November 2019 − News
Excising HIV …
American scientists have succeeded in removing the HIV virus from live mice. How? The process is based on a combination of therapies: using “Laser ART”, the researchers injected mice with a substance that represses the activity of the HIV virus for several days. ...
November 2019 − News
A Heart Made from Bio-Ink
For the first time, a research team from the University of Tel Aviv, led by biotechnologist Tal Dvir, has succeeded in manufacturing a heart using a 3D printer – complete with tissue, blood vessels and chambers. ...
© iStock
November 2019 − News
Thoughts Speak for Themselves
Science is no stranger to mind reading. Verbalizing thoughts in a comprehensible manner, however, is a milestone for the field of neurobiology. ...
© iStock
November 2019 − News
100
years will it take for all insects to become extinct – according to the Australian research team led by Francisco Sánchez-Bayo. They calculated this number based on the hypothesis that the insect mass will continue to decline by 2.5 percent annually – with devastating consequences for humans, animals and the environment.
November 2019 − News
Creativity Knows No Age
Are we really more creative when we are younger? Researchers at Ohio State University® and the University of Chicago have come to a different conclusion. In a study, they have identified two distinct groups of creative people. “Experimental innovators” is the term for imaginative and inventive people over 50. They use their vast life experience, as well as “trial and error”, to arrive at creative solutions. They are different from “conceptual innovators” in their mid-twenties whose creativity is generally fueled by their youthful and carefree outlook on life. The conclusions drawn from this study are based on a comprehensive analysis of the 31 most respected Nobel Laureates from the field of economics.
April 2019 − News
When the Wolves Came …
Ever since the resettlement of roughly 30 wolves into Yellowstone National Park more than 20 years ago, the park’s ecosystems have changed more dramatically than previously anticipated. ...
April 2019 − News
Breathe in, Breathe out –
Detecting Cancer
Detecting cancer early and as accurately as possible forms the basis of any successful therapy. ...
© iStock
April 2019 − News
The Nicotine Fallout Transmissible
through Sperm
Nicotine’s negative impact on offspring is not limited to uterine transmission during pregnancy and passive smoke inhalation. ...
© Getty Images
April 2019 − News
16.000
genes of pregnant women were compared between the early and the late stages of pregnancy.
According to this American study, more than 400 genes displayed altered activity. The results could help detect abnormal genetic changes and thus identify high-risk pregnancies.
April 2019 − News
Less Forest – Same Number of Trees
720,000 satellite images have been scrutinized by five scientists over the course of a year to provide an overview of the tree population in central Europe. The study conducted by the Humboldt University in Berlin, Germany and the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences in Vienna, Austria, investigated the steep increase in tree mortality observed over the past 30 years. Tree mortality has in fact doubled – the main causes include increasing winter storms as well as bark beetles which multiply rapidly during the dry summer months. Even though the total forested area is decreasing, the number of trees remains constant as it is mostly the older, larger trees that are dying. These, in turn, leave behind a larger gap in the forest canopy, as evident in the satellite images.
© iStock
© iStock
October 2018 − News
Viruses for Eyes
Viruses can soon be employed in gene therapy of eye diseases. A current study conducted at the University of Tübingen confirms that adeno-associated viral vectors function as a kind of transport system in order to introduce nucleic acids carrying healthy genetic information to the respective cells. The beauty of adeno-associated viruses (AAV): they belong to the genus of Dependoparvovirus and are therefore incapable of procreating and causing further disease.
October 2018 − News
Fighting against Malaria
Those who are infected with malaria smell different from healthy people. Researchers have recently discovered that certain scent molecules of the malaria parasite, Plasmodium falciparum, are responsible for this phenomenon. ...
© iStock
© iStock
October 2018 − News
Multiple Disease Trigger
Roughly 95 percent of Europeans are infected with Epstein-Barr virus by the time they turn 30. Until now, this virus has been known as the causative agent of mononucleosis. Researchers at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital have now discovered that the virus plays a role in the development of seven additional illnesses. It conveys an increased risk for the development of lupus, multiple sclerosis, type 1 diabetes, celiac disease, inflammatory bowel syndrome and two types of arthritis.
October 2018 − News
New Code
Each coding system has one weak link: the password. Scientists at the Karlsruhe Institute for Technology (KIT) have now combined a common coding method with a chemical password. To this end, the password, in the form of organic molecules, is rendered invisible to its environment and sent to the recipient separately, ensuring that the digital data cannot be hacked during transport. This newly developed process is touted as so secure that it is even suitable for secret service information, which would justify the extra effort of encryption.
© Fotolia
April 2018 − News
Targeting Cancer
Tumors that are invisible to the immune system present a crucial problem to cancer therapy. A novel approach to a solution has been developed by two research teams, headed by Steven Rosenberg at the NIH and Carl June at the University of Pennsylvania. ...
