As bea u tiful as it is, the natural world has always been a tough place to live in. Since their dawn, nearly 4 billion years ago, living organisms have faced a myriad of threats to their existence which have seen the majority of those who ever existed to perish. Only those organisms that managed […]
A crystal lattice is formed by a repeated arrangement of atoms, ions, or molecules. Due to the enormous amount of atoms involved it is extremely unlikely that all these will be arranged in perfect order. Some atoms will not be exactly in the right place with the result that the lattice will contain defects. The […]
After the big scandal of the CRISPR babies at the end of 2018, some might have thought that would be the end of CRISPR in the clinic, but luckily that has not been the case and despite the public outrage of last year, today we can report on its successful use as gene therapy against […]
You have probably heard before about the origin of the word salary. Indeed, it comes from the allowance that Roman soldiers received to purchase salt. The trace left on the language tells about the importance it had. There is no doubt about the key role salt had for the preservation of food. Analogously, words derived […]
Quantum simulators—systems that can be engineered and manipulated at will—are useful platforms for verifying model Hamiltonians and understanding more complex or elusive quantum systems. The ability to trap and control particles with the help of well-controlled electromagnetic fields has led to revolutionary advances in the fields of biology, condensed- matter physics, high-precision spectroscopy, and quantum […]
The concept of mean free path is very simple and straightforward: the average distance travelled between collisions by the molecules in a gas, the electrons in a metallic crystal, the neutrons in a moderator, etc. Assuming a couple of things about, for example, how elastic collisions are, it is not difficult to arrive to formulas […]
Good news everyone! A newly discovered type of hepatic cell might hold the key to repair all those old fatty livers without needing a transplant. And not only those but also those of people suffering from side effects of medication, cancer etc etc But let’s try not to get ahead of ourselves. A team of […]
Packaging is essential to preserve the food quality and safety and to extend the shelf life of the stored product reducing the food waste. In this sector, plastics are the material of choice because they are cheap, lightweight and easy to process. The main requirement for packaging materials is to maintain the food in good […]
Man does not live by hardware alone. Indeed, great material and conceptual improvements in the machinery of optical microscopes have occurred in recent decades. The examples are numerous (some example here; https://mappingignorance.org/2013/12/23/bessel-beam-plane-illumination-microscopy-another-smart-solution-for-an-old-challenge/). However, what is being achieved only with software and computing power seems a matter of magic. It is not only that programs and […]
Coffee is one of the most widely consumed drinks in the world. Several brewing methods can be used to prepare it depending on the consumer’s taste – or the lack of it – as well as cultural and geographical habits. My father, for example, had a ritual every time he wanted a coffee. He took […]