It's not visible to the naked eye and you can't feel it, but up to 40 per cent of your body's energy goes into supplying the microscopic sodium-potassium pump with the energy it needs. The pump is constantly doing its job in every cell of all animals and humans. It works much like a small battery which, among other things, maintains the sodium balance which is crucial to keep muscles and nerves working. The sodium-potassium pump transports sodium out and potassium into the cell in a fixed cycle. During this process the structure of the pump changes. It is well-established ...

CAMBRIDGE, MA -- In 2011, when an MIT senior named John Romanishin proposed a new design for modular robots to his robotics professor, Daniela Rus, she said, "That can't be done." Two years later, Rus showed her colleague Hod Lipson, a robotics researcher at Cornell University, a video of prototype robots, based on Romanishin's design, in action. "That can't be done," Lipson said. In November, Romanishin — now a research scientist in MIT's Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL) — Rus, and postdoc Kyle Gilpin will establish once and for all that ...

Hanover, N.H.—In a study published in published in EMBO Molecular Medicine, a Dartmouth researcher found that dying heart cells are kept alive with spikes of oxygen. During a heart attack when the flow of oxygen-rich blood to a section of the heart is interrupted, and not quickly restored, heart muscle begins dying. Deprived of oxygen and other essential nutrients, cell death continues occurring over a period of time leading to progressive loss of heart function and congestive heart failure. Current therapies are not effective at limiting cell loss—they only slow down ...

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. - The left and right hemispheres of Albert Einstein's brain were unusually well connected to each other and may have contributed to his brilliance, according to a new study conducted in part by Florida State University evolutionary anthropologist Dean Falk. "This study, more than any other to date, really gets at the 'inside' of Einstein's brain," Falk said. "It provides new information that helps make sense of what is known about the surface of Einstein's brain." The study, "The Corpus Callosum of Albert Einstein's Brain: Another Clue to His High ...

A group of Brigham and Women's Hospital, and Harvard Stem Cell Institute researchers and collaborators at MIT and MGH have found a way to use stem cells as drug delivery vehicles. The researchers inserted modified strands of messenger RNA into connective tissue stem cells—called mesenchymal stem cells—which stimulated the cells to produce adhesive surface proteins and secrete interleukin-10, an anti-inflammatory molecule. When injected into the bloodstream of a mouse, these modified human stem cells were able to target and stick to sites of inflammation and release biological ...

WASHINGTON, D.C. Oct. 4, 2013 -- When you heat a tiny droplet of liquid tin with a laser, plasma forms on the surface of the droplet and produces extreme ultraviolet (EUV) light, which has a higher frequency and greater energy than normal ultraviolet. Now, for the first time, researchers have mapped this EUV emission and developed a theoretical model that explains how the emission depends on the three-dimensional shape of the plasma. In doing so, they found a previously untapped source of EUV light, which could be useful for various applications including semiconductor ...

The San Diego Supercomputer Center (SDSC) at the University of California, San Diego, has been awarded a $12-million grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to deploy Comet, a new petascale supercomputer designed to transform advanced scientific computing by expanding access and capacity among traditional as well as non-traditional research domains. Comet will be capable of an overall peak performance of nearly two petaflops, or two quadrillion operations per second. "Supercomputers such as Comet and our data-intensive Gordon system are helping to fulfill the ...

CAMBRIDGE, MA -- Researchers at MIT, working with partners at NASA, have developed a new concept for a microscope that would use neutrons — subatomic particles with no electrical charge — instead of beams of light or electrons to create high-resolution images. Among other features, neutron-based instruments have the ability to probe inside metal objects — such as fuel cells, batteries, and engines, even when in use — to learn details of their internal structure. Neutron instruments are also uniquely sensitive to magnetic properties and to lighter elements that are important ...

NEW YORK (October 3, 2013)—Heated debates about the quantifiable value of arts and literature are a common feature of American social discourse. Now, two researchers from The New School for Social Research have published a paper in Science demonstrating that reading literary fiction enhances a set of skills and thought processes fundamental to complex social relationships—and functional societies. Ph.D. candidate David Comer Kidd and his advisor, professor of psychology Emanuele Castano performed five experiments to measure the effect of reading literary fiction on participants' ...

A massive data analysis of natural genetic variants in humans and variants in cancer tumors has implicated dozens of mutations in the development of breast and prostate cancer, a Yale-led team has found. The newly discovered mutations are in regions of DNA that do not code for proteins but instead influence activity of other genes. These areas represent an unexplored world that will allow researchers and doctors to gain new insight into the causes and treatment of cancer, said the scientists. "This allows us to take a systematic approach to cancer genomics," said Mark ...

This news release is available in German. Most molecules occur in several shapes, which may behave very differently. Using a sorting machine for molecules, a German–Swiss research team can now for the first time directly measure the various reaction rates of different forms of the same compound. The team, led by DESY scientist Prof. Jochen Küpper from the Hamburg Center for Free-Electron Laser Science CFEL and Prof. Stefan Willitsch from the University of Basel, presents its work in the US journal "Science". CFEL is a collaboration of DESY, the University of Hamburg ...

BOULDER, Colo -- Extending evidence of quantum behavior farther into the large-scale world of everyday life, physicists at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have "entangled"—linked the properties of—a microscopic mechanical drum with electrical signals. The results confirm that NIST's micro-drum could be used as a quantum memory in future quantum computers, which would harness the rules of quantum physics to solve important problems that are intractable today. The work also marks the first-ever entanglement of a macroscopic oscillator, expanding ...

Researchers from The Manchester Collaborative Centre for Inflammation Research (MCCIR), University of Manchester have made an important step forward in finding a potential treatment for an infection that affects over a billion people worldwide. Gastrointestinal parasitic infections, which are worm infections in the intestine, affect nearly one quarter of the world population and have been heavily linked with poverty in poorer regions. They normally result in a chronic, long-lived infection associated with poor quality of life and health problems. A team led by Dr Mark ...

WATERLOO, Ont. (Thursday, October 3, 2013) -- Facebook and Twitter could provide vital clues to control infectious diseases by using mathematical models to understand how we respond socially to biological contagions. Cold and flu season prompts society to find ways to prevent the spread of disease though measures like vaccination all the way through to covering our mouths when we cough and staying in bed. These social responses are much more difficult to predict than the way biological contagion will evolve, but new methods are being developed to do just that. Published ...

(Boston)--In a commentary in this week's issue of Lancet, pediatricians from Boston Medical Center (BMC) call the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP, formerly the Food Stamp Program), one of America's most cost-effective and successful public health programs in the country. According to the authors, not only does it make life much better for children and families, it also saves society money. Unfortunately they also point out that despite convincing evidence of the beneficial effects of SNAP on child health, legislators have targeted SNAP for cuts as they struggle ...

The biggest threat to the contribution that childhood vaccines make to societal well-being doesn't come from deficits in public comprehension, distrust of science, or misinformation campaigns, but rather from the failure of governmental and other institutions to use evidence-based strategies to