/ en-us Â鶹ÒùÔº internet news portal provides the latest news on science including: Â鶹ÒùÔºics, Nanotechnology, Life Sciences, Space Science, Earth Science, Environment, Health and Medicine. Proteins catalyze life by changing shape when they interact with other molecules. The result is a muscle twitching, the perception of light, or a bit of energy extracted from food. But this crucial ability has eluded the growing field of AI-augmented protein engineering. /news/2025-05-artificial-protein-nature.html Biotechnology Molecular & Computational biology Thu, 22 May 2025 14:00:03 EDT news667122061 The goal of transhumanists is to improve human beings so they will perform better. In doing so, they contribute above all else to creating people perfectly suited to capitalism. /news/2025-05-human-transhumanism.html Social Sciences Wed, 14 May 2025 13:50:01 EDT news666447423 With coral reefs in crisis due to climate change, scientists have engineered a bio-ink that could help promote coral larvae settlement and restore these underwater ecosystems before it's too late. In a paper published in Trends in Biotechnology, researchers demonstrate that the ink could boost coral settlement by more than 20 times, which they hope could contribute to rebuilding coral reefs around the world. /news/2025-05-ink-boosts-coral-settlement-rebuild.html Ecology Biotechnology Wed, 14 May 2025 11:00:05 EDT news666281701 Scientists at Northwestern University have developed a new approach that directly combats the progression of neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer's disease and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). /news/2025-05-sugar-coated-nanotherapy-neuron-survival.html Bio & Medicine Nanomaterials Wed, 14 May 2025 08:00:04 EDT news666347288 Bioengineers at Queen Mary University of London have taken a significant step forward in the development of laboratory-based models of human tissues that may be used as alternatives to animal testing. /news/2025-05-scientists-complexity-tissue-alternative-animals.html Cell & Microbiology Biotechnology Tue, 13 May 2025 11:27:04 EDT news666354421 A team of biophysicists has published a step-by-step guide for the reliable cultivation of the unicellular green alga Chlamydomonas reinhardtii. The guide will support researchers worldwide in the fields of life sciences, biophysics, and bioengineering in their investigations of biological, biophysical, and biotechnological principles. These reliable cultivation methods are detailed in Nature Protocols. /news/2025-05-manual-cultivating-algae-laboratory-important.html Cell & Microbiology Molecular & Computational biology Tue, 13 May 2025 10:22:04 EDT news666350522 A new study by scientists at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory and several institutes across India and Saudi Arabia has reported 26 novel bacterial species growing inside cleanrooms associated with NASA space missions. These unknown and newly described species carry genetic traits associated with resilience to extreme environments such as those found in space, highlighting the importance of rigorous contamination control to prevent unintentional microbial transfer during space missions. /news/2025-05-tough-microbes-nasa-cleanrooms-clues.html Space Exploration Astrobiology Mon, 12 May 2025 16:24:47 EDT news666285884 Natural products are among the most promising candidates for the development of new drugs. However, due to their structural complexity, they are often difficult to access. /news/2025-05-enzymatic-genetic-advances-synthesis-natural.html Biochemistry Analytical Chemistry Mon, 12 May 2025 14:16:40 EDT news666278193 Researchers from the University of Adelaide have discovered how water molecules are organized during plant hydrolytic reactions, knowledge that could have sweeping consequences for the biomedical, pharmaceutical, food and chemical industries. /news/2025-05-molecules-harmonized-networks-hydrolytic-reactions.html Biochemistry Analytical Chemistry Mon, 12 May 2025 10:45:19 EDT news666265515 Augmented-reality (AR) technology is rapidly finding its way into everyday life, from education and health care to gaming and entertainment. However, the core AR device remains bulky and heavy, making prolonged wear uncomfortable. A breakthrough from POSTECH now promises to change that. /news/2025-05-glass-full-millimeter-waveguide-augmented.html Nanophysics Nanomaterials Thu, 08 May 2025 