During the Industrial Revolution, factories began relying on machines rather than people for mass production. Amidst the societal changes, standardization crept in, from ensuring nuts and bolts were made identically to maintain ...
Biotechnology
Aug 9, 2017
0
15
Microbes are invisible to the naked eye, but play key roles in maintaining the planet's biogeochemical cycles. In the Earth's subsurface, microbes have adapted to thrive in the relatively stable extreme conditions. To learn ...
Cell & Microbiology
Aug 1, 2017
0
3
The number of microbes in a handful of soil exceeds the number of stars in the Milky Way galaxy, but researchers know less about what's on Earth because they have only recently had the tools to deeply explore what is just ...
Biotechnology
Jun 12, 2017
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24
One of the biggest barriers in the commercial production of sustainable biofuels is to cost-effectively break down the bioenergy crops into sugars that can then be converted into fuel. To reduce this barrier, bioenergy researchers ...
Cell & Microbiology
May 26, 2017
0
47
Just four letters—A, C, T, and G—make up an organism's genetic code. Changing a single letter, or base, can lead to changes in protein structures and functions, impacting an organism's traits. In addition, though, subtler ...
Biotechnology
May 8, 2017
0
27
Viruses have a ubiquitous presence in the world. Their population is estimated to be 1031, 10 times greater than the nonillion (1030) of microbes on the planet—a figure that surpasses the number of stars in the Milky Way. ...
Cell & Microbiology
Apr 6, 2017
1
102
Synthetic DNA allows scientists to expand the breadth and depth of their genomic research. In this study researchers from the U.S. Department of Energy Joint Genome Institute (DOE JGI) have developed a suite of build-optimization ...
Biotechnology
Mar 15, 2017
0
6
Orchids are an example of an experimentally tractable plant that is highly dependent on its relationship with its mycorrhizal fungal partners for nutrient supply. In this recent study, researchers for the first time identified ...
Biotechnology
Mar 7, 2017
0
17
In the world of fungi, Aspergillus is an industrial superstar. Aspergillus niger, for example, has been used for decades to produce citric acid—a compound frequently added to foods and pharmaceuticals —through fermentation ...
Biotechnology
Feb 28, 2017
0
261
For proteins, appearance matters. These important molecules largely form a cell's structures and carry out its functions: proteins control growth and influence mobility, serve as catalysts, and transport or store other molecules. ...
Biotechnology
Jan 19, 2017
0
227
