News tagged with organic systems

Turning DNA into a hard drive

Silicon-based computers are fine for typing term papers and surfing the Web, but scientists want to make devices that can work on a far smaller scale, recording data within individual cells. One way to do that is to create ...

Biology / Cell & Microbiology

created Jun 01, 2012 | popularity 5 / 5 (2) | comments 0

The environment and pharmaceuticals and personal care products: What are the big questions?

Researchers at the University of York headed a major international review aimed at enhancing efforts to better understand the impacts of chemicals used in pharmaceuticals or in personal care products, such as cosmetics, soaps, ...

Space & Earth / Environment

created May 30, 2012 | popularity 5 / 5 (2) | comments 0

Fabrication of new elastic 'soft capsule' using nano-sized flakes

A research group headed by MANA Scientist Dr. Qingmin Ji of the National Institute for Materials Science (Japan), in joint study with Prof. Frank Caruso of the University of Melbourne, developed a new elastic ...

Nanotechnology / Bio & Medicine

created May 30, 2012 | popularity not rated yet | comments 0

New study finds titan cells protect Cryptococcus

Giant cells called "titan cells" protect the fungus Cryptococcus neoformans during infection, according to two University of Minnesota researchers. Kirsten Nielsen, Ph.D., an assistant professor in the department of microb ...

Biology / Cell & Microbiology

created May 28, 2012 | popularity 4.3 / 5 (3) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

A cell's first steps: Building a model to explain how cells grow

A collaboration between Lehigh University physicists and University of Miami biologists addresses an important fundamental question in basic cell biology: How do living cells figure out when and where to grow?

Biology / Cell & Microbiology

created May 18, 2012 | popularity 5 / 5 (2) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Image: Saturn's brightly reflective moon Enceladus

(Phys.org) -- A brightly reflective Enceladus appears before Saturn's rings, while the planet's larger moon Titan looms in the distance.

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

created May 11, 2012 | popularity 5 / 5 (2) | comments 0

Biologists predict extinction for organisms with poor quality genes

Evolutionary biologists at the University of Toronto have found that individuals with low-quality genes may produce offspring with even more inferior chromosomes, possibly leading to the extinction of certain ...

Biology / Evolution

created Apr 16, 2012 | popularity 3 / 5 (2) | comments 3 | with audio podcast

Water, water everywhere – but is it essential to life?

Proteins are large organic molecules that are vital to every living thing, allowing us to convert food into energy, supply oxygen to our blood and muscles, and drive our immune systems. Since proteins evolved in a water-rich ...

Chemistry / Biochemistry

created Apr 13, 2012 | popularity 4 / 5 (6) | comments 7 | with audio podcast

North American rivers are a sizable source of atmospheric carbon

To fulfill the need for an ever more accurate and complete understanding of the flow of carbon through the Earth system, a flurry of research has taken place in the past decade on previously overlooked aspects of the carbon ...

Space & Earth / Earth Sciences

created Mar 31, 2012 | popularity 4 / 5 (8) | comments 0

Is it snowing microbes on Enceladus?

There's a tiny moon orbiting beyond Saturn's rings that's full of promise, and maybe -- just maybe -- microbes.

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

created Mar 28, 2012 | popularity 4.8 / 5 (12) | comments 4 | with audio podcast

TARA OCEANS completes 60,000-mile journey to map marine biodiversity

The two-and-a-half-year TARA OCEANS expedition finishes on 31 March when the ship and crew reach Lorient, France. The arrival completes a journey of 60 000 miles across all the world's major oceans to sample ...

Space & Earth / Environment

created Mar 27, 2012 | popularity not rated yet | comments 0

Researchers develop new method for the production of microlenses

Inspired from Mother Nature: The body of the brittlestar Ophiocoma wendtii is studded with tiny crystalline lenses made of calcium carbonate. Microlenses like these are of great interest technologically, yet th ...

Physics / Condensed Matter

created Mar 26, 2012 | popularity 5 / 5 (3) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

How muscle cells seal their membranes

Every cell is enclosed by a thin double layer of lipids that separates the distinct internal environment of the cell from the extracellular space. Damage to this lipid bilayer, also referred to as plasma membrane, ...

Biology / Cell & Microbiology

created Mar 14, 2012 | popularity 4 / 5 (1) | comments 0

Researchers replicate slime mold with brainless amoeboid robot that can move toward an attractant

(PhysOrg.com) -- Takuya Umedachi has been working for several years to build a robot that can replicate the simple actions of the common slime mold, an organism that can move towards something it desires without ...

Electronics / Robotics

created Mar 14, 2012 | popularity 3.7 / 5 (3) | comments 4 | with audio podcast weblog

Researcher uses medical imaging technology to better understand fish senses

University of Rhode Island marine biologist Jacqueline Webb gets an occasional strange look when she brings fish to the Orthopedics Research Lab at Rhode Island Hospital. While the facility's microCT scanner is typically ...

Biology / Plants & Animals

created Mar 12, 2012 | popularity not rated yet | comments 0