arXiv, the free repository that has revolutionized the way scientists share information, is adopting a new governance and business model that will allow it to grow and succeed in the future.
Beginning in January and running through 2017, the Simons Foundation will provide up to $300,000 per year as a matching gift for the funds generated through arXiv’s membership fees. The grant also… read more
A biotech company called Cerulean says its nanoparticle-delivered cancer drugs are better at attacking tumors, Technology Review reports.
One result of the side effects of cancer treatments is that patients often can’t tolerate or survive a combination of different drugs at the same time — which can limit a doctor’s ability to knock out the disease. The head of a Boston-area biotech called Cerulean Therapeutics… read more
A team of astronomers led by researchers from the Niels Bohr Institute, have observed a simple sugar molecule in the gas surrounding a young star, proving that the building blocks of life were already present during planet formation.
They also found other complex organic molecules, including ethylene-glycol, methyl-formate and ethanol.
Sugar around new stars
“In the protoplanetary disc of gas and dust surrounding… read more
By affixing nanoscale gold spheres onto a microscopic bead of glass, researchers have created a super-sensor that can detect even single samples of the smallest known viruses.
The sensor uses a peculiar behavior of light known as “whispering gallery mode,” named after the famous circular gallery in St. Paul’s Cathedral in London, where a whisper near the wall can be heard around the gallery due to frequency… read more
Scientists at the Department of Energy’s (DOE) Brookhaven National Laboratory have precisely measured a key parameter of electron interactions called non-adiabatic spin torque that is essential to the future development of spintronic data storage devices.
(Current data storage technology has a functional limit: magnetically stored digital information becomes unstable when too tightly packed. The denser, faster, and smarter technology of spintronics may offer a solution. Spintronic devices use electron spin to… read more
NASA’s Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) mission has led to a bonanza of millions of new-found supermassive black holes and extreme galaxies called “hot DOGs” — dust-obscured galaxies that burn brightly with infrared light, thought to be among the brightest galaxies ever found.
The latest findings are helping astronomers better understand how galaxies and the behemoth black holes at their centers grow and evolve together.
For example, the giant… read more
The brain clock — the suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN) in the hypothalamus — is driven in part by metabolism, the production and flow of chemical energy in cells, a new study reveals.
The researchers focused primarily on a phenomenon known as “redox” in neural tissues of the SCN from the brains of rats and mice.
(Redox represents the energy changes of cellular metabolism (usually through the transfer of electrons). When a… read more
Stem cells, embryo research and synthetic biology are just a few of the issues that will force strange new political alliances, University of Pennsylvania bioethicist Jonathan D. Moreno writes in New Scientist.
The new biology, or biotechnology — including stem cells, embryo research, synthetic biology and reproductive technology — has unprecedented power to change basic life processes.
One recent example is the controversy over the “three-parent… read more
EPFL’s Group for Fibre Optics (GFO) has developed a technology that improves the resolution of measurements taken by optical fibers embedded in structures such as nuclear reactors, bridges, dams and buildings, or in smaller objects, providing valuable information about a structure’s heat or state of fatigue and wear.
Until now, data could be collected from points about one meter apart using optical fibers (thin glass threads) embedded in construction… read more
Automated assistance may soon be available to neuroscientists tackling the brain’s complex circuitry, according to research presented last week at the Aspen Brain Forum in Colorado.
Robots that can find and simultaneously record the activity of dozens of neurons in live animals could help researchers to reveal how connected cells interpret signals from one another and transmit information across brain areas — a task that would be… read more
Seeking a way to crowdsource better computer vision, roboticists have launched a website that allows users to record pieces of their environments in 3-D with a Kinect camera, Wired Science reports.
Called Kinect@Home, the open-source and browser-based effort remains in its infancy. Users have uploaded only a few dozen models of their living room couches, kitchen countertops and themselves.
Should the project catch on,… read more
NASA’s new PhoneSat project at Ames Research Center will soon demonstrate the ability to launch the lowest-cost and easiest-to-build satellites ever flown in space by using consumer smartphones.
Smartphones already offer a wealth of capabilities needed for satellite systems, including fast processors, versatile operating systems, multiple miniature sensors, high-resolution cameras, GPS receivers, and several radios.
NASA engineers kept the total cost of the components to build each… read more
Exposure to electronic devices with self-luminous displays causes melatonin suppression, which might lead to delayed bedtimes, especially in teens, a Lighting Research Center (LRC) at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute study has found.
The study showed that a two-hour exposure to light from self-luminous electronic displays can suppress melatonin by about 22 percent.
Stimulating the human circadian system to this level may affect sleep in those using the devices prior to… read more
Harvard scientists have created a type of “cyborg” tissue for the first time by embedding a three-dimensional network of functional, biocompatible, nanoscale wires into engineered human tissues.
The research team led by Charles M. Lieber, the Mark Hyman Jr. Professor of Chemistry at Harvard, and Daniel Kohane, a Harvard Medical School professor in the Department… read more
Using gene therapy, Yale neurologists have managed to repair neurons associated with traumatic nerve injury pain in rats.
Neuropathic pain associated with diabetes, shingles, and traumatic injury affects up to 18 percent of the population and can be difficult or impossible to effectively treat.
“Since the therapy targets only cells in the pain-sensing neurons outside the brain and spinal cord, this method can avoid… read more