Category archives: Science

MI weekly selection #110

MI weekly selection #110

Humanities & Social SciencesScienceTechnologyWeekly Selection

By César Tomé

Researchers develop memory system with 900+ neurons, 165K synapses Researchers at IBM’s Almaden Research Center and South Korea’s Pohang University of Science and Technology have developed a phase-change memory chip with more than 900 neurons and 165,000 synapses that can emulate how the human brain functions, promising to advance image-recognition technology and other areas of […]

Contact lenses to monitor glucose levels: A sweet solution for diabetic patients?

Contact lenses to monitor glucose levels: A sweet solution for diabetic patients?

BiochemistryBiomedicineMedicine

By Jaime de Juan Sanz

Diabetes is becoming a huge problem in our society, affecting nowadays one in every 20 people in this planet. Although some people don’t know, diabetes is a very serious disease that can cause damage in the heart, blood vessels, eyes, kidneys and nerves, producing different neuropathies, kidney failures, blindness and increasing in the risk of […]

MI weekly selection #108

MI weekly selection #108

Science

By César Tomé

Human primordial germ cells created in a lab Scientists have found a way to create human primordial germ cells, or PGCs, in a lab. The research stresses they are significantly different than those of mice, calling into question the efficacy of mouse experiments as related to human cell development. Scientists reprogrammed human embryonic stem cells […]

MI’s 2014: the ten most read articles

MI’s 2014: the ten most read articles

Humanities & Social SciencesScienceTechnology

By César Tomé

At this time of the year it seems appropiate to look back and check whatever has been achieved. 2014 has been a good year for MI, with contributors located in 3 continents and 36 different academic institutions (ranging, alphabetically, from Cornell University in United States to Waseda University in Japan), publishing 153 articles. Thank you […]

MI wekly selection #106

MI wekly selection #106

Humanities & Social SciencesScienceTechnologyWeekly Selection

By César Tomé

What ‘hok’ and ‘krak’ mean to monkeys The structure of monkey calls is surprisingly sophisticated: The same species of monkeys—located in separate geographic regions—use their alarm calls differently to warn of approaching predators. Futurity.org Life would drastically change if all bacteria disappeared Living for a time without bacteria is possible, but probably not very pleasant […]

RNAs, proteins, Listeria and cells: the microbial version of the Russian doll game

RNAs, proteins, Listeria and cells: the microbial version of the Russian doll game

GeneticsMicrobiology

By Ignacio López-Goñi

Listeria monocytogenes is a food-borne Gram positive bacteria that causes the infection listeriosis. It is responsible for serious clinical manifestations including gastroenteritis, and meningitis and encephalitis in newborns, with 20 to 30 % of clinical infections resulting in death. It is a facultative intracellular pathogen that can invade and move within eukaryotic cells by polymerization […]

The Naked Brain

The Naked Brain

MaterialsNeuroscience

By Sergio Laínez

The human brain is arguably the most fascinating organ found in nature. Its complexity has been known since Santiago Ramón y Cajal pioneering work showed the central nervous system (CNS) was a contiguous neuronal network where neuron is the basic unit as opposed to the view of the brain being a single continuous network (reticulum) […]

MI weekly selection #105

MI weekly selection #105

ScienceTechnologyWeekly Selection

By César Tomé

Joint oscillation of Jupiter, sun might detect gravitational waves The joint oscillation of the sun and Jupiter might hold the key to detecting gravitational waves. Oscillations from Jupiter in 2011 were detected in frequencies that matched the sun’s. Researcher Ibrahim Semiz suggests that the oscillations might have been caused by gravitational waves, and other researchers […]