy – reported the following: “ I started having more cognitive difficulties. It felt like aphasia [language problems] , but it was not just not being able to find words; I would lose my train […]
Author: Martha Villabona works at Centro Nacional de Innovación e Investigación Educativa (CNIIE) of the Spanish Ministry of Education and Vocational Training, where she coordinates the area of multiple literacies. In the digital world, news are multiplying and causing readers to only choose those headlines that most interest them. This does not happen randomly or […]
Twelve years have passed since the world record for rail speed was set. “Operation V150”, which got its name from the target speed for its testbed trainset, 150 metres per second (540 km/h), occupied from January 2007 to April of the same year a team formed by the french railway operator SNCF, the infrastructure manager […]
Environmental problems and energy resources make it vitally important for the chemical industry to develop more sustainable and less polluting processes. Therefore, using solar energy is one of the most promising alternatives. If we take a look at Nature’s energetic profile, plants are able to use solar energy to convert it into chemical energy and […]
Author: Jose V. Torres-Perez (@Jovitope) is a Postdoctoral Researcher at the School of Biological and Chemical Sciencies, Queen Mary, University of London (UK). This is the story of primary cilium, a cellular structure discovered at least 122 years ago. It was soon regarded as rudimentary and then forgotten for most researchers. Nonetheless, recent advances proved […]
The cerebral cortex is a limited resource. Evolution has employed some impressive tricks to increase the amount of cortex available, such as folding it, therefore getting more surface in the same volume, or putting different things in the left and right hemisphere instead of duplicating them, thus enlarging its capacity to accommodate specific functions such […]
Despite creative efforts to tackle it, belief in conspiracy theories, alternative facts and fake news show no sign of abating. This is clearly a huge problem, as seen when it comes to climate change, vaccines and expertise in general – with anti-scientific attitudes increasingly influencing politics. So why can’t we stop such views from spreading? […]