11:52:03 EDT news665923921 Within our gut live trillions of microorganisms, mostly in the form of dense, organized communities along the intestinal lining. These microbial clusters, known as biofilms, are dynamic ecosystems essential to digestion, immune function and protecting us from disease. Yet understanding how they work has long remained a scientific challenge. /news/2025-05-gut-microbial-communities.html Molecular & Computational biology Mon, 05 May 2025 08:04:04 EDT news665651041 Looking around, you might not realize it, but corn is everywhere. In one form or another, it's in the cereals in your cupboard, the cosmetics and medicines in your bathroom, the kibble in your pet's food bowl, and the gas tank of your car. /news/2025-05-accessible-method-maize-bioengineering-doors.html Biotechnology Agriculture Thu, 01 May 2025 13:01:04 EDT news665323262 As a descendant of an Indigenous Amazonian tribe, Maria Astolfi was concerned about research she conducted as a graduate student at UC Berkeley involving an extract of a plant long used for medicinal purposes by the Mapuche peoples of Chile. /news/2025-05-indigenous-knowledge-biotech-drugs-grad.html Biotechnology Other Thu, 01 May 2025 12:50:01 EDT news665321687 A novel study has unveiled a technique that enhances stem cell therapy for neurodegenerative diseases by combining magnetic guidance with localized ultrasound stimulation. This approach successfully navigates magnetically loaded stem cells to specific brain regions and promotes their differentiation into neurons using a miniaturized ultrasound device. /news/2025-04-ultrasound-microrobots-team-boost-stem.html Bio & Medicine Wed, 30 Apr 2025 16:34:04 EDT news665249642 Traditional biochemical methods of studying human gene mutations are often laborious and costly. Now bioengineers at the University of California San Diego have developed a new simple approach to rapidly check on human gene changes and also screen chemicals as potential drugs by turning everyday bacteria into living test tubes. /news/2025-04-bacteria-tubes-human-gene-mutations.html Biotechnology Molecular & Computational biology Wed, 30 Apr 2025 14:44:03 EDT news665243041 An AI tool has made a step forward in translating the language proteins use to dictate whether they form sticky clumps similar to those linked to Alzheimer's disease and around fifty other types of human disease. In a departure from typical "black-box" AI models, the new tool, CANYA, was designed to be able to explain its decisions, revealing the specific chemical patterns that drive or prevent harmful protein folding. /news/2025-04-ai-secret-language-sticky-proteins.html Biotechnology Molecular & Computational biology Wed, 30 Apr 2025 14:00:06 EDT news665220661 Anyone who's been pleasantly surprised that they can still ride a bike or swim laps after a long hiatus might surmise that our cells have some sort of memory. But how could this work? /news/2025-04-cells-short-durations.html Cell & Microbiology Wed, 30 Apr 2025 07:54:04 EDT news665218442 The first case of an electric circuit created using a simple marker and a laser beam shows that simple and sustainable materials can generate innovative applications on any surface, such as a coffee cup. /news/2025-04-marker-ink-graphene-based-electric.html Nanophysics Nanomaterials Wed, 30 Apr 2025 03:30:02 EDT news665197504 What if doctors could guide life-saving treatments through the body using only a magnet? An interdisciplinary collaboration at the University of Pittsburgh's Swanson School of Engineering is bringing that concept closer to reality with the development of silk iron microparticles (SIMPs)—tiny, magnetic, and biodegradable carriers designed to precisely deliver drugs and treatments to sites in the body, like aneurysms or tumors. /news/2025-04-tiny-magnetic-silk-iron-particles.html Bio & Medicine Nanomaterials Tue, 29 Apr 2025 16:54:04 EDT news665164442 The human genome is like a big ball of yarn, made up of 3 billion molecular units arranged in sequence and then wrapped up around itself. Within this ball of yarn are your genes, which are regions of DNA that get copied and then turned into miniature molecular machines called proteins. The three-dimensional structure of the yarn dictates which of your genes get turned into proteins, and when this system fails, disease develops. But until now, it has not been possible to visualize how different regions of DNA talk to