The fluorescent future of solar cells

(Phys.org) —For some solar cells, the future may be fluorescent. Scientists at Yale have improved the ability of a promising type of solar cell to absorb light and convert it into electrical power by adding a fluorescent ...

How a little plant became a model for pioneering research

In recent decades, research into a diminutive plant, Arabidopsis thalania, which goes through daily life as a common weed, has generated a tremendous amount of knowledge. Much of the research on Arabidopsis, which has meanwhile ...

Scientists reveal quirky feature of Lyme disease bacteria

Scientists have confirmed that the pathogen that causes Lyme Disease—unlike any other known organism—can exist without iron, a metal that all other life needs to make proteins and enzymes. Instead of iron, the bacteria ...

Plant defenses: Maize knows how to identify its target

Insect or microbe: plants recognize their attackers and respond by producing specific internal signals that induce the appropriate chemical defenses. That is the main conclusion of a study at the Center for Medical, Agricultural ...

Watching the cogwheels of the biological clock in living cells

Our master circadian clock resides in a small group of about 10'000 neurons in the brain, called the suprachiasmatic nucleus. However, similar clocks are ticking in nearly all cells of the body, as demonstrated by the group ...

Mechanism for regulating plant oil production identified

Scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy's Brookhaven National Laboratory have identified key elements in the biochemical mechanism plants use to limit the production of fatty acids. The results suggest ways scientists ...

Speeding up drug discovery with rapid 3-D mapping of proteins

A new method for rapidly solving the three-dimensional structures of a special group of proteins, known as integral membrane proteins, may speed drug discovery by providing scientists with precise targets for new therapies, ...

Lactating tsetse flies models for lactating mammals?

An unprecedented study of intra-uterine lactation in the tsetse fly, published 18 April 2012 in Biology of Reproduction's Papers-in-Press, reveals that an enzyme found in the fly's milk functions similarly in mammals, making ...

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