News Articles

Tiny self-assembling transport networks, powered by nano-scale motors and controlled by DNA, have been developed. And the system can construct its own network of tracks spanning tens of micrometers in length, transport cargo across the network and even dismantle the tracks.
Researchers were inspired by the melanophore, used by fish cells to control their color. Tracks in the network all come from a central point, like the spokes of a bicycle wheel. Motor proteins transport pigment around the network, either concentrating it in the center or spreading it throughout the network. Concentrating pigment in the center makes the cells lighter, as the surrounding space is left empty and transparent.

Ever since the term 'junk DNA' was coined (1) - like the 'God particle' it quickly spun out of control due to colloquial misunderstanding of what it meant scientifically - and even more so when the human genome was decoded and it was discovered that only about 3 percent of the entire genome contains information that encodes for proteins, the question has been, 'what is happening in all that other stuff?'

Scientists have described a new species of scorpion, Euscorpius lycius, from  the regions of the Muğla and Antalya Provinces in Southwestern Turkey, what was once known as ancient Lycia, fought over by Persians and Greeks for centuries due to it being a good source of wheat and timber. The last remaining Greeks were forced to leave after the 1919-1922 war with Turkey.
Euscorpius is a genus of scorpions, commonly called small wood-scorpions. As their name suggest these scorpions don't impress with a large size, the biggest representative being around 5 cm long. The group is widespread in North Africa and across Europe. Euscorpius scorpions are relatively harmless, with poison that has effects similar to a mosquito bite.

'Huh?' - what you tell your children not to say when they did not understand what you just told them - has nonetheless taken over the word. 

Supernovae, those intensely bright objects formed when a star reaches the end of its life, 'start' with a big, expelling most of their material out into space, and it's always interesting when we see it.
Spiral galaxy NGC 6984 played host to one of these explosions back in 2012, SN 2012im. Now, another star has exploded, forming supernova SN 2013ek, which is visible in this image as the prominent, star-like bright object just slightly above and to the right of the galaxy's center.

A new study has affirmed the hypothesis that microorganisms which produce methane swim toward the hydrogen gas they need to stay alive.

The sun emitted its sixth significant flare since Oct. 23, 2013, peaking at 11:26 p.m. EST on Nov. 7, 2013.
Solar flares are powerful bursts of radiation - the radiation from a flare can't pass through Earth's atmosphere to affect us but, when intense enough, they can disturb the atmosphere in the layer where GPS and communications signals travel.
This flare is classified as an X1.1 flare. X-class denotes the most intense flares, while the number provides more information about its strength. An X2 is twice as intense as an X1, an X3 is three times as intense, etc.

First responders working at ground zero in New York City following the 9/11 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center were exposed to cement dust, smoke, glass fibers, and heavy metals.
Research presented at the American Society of Nephrology Kidney Week 2013 in Atlanta, GA say  exposure to high levels of such particulate matter caused significant damage to first responders' kidneys.

The final conference of CO2CARE - CO2 Site Closure Assessment Research - brought together 60 experts from the academic, industrial and regulatory worlds to discuss technologies and procedures for a safe and sustainable closure of geological CO2 storage sites.

An international team of high-energy physicists says the discovery of an electrically charged subatomic particle called Zc(4020) is a sign that they have begun to unveil a whole new family of four-quark objects.  
The Beijing Spectrometer (BESIII) collaboration previously announced the discovery of a four-quark particle called Zc(3900) in April of this year.  The results have come about through a dedicated study of the byproducts of the anomalous Y(4260) particle. 

Outside the companies getting subsidy money from the government, not many people like wind turbines.

You have seen lots of advertisements for causes or companies asking you to 'like' them on Facebook. In the world of pretend Internet money, a 'like' has value but charities know the cold, bleak truth; once people have taken the action you ask for, they feel like they have done their part for a long time, so asking for a 'like' or a 'Tweet' is going to cost a donation.
A new analysis from scholars at the University of British Columbia adds fuel to assertions that social media platforms are turning people into "slacktivists" by making it easy for them to feel like they associate with or have helped a cause without committing resources to support it.