Using light to remotely trigger biochemical reactions

(Phys.org)—Since Edison's first bulb, heat has been a mostly undesirable byproduct of light. Now researchers at Rice University are turning light into heat at the point of need, on the nanoscale, to trigger biochemical ...

Researchers create world's smallest reaction chamber

The world's smallest reaction chamber, with a mixing volume measured in femtolitres (million billionths of a litre), can be used to study the kind of speedy, nanoscale biochemical reactions that take place inside individual ...

Predicting the effects of changes on living systems

Can scientists predict what happens when they introduce a change into a living system—for example, if they change the structure of a gene or administer a drug? Just as changing one letter can completely change the meaning ...

RNA folding: A little cooperation goes a long way

(Phys.org)—The nucleic acid RNA is an essential part of the critical process by which the cells in our bodies manufacture proteins. But noncoding RNAs also exist whose sequences, while not converted into proteins, play ...

How bacteria talk to each other and our cells

Bacteria can talk to each other via molecules they themselves produce. The phenomenon is called quorum sensing, and is important when an infection propagates. Now, researchers at Linköping University in Sweden are showing ...

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 ...

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