The way we approach pain therapies doesn’t differ from the ones taken for other diseases. The aim is to look for molecular targets, which can be suitable for chemical intervention thoroughly assessing both efficacy and safety profiles for the drug, issues that are addressed throughout various stages of clinical trials. In the specific case of […]
In an electromagnetic wave, the direction of the electric field is perpendicular to the direction of propagation of the wave. We say the wave is circularly polarized if the tip of the vector that represents the electric field describes a circular helix (thus circular polarization is sometimes called helicity) about the direction of propagation. Waves […]
Most famous RNAs are coding or messenger RNAs (mRNAs) which are the ones that ribosomes read to synthesize proteins. However, many other RNAs are transcribed from DNA and are known as non-coding RNAs. Among those, ribosomic RNAs (rRNAs) which are part of the ribosomes and transfer RNAs (tRNAs) which deliver the amino acids to the […]
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Researchers swap yeast genes for human ones, create new strains Scientists switched out genetic material in yeast and replaced it with human versions to see if the yeast would survive and grow — and it did, leading to hundreds of new strains. Researchers hope the efforts will lead to new methods of studying genetic diseases […]
The human brain continues its development postnatally. It is a long process that extends throughout, at least, the first two decades of life. Along these years, environmental factors influence brain functions and, not surprisingly because of its high plasticity, brain structure. Among the variables that may affect the cognitive development is the socioeconomic status. Three […]
An electric current can be visualized as a flow of electrons through a conducting piece of material. The less the resistance the material structure opposes to the flow of electrons the better a conductor it is. A part of this resistance appears at the surface of the material, where the electrons first encounter it; as […]
This is the second of the series of articles on the geometry of String Theory compactifications. Before reading this note, the interested reader may want to read the first note, where the concept of compactification background is introduced in the context of String Theory and M-Theory compactifications. As it is well known, to be well-defined […]
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A extremely rare set of 4 quasars Astronomers have spotted an extremely rare grouping of four quasars within about 650,000 light-years of space. The odds against finding four so close together are 10 million to one. The rare quartet exists in an unusually bright nebula that has scientists scratching their heads as well. National Geographic […]
Mechanics and thermodynamics are two of the main pillars of physics. Mechanics, the branch of physics that studies movement, is considered to be well established since the publication of Isaac Newton’s Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica (1687). Thermodynamics, the science dealing with heat and temperature, enjoyed its golden age in the 19th century, and was the […]
One of the main features of a F1 car is aerodynamics. How the car minimizes the drag imposed by the fact it is moving through a fluid, air, and how it takes advantage of the forces this movement generates to keep it stuck to the track, are most important for its performance. Even though the […]