True love: How transcription factors interact to create a heart

Scientists at the Gladstone Institutes have discovered that three transcription factors—proteins that direct gene expression—interact with each other and the genome to influence how a heart forms in an embryo. Without ...

Controlling defects in engineered liquid crystals

Sitting with a joystick in the comfort of their chairs, scientists can play "rodeo" on a screen magnifying what is happening under their microscope. They rely on optical tweezers to manipulate an intangible ring created out ...

Topological protection in mechanical metamaterials

Researchers at Leiden University, the Netherlands, showed that certain crystal defects in mechanical metamaterials can harbour topologically protected motions. These mechanical states are analogues of protected electronic ...

Rare earth ions in a crystal become candidate for a quantum memory

(Phys.org) —A promising material is lining itself up as a candidate for a quantum memory. A team at the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Light in Erlangen is the first to succeed in performing high-resolution spectroscopy ...

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