Published on Jan 13, 2019
Theories of a pre-RNA world suggest that glycolonitrile (HOCH2CN) is a key species in the process of ribonucleotide assembly, which is considered as a molecular precursor of nucleic acids. |SOURCE| In this Letter, we report the first detection of this pre-biotic molecule in the interstellar medium (ISM) by using ALMA data obtained at frequencies [...] Read more
Published on Jan 13, 2019
How and when the ability to form and store memories arises are topics of great interest to neuroscientists. Now Yale researchers have identified three distinct stages in brain development that occur before episodic memories can form. |SOURCE| Yale scientists measured brain activity in the hippocampus of newborn rats and found at the beginning of [...] Read more
Published on Dec 26, 2018
Rice University demonstrates sophisticated shape-shifters for soft robots, biomedical applications. |SOURCE| Rice University scientists have created a rubbery, shape-shifting material that morphs from one sophisticated form to another on demand. The shapes programmed into a polymer by materials scientist Rafael Verduzco and graduate student Morgan [...] Read more
Published on Dec 26, 2018
Scientists from the German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ) and the stem cell institute HI-STEM* in Heidelberg have succeeded for the first time in directly reprogramming human blood cells into a previously unknown type of neural stem cell. These induced stem cells are similar to those that occur during the early embryonic development of the central [...] Read more