195 articles from WEDNESDAY 9.10.2019

No soil left behind: How a cost-effective technology can enrich poor fields

Many farmers across sub-Saharan Africa try to coax crops out of sandy soils that are not ideal for holding water and nutrients. Their harvests are predictably poor. A traditional approach would have them apply more fertilizers and use irrigation, but both of these options require access to resources and infrastructure that many of them do not have. A relatively new technology modeled for eight...

Graphene substrate improves the conductivity of carbon nanotube network

Transparent conductive films (TCFs) have many applications in touch screens, organic light emitting diodes and solar cells. These applications need materials that are strong, energy efficient and stable, which is why companies and researchers are interested in carbon-based materials. This applies especially to networks of single-walled carbon nanotubes, which are expected to replace the...

CRISPR-BEST prevents genome instability

Even though CRISPR technologies allow for better manipulation of genomes with many positive effects on modern drug development and the discovery of new and better antibiotics, significant problems such as genome instability and toxicity of the Cas9 protein still remain when using the technology.

Physicists couple key components of quantum technologies

Quantum effects are genuinely found in the world of nanostructures and allow a wide variety of new technological applications. For example, a quantum computer could in the future solve problems, which conventional computers need a lot of time to handle. All over the world, researchers are engaged in intensive work on the individual components of quantum technologies—these include circuits that...

Liquifying a rocky exoplanet

Rocky exoplanets that are around Earth-size are comparatively small, which makes them incredibly difficult to detect and characterise using telescopes. What are the optimal conditions to find such small planets that linger in the darkness? "A rocky planet that is hot, molten, and possibly harboring a large outgassed atmosphere ticks all the boxes," says Dan Bower, astrophysicist at the Center for...

Fruit flies help in the development of personalized medicine

People with the same diagnosis typically receive a standard treatment that is not necessarily effective for everyone. With knowledge of the individual patient's genome, it may be possible in the future to a greater extent to target the medical treatment to fit with the patient's genetic characteristics. Genetic information can thus contribute to more personalised—or customised—medicine. This...

Human gut microbes could make processed foods healthier

A new study from Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis sheds light on how human gut microbes break down processed foods—especially potentially harmful chemical changes often produced during modern food manufacturing processes.

Brain tissue kept alive for weeks on an artificial membrane

Researchers at the RIKEN Center for Biosystems Dynamics Research in Japan have developed a new system for keeping tissue viable for long-term study once transferred from an animal to a culture medium. The new system uses a microfluidic device that can keep tissue from both drying out and from drowning in fluid. A proof-of-concept experiment showed that tissue explanted from the mouse brain...

The big polluters’ masterstroke was to blame the climate crisis on you and me | George Monbiot

Fossil fuel giants have known the harm they do for decades. But they created a system that absolves them of responsibilityLet’s stop calling this the Sixth Great Extinction. Let’s start calling it what it is: the “first great extermination”. A recent essay by the environmental historian Justin McBrien argues that describing the current eradication of living systems (including human...

CRISPR-BEST prevents genome instability

Scientists have developed CRISPR-BEST, a new genome editing tool for actinomycetes. It addresses the problem of genome instability caused by DNA double-stranded breaks in current CRISPR-technologies.

Nobel prize honors breakthroughs on lithium-ion batteries

If you're reading this on a mobile phone or laptop computer, you might thank this year's three laureates for the Nobel Prize in chemistry for their work on lithium-ion batteries. "This is a highly-charged story of tremendous potential," said Olof Ramstrom of the Nobel committee for...