each other across space and time. /news/2025-04-imaging-tool-scientists-genome-dynamics.html Biotechnology Molecular & Computational biology Mon, 28 Apr 2025 10:10:04 EDT news665053764 When children lose their baby teeth, there is an adult set already growing beneath the gums, ready to emerge. But if we lose our permanent teeth, there aren't any more waiting in the wings. Right now, the options for replacing these lost teeth are either dentures or titanium implants, neither of which provide the same function and feedback as a real, living tooth. /news/2025-04-pigs-regrow-adult-teeth-humans.html Cell & Microbiology Biotechnology Fri, 25 Apr 2025 17:05:20 EDT news664819509 Historically, the vast majority of pharmaceutical drugs have been meticulously designed down to the atomic level. The specific location of each atom within the drug molecule is a critical factor in determining how well it works and how safe it is. In ibuprofen, for example, one molecule is effective as a pain reliever, but the mirror image of that same molecule is completely inactive. /news/2025-04-dictates-effectiveness-safety-nanomedicine-therapeutic.html Bio & Medicine Fri, 25 Apr 2025 11:17:57 EDT news664798673 Cranfield University spin-out company Frontier Space has sent a fully automated laboratory into orbit as part of a European Space Agency project to assess the viability of creating lab-grown food in microgravity. /news/2025-04-fully-automated-laboratory-orbit-food.html Space Exploration Fri, 25 Apr 2025 09:27:03 EDT news664792021 A Kobe University team was able to edit the DNA of Lactobacillus strains directly without a template from other organisms. This technique is indistinguishable from natural variation and enabled the researchers to create a strain that doesn't produce diabetes-aggravating chemicals. /news/2025-04-dna-base-lactobacillus-strains.html Cell & Microbiology Biotechnology Thu, 24 Apr 2025 08:34:03 EDT news664702441 A new study looking at deadly animal African trypanosomiasis has revealed how the parasite Trypanosoma congolense evades the immune system and drives severe disease in livestock. /news/2025-04-3d-uncover-deadly-parasites-evade.html Molecular & Computational biology Veterinary medicine Tue, 22 Apr 2025 12:15:04 EDT news664542901 Engineers and biologists at Dartmouth College have found that, just like word order affects meaning in a sentence, the placement of genes within a plasmid—known as gene syntax—can influence how strongly each gene is expressed, how consistently it behaves across cells, and how it interacts with nearby genes. /news/2025-04-gene-syntax-shown-variability-synthetic.html Biotechnology Molecular & Computational biology Tue, 22 Apr 2025 10:50:22 EDT news664537732 When smoke from Canadian wildfires turned New York City skies apocalyptically orange in June 2023, it delivered catastrophic air quality and an unexpected side effect: cooling the New York City region by about 3 degrees Celsius. /news/2025-04-canadian-wildfire-cooled-york-3c.html Earth Sciences Environment Mon, 21 Apr 2025 11:39:04 EDT news664454341 As the global population grows, the demand for food and energy is increasing even as extreme weather events make crops more vulnerable to stress. While traditional breeding takes years to develop more resilient crops, plant bioengineering offers a faster, more precise way to improve traits for higher yields and better stress tolerance. /news/2025-04-robot-powered-biofoundry-oil-production.html Plants & Animals Biotechnology Wed, 16 Apr 2025 11:19:04 EDT news664021141 Northeastern University researchers resurrected an extinct plant gene, turning back the evolutionary clock to pave a path forward for the development and discovery of new drugs. /news/2025-04-resurrect-extinct-gene-major-implications.html Biochemistry Tue, 15 Apr 2025 09:22:04 EDT news663927721 Last week, Colossal Biosciences made global headlines when they announced that they had successfully brought the dire wolf back from extinction, or at least a version of one. Colossal's team used pieces of the genetic code they uncovered in ancient dire wolf DNA samples to alter the genome of a common gray wolf to resemble that of its long-extinct cousin. The resulting pups are not exact replicas of their ancestors, but have many of their most distinctive traits. /news/2025-04-ancient-dna-aids-de-extinction.html Plants & Animals Evolution Mon, 14 Apr 2025 13:22:50 EDT news663855766