Hormones control growth, metabolism, reproduction and many other important biological processes. In humans, and all other vertebrates, the chemical signals are produced by specialised brain centres such as the hypothalamus and secreted into the blood stream that distributes them around the body. Researchers from the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) now reveal that the hypothalamus and its hormones are not purely vertebrate inventions, but have their evolutionary roots in marine, worm-like ancestors.
https://www.embl.de/aboutus/communication_outreach/media_relations/2007/070629_heidelberg/index.html
Kategorie: Forschung & Technik
Scientists Evolve New Proteins From Scratch
Nature, through the trial and error of evolution, has discovered a vast diversity of life from what can only presumed to have been a primordial pool of building blocks. Inspired by this success, a new Biodesign Institute research team, led by John Chaput, is now trying to mimic the process of Darwinian evolution in the laboratory by evolving new proteins from scratch. Using new tricks of molecular biology, Chaput and co-workers have evolved several new proteins in a fraction of the 3 billion years it took nature.
A new wrinkle in evolution – Man-made proteins
Künstliche Evolution – Ein vom Menschen geschaffenes Protein
Cell splits water to produce hydrogen and oxygen
Engineers at Washington University in St. Louis have developed a unique photocatalytic cell that splits water to produce hydrogen and oxygen in water using sunlight and the power of a nanostructured catalyst.
https://source.wustl.edu/2007/05/cell-splits-water-via-sunlight-to-produce-hydrogen/
Prototype Space Probe Will Explore Earth’s Deepest Sinkhole
Scientists return this week to the world’s deepest known sinkhole for tests of a NASA-funded robot called DEPTHX, designed to survey and explore for life in one of Earth’s most extreme regions and potentially in outer space. DEPTHX’s technology could aid future space probes of Jupiter’s moon Europa, where scientists believe that deep cracks and holes in the ice offer a chance of finding extraterrestrial life.
Milestone for giant physics lab
The LHC comprises over 1.000 powerful magnets occupying a subterranean tunnel that runs in a ring for 27 km. The magnets carry two beams of particles around the ring at speeds close to the speed of light. At certain points along this ring, the beams cross over, causing some of the particles to collide head-on. Each of the four huge LHC experiments, including the CMS, sits near one of these crossing points. These experiments, or detectors, will capture and measure new particles produced in the collisions. These could point to new phenomena beyond the so-called standard model of physics – a framework to explain the interactions of sub-atomic particles.
Handheld sensing system resembles Star Trek’s "tricorder"
Purdue University researchers have created a handheld sensing system like Star Trek’s „tricorder“ which can be used for ultrafast chemical-analysis.
X-Ray technology will see moving bones inside living body
Brown University researchers are creating a technology that will allow doctors and scientists to do the seemingly impossible: see inside living humans and animals and watch their bones move in 3-D as they run, fly, jump, swim and slither. The new high-resolution, high-speed X-Ray imaging system will contribute to better treatments for knee, shoulder, wrist and back injuries and help scientists understand the evolution of complex movements – from the flight of birds to the leap of frogs.
Nanochip moves molecular computers a step closer
Don’t throw away your laptop yet, but there’s a promising new high-tech invention being announced this week. Researchers have created a memory circuit the size of a white blood cell that has 160 kilobits of capacity – it’s the densest memory circuit ever fabricated. A team of UCLA and California Institute of Technology chemists successfully demonstrated a large-scale, „ultra-dense“ memory device that stores information using reconfigurable molecular switches. This research represents an important step towards the creation of molecular computers that are much smaller and could be more powerful than today’s silicon-based computers.
Caltech and UCLA Researchers Create Memory Circuit the Size of a Human White Blood Cell
Super Touch Screen (not only) for Google Earth
Last fall, Jeff Han demonstrated a touch-driven computer screen, which can be manipulated intuitively with the fingertips. Now, Jeff has formed a company called „Perceptive Pixel“ to bring this idea to the market. Recently, he was interviewed by „Fast Company“ and they have released this really awesome video demonstrating even more applications including Google Earth being used with a wall-sized touch screen.
New Technique Stores and Retrieves Entire Image from a Single Photon
Researchers at the University of Rochester have made an optics breakthrough that allows them to encode an entire image’s worth of data into a photon, slow the image down for storage, and then retrieve the image intact.
Ultra-Dense Optical Storage – on One Photon