Category archives: Technology

Nanotechnology: undermined by the patent system?

Nanotechnology: undermined by the patent system?

Economics

By Silvia Román

Originally, intellectual property legislation was created on the assumption that the profits derived from the monopoly of the patented inventions would encourage innovation and thus promote economic growth. This is one of many hypotheses that the vast majority of economists have ever considered as intuitive. Accordingly, it is generally believed that the patent system is […]

MI weekly selection #51

MI weekly selection #51

Humanities & Social SciencesScienceTechnologyWeekly Selection

By César Tomé

Specially shaped snouts help seahorses sneak up on their prey Seahorses have a nose for prey; their unique snouts are shaped to create very little disturbance in the water, allowing them to stealthily pounce on their intended meal, according to a study published in Nature Communications. “The seahorse is one [of] the slowest swimming fish […]

MI weekly selection #50

MI weekly selection #50

Humanities & Social SciencesScienceTechnologyWeekly Selection

By César Tomé

Strawberry poison frogs pass on chemical defense to offspring Strawberry poison frogs provide chemical defenses to their tadpoles by feeding them eggs spiked with alkaloids. Researchers measured alkaloid content in the frogs during different stages of development, separating them into two groups — one in which tadpoles were reared and fed by their mothers and […]

MI weekly selection #49

MI weekly selection #49

Humanities & Social SciencesScienceTechnologyWeekly Selection

By César Tomé

Researchers try to figure out sea worm’s blue glow Researchers are a step closer to figuring out why a common sea worm glows blue on the shallow seafloors it calls home, thanks to a pair of experiments conducted by biologists at Scripps Institution of Oceanography. First, they found that the worm, unlike other light-emitting organisms […]

MI weekly selection #48

MI weekly selection #48

Humanities & Social SciencesScienceTechnologyWeekly Selection

By César Tomé

China’s Forbidden City had rocks transported via ice sheets. The massive stones used to build parts of China’s Forbidden City in the 15th century were pulled by several hundred workers more than 40 miles on sledges across artificial ice, researchers say. China had discovered the wheel, but a sign at the Forbidden City hinted that […]

MI weekly selection #46

MI weekly selection #46

Humanities & Social SciencesScienceTechnologyWeekly Selection

By César Tomé

Cassini images add clues to Titan’s weather cycle New photos from NASA’s Cassini spacecraft are giving researchers clues to the weather cycle of Titan, one of Saturn’s moons. By studying previous images, scientists think Titan has a hydrologic cycle, in which hydrocarbons rain onto the surface filling the lakes and then evaporating back into the […]

Carnivorous plants inspire novel liquid repellent surfaces

Carnivorous plants inspire novel liquid repellent surfaces

ChemistryMaterialsPhysics

By Mireia Altimira

Natural non-wetting structures, particularly lotus leaves (Fig. 1a), have inspired the development of synthetic liquid-repellent surfaces. These surfaces rely on the formation of a stable air–liquid interface, but present limited repellency to oils with high contact angle hysteresis, failure under pressure and inability to self-heal. The paper by Wong et al. presents a novel approach […]

Melodies of proteins

Melodies of proteins

BiochemistryMaterials

By Silvia Román

The way in which nature manages to create functional diversity in matter is probably the wisest guide for biomaterials engineers, who are always looking for new creative processes to come up with new materials. The conventional way of designing complex materials with new functionalities is explained by the so-called top-down approach , in which a […]