On April 10 th 2019, the Event Horizon Telescope project released the first image ever of a black hole. Five simultaneous press conferences, in Brussels, Taipei, Santiago de Chile, Tokyo and Washington were broadcast live, staging a global media event for astrophysics. Besides the inevitable memes in the so-called social media, more serious press outlets […]
In the last two decades, the easiness in the obtaining of genetic information from patient biological samples, together with the advanced knowledge on the physiological consequences of patient genetic alterations, has transformed the daily clinical practice in our hospitals. As a result, the current use of the precision medicine concept, as disseminated today in the […]
Departamento de Bioquímica y Biología molecular-A, Facultad de Biología, Universidad de Murcia, E-30100 Murcia, Spain * adrian.matencio@um.es Antimicrobial resistance is a problem in our society. Although several authors have focused on seeking new molecules with antimicrobial activity, resistance has increased. Several authors are looking for new antimicrobial substances or seeking to improve the use of […]
The article Weaponized Health Communication: Twitter Bots and Russian Trolls Amplify the Vaccine Debate , published in 2018 , affirms that, despite the great potential of social networks to disseminate objective information, they are often abused in order to disseminate content that may harm health. A direct consequence of the exposure of social network users […]
Being well informed as a citizen or not depends on our ability and motivation to detect falsehood, but also on other social factors that increase or decrease the chances that we are exposed to the correct information. This is the conclusion of the recently published study entitled Sciences audiences, misinformation and fake news . Its […]
Molecular recognition is a critical process for many biological functions and consists in non-covalent binding of different molecules, such as protein-protein, antigen-antibody and many others. The host-guest molecules involved often show a shape complementarity, and one of the leading specification for molecular recognition is that the interaction must be selective, i.e. the host should strongly […]
The term “innovation” has been ubiquitous for decades in many areas of European society. Since Lisbon 2000—and even earlier—the European Union has promoted policies to drive innovation with the intention of restoring to Europe the economic leadership it has undoubtedly lost. Two decades later, we are close to Horizon 2020—at least chronologically speaking. Within the […]
According to the results of the article The spread of true and false news online , which analyzed the posts on Twitter of 3 million people between 2006 and 2017, false news spread on the network faster than the true ones and they have a greater impact. Although many of us know how Twitter works […]
I n the age of bacteria resistant to multiple antibiotics, the so-called superbacteria, it is critical to our future the development of novel therapeutic strategies. Lytic enzymes encoded by bacteriophages – viruses that specifically kill bacteria, also called lysins or enzybiotics, are effective agents for preventing and controlling diseases caused by Gram+ bacteria, including Streptococcus […]
Some heteropolymers can be designed to spontaneously self-assemble in complex pre-determined knotted structures. In the past, we referred to such designable heteropolymers as “bionic proteins”. Here we present an extensive study on self-knotting bionic proteins. As our everyday experience with ropes teaches us, knots form spontaneously in polymer chains of sufficient length and flexibility have […]