© iStock
April 2018 − News
Unmeltable Ice Cream
Sticky fingers – a thing of the past! Quite by chance, two Japanese researchers discovered how ice cream may be enticed to keep its shape longer. ...
© iStock, Joel Sartore
April 2018 − News
Rediscovered giants
The tree-lobster is considered one of the rarest insects in the world. After a rat invasion killed off most of the tree-lobster population on Australia’s Lord Howe Island ...
© iStock
April 2018 − News
0.00 Percent Blood Alcohol
The British scientist David Nutt has developed a synthetic “ersatz”-alcohol. The substitute allegedly simulates the pleasant effect of alcohol – entirely without the hangover or the dangers of addiction.
© iStock
April 2018 − News
Smart gum
In the future, a type of chewing gum is expected to detect bacterial mouth infections at an early stage. ...
© iStock
April 2018 − News
A New Approach to AIDS therapy
hile the inhibition of HIV replication inside the body has been successfully mastered in recent years, this process is not capable of eliminating latent HIV reservoirs. ...
© Fotolia
October 2017 − News
On its Way to Europe
Aedes albopictus likes it warm and moist and is mainly endemic in in subtropical Asian countries. Recently, however, the mosquito has been advancing into Europe ...
October 2017 − News
A Big Stage for Tiny Players
172 quintillions of microbes can be found on and in our bodies. Written out, it is number with 30 zeroes. Since 2014, the Micropia in Amsterdam has been the first museum worldwide to exhibit that which is invisible to the human eye. It begins with a film projected in the elevator, which simulates the ride into the smallest organisms on our planet ...
© Fotolia
October 2017 − News
Feeling guilty?
If a dog has been naughty, you can see it right away in that particular look in their eyes ...
© Shutterstock
October 2017 − News
100 % Protection from Malaria
Researchers at the University of Tübingen in Germany have developed an extraordinarily effective vaccine that is now slated for testing in the African country of Gabon.
© Getty Images
October 2017 − News
Holding Your Breath for 18 Minutes
While the naked mole rat will most likely not win a beauty contest any time soon, the rodent displays certain biological strengths that keep amazing researchers ...
© GettyImages/Manjurul Haque / EyeEm
April 2017 − News
Zika Virus – Closing in on Treatment
For ten months of the past year, the Zika epidemic caused a global health emergency. Tropical and subtropical countries in particular witnessed the rapid spread of the pathogen which is mainly transmitted by the Asian and Egyptian tiger mosquito, also known as the yellow fever mosquito...
© iStock/ivkuzmin
April 2017 − News
How much Batman
is in us?
The New York Stem Cell Foundation (NYSCF) has awarded the neurobiologist Michael Yartsev with a NYSCF-Robertson Neuroscience Investigator Award...
October 2016 − News
Big Bugs
This common grasshopper (Chorthippus parallelus) is no less than 15 ½ inches (40 cm) high, 30 inches (80 cm) long and 20 inches (55 cm) wide. It is not a frightening mutation, but rather the work of Julia Stoess, a designer and trained costume designer from Hamburg who, after 15 years in the TV and film industry, rekindled her passion for spiders and insects ...
© Christian Sardet
October 2016 − News
Biodiversity in the Ocean Current
They are a mere 0.02 micrometers to two millimeters in size, but they represent roughly 90 percent of the life found in the oceans: plankton organisms that drift in the currents of the upper layers of the oceans ...
April 2017 − Book Tip
Intoxicating Literature
Some of us may have asked ourselves why the rising bubbles in freshly drafted beer will form a perfect head whereas the bubbles in champagne will not. The American journalist and author Adam Rogers set out to get to the bottom of this and other scientific questions surrounding the topic of alcohol. For his book “Proof: The Science of Booze” he visited numerous distilleries and spirits factories and spoke with a large number of experts. As such, he visited a small distillery in New York where loud dance music is played at night in order to entice the molecules in the liquids to oscillate with the vibrations emanating from the bass. Rogers also met liquor distillers who have their barrels cross the oceans in ships for many years so that the gentle motion of the waves may help the liquor develop its full aroma.
History and Sociology
In addition to the history of the origins of alcohol production, which includes the hard facts of biochemistry, Rogers also addresses the psychological aspects of alcohol consumption. The author further touches on the fields of history and sociology: some scientists propose that it was indeed alcohol which precipitated the transition from a nomadic existence to a farming life style. It is therefore possible that our ancestors settled down mainly to plant grain for beer, grape vines for wine and fruit trees for liquor.
“Proof: The Science of Booze” (272 pages) by Adam Rogers was named a Best Science Book by Amazon.