The identification of previously unknown proteins is a difficult task and often requires to follow unconventional thinking. In my previous post, I have described how the TRPV1 ion channel (formerly known as the capsaicin receptor) was discovered by combining the construction of a cDNA library from primary afferent neurons (DRG neurons) and the functional selection […]
Geometrical structure, lattice periodicity and atomic arrangement are subtly intertwined with the electronic properties of materials. Sub-angstrom changes in the atomic distance are sufficient to modify the physical and chemical properties, such as the band-structure, carrier mobility and the chemical reactivity. The deposition of two-dimensional layered crystals on mechanically stretchable or bendable substrates can produce […]
Today is Monday morning and I am going to my laboratory in Niteroi by ferryboat. I took it from the XV Square of Rio de Janeiro. I am looking through the window of the ferryboat and I see one of the most beautiful pictures of the city – the Guanabara Bay (GB). Cariocas (people from […]
99M-year-old feathered dinosaur tail found in amber The feathered tail of a tiny nonavian dinosaur that lived 99 million years ago has been found encased in amber. Soft tissue and eight vertebrae were preserved in the amber along with the tail, allowing researchers to determine it likely belonged to a young theropod. The New York […]
Doing research in molecular biology is not straightforward, because most of the experimental work is based in the study of molecules which cannot be seen by the unaided eye. Instead, we rely on indirect evidence given by methods which are specific for each area of research. Let’s focus here as an illustrative example at someone […]
Condensed matter • Materials • Nanotechnology • Quantum physics
When we study for the first time the structure of the atom in high school we encounter for the first time the concept of quantum excitation. We learn that excitation is the process in which a nucleus, electron, atom, ion, or molecule acquires energy that raises it to a quantum state (the excited state) higher […]
Flavor is a brain construction: we have olfactory and taste receptors and our central nervous system combines both types of information in what we call flavor. Malaria is an infectious disease affecting humans and other animals caused by parasitic protozoans belonging to the Plasmodium genre. It is transmitted by the bite of the female Anopheles […]
Author: Shu Ning got her BSc degree in Pharmacy from Shenyang Pharmaceutical University (China) in 2014. In 2016, she obtained her Master of Research degree on Clinical Research – Translational Medicine – at Imperial College London (UK) where she has worked on mitochondrial dysfunction in pulmonary smooth muscle cells from Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension. Currently she […]
Vacuum birefringence may have been observed in neutron star A neutron star seen with the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope may have given scientists the first look at a quantum effect predicted back in 1930 but never observed before. “The high linear polarization that we measured with the VLT can’t be easily explained by […]
Proteins were traditionally described as immobilized objects and classified according to the chemical composition (amino acid sequence) or the three-dimensional structure. However, in the seventies, with the idea that “If nothing can move, nothing can function”, Perutz first described the movements hemoglobin must undergo to fulfill its function and after him Frahuendelder revealed a hierarchical […]