Bio-digester supplies energy to 3000 farms

The principle of action of a cow's digestive system served as a model to create a container that receives organic waste, mostly livestock manure, where it is mixed with millions of bacteria to obtain natural gas consisting ...

Ant executions serve a higher purpose, research shows

Natural selection can be an agonizingly long process. Some organisms have a way of taking matters into their own hands, or—in the case of the ant species Cerapachys biroi—mandibles.

Nano-machines for 'bionic proteins'

Physicists of the University of Vienna together with researchers from the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences Vienna developed nano-machines which recreate principal activities of proteins. They present the ...

Cork the key to unlocking the potential of graphene

Scientists have taken inspiration from one of the oldest natural materials to exploit the extraordinary qualities of graphene, a material set to revolutionise fields from computers and batteries to composite materials.

Particulates are more dangerous than previously thought

Researchers at the Paul Scherrer Institute PSI have for the first time observed photochemical processes inside the smallest particles in the air. In doing so, they discovered that additional oxygen radicals that can be harmful ...

Are organisms basically living machines?

Scientists are increasingly interested in the prospect of solving a range of fundamental problems facing our civilisation by designing and reconstructing organisms.

The hungry caterpillar: Beware your enemy's enemy's enemy

When herbivores such as caterpillars feed, plants may "call for help" by emitting volatiles, which can indirectly help defend the plants. The volatiles recruit parasitoids that infect, consume and kill the herbivores, to ...

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