Category archives: Science

MI weekly selection #76

MI weekly selection #76

Humanities & Social SciencesScienceTechnologyWeekly Selection

By César Tomé

Study of extinct elephant bird leads researchers to surprising conclusion DNA studies of the massive, extinct elephant bird of Madagascar show that its closest modern relative is New Zealand’s tiny kiwi, rather than the ostrich, which it more closely resembles, leading researchers to speculate about how the flightless birds migrated, according to a study published […]

MI weekly selection #75

MI weekly selection #75

Humanities & Social SciencesScienceTechnologyWeekly Selection

By César Tomé

Plant that consumes nickel found in the Philippines A plant that thrives in nickel-rich dirt has been discovered in the Philippines. Rinorea niccolifera can absorb large amounts of nickel through its leaves. UPI Regrown bone in monkeys using pluripotent stem cells It could be possible to grow new bone in humans using induced pluripotent stem […]

The birth of computational Quantum Gravity?

The birth of computational Quantum Gravity?

Computer sciencePhysicsQuantum physics

By Mario Herrero-Valea

Of all the advances made in theoretical physics in the last twenty years, I still have no doubt that the most impressive one is the so called Maldacena’s conjecture, the guess that the physics involved in some models of quantum gravity living in a very concrete 5-dimensional spacetime has a one-to-one correspondence with the physics […]

MI weekly selection #74

MI weekly selection #74

Humanities & Social SciencesScienceTechnologyWeekly Selection

By César Tomé

Turtles more closely related to crocodiles and birds than snakes and lizards The murky evolutionary history of the turtle has been made a little clearer by researchers using new microRNA data which link the shelled reptiles more closely with birds and crocodiles than to lizards and snakes. Yale University Universe’s evolution recreated in computer simulation […]

DNA replication: how a job is well done in just a few hours

DNA replication: how a job is well done in just a few hours

BiologyGenetics

By Daniel Moreno Andrés

Think on a cell, it is alive and, among other things, it lives to reproduce itself. The paradigm of cell division is the mitosis, a wonderful dance orchestrated to equitably distribute the possessions of the mother cell: molecular structures, machinery and, especially, the genetic material. Prior to distribute, a good mother always amasses a fortune […]

Exocomets

Exocomets

Planetary Science

By Santiago Pérez-Hoyos

Comets are one of the key components of our Solar System, at least for the Earth’s evolution and humankind point of view. While the inner region of our system was depleted in volatiles due to the high temperatures close to the Sun, the left overs in the outer borders retained water and other condensables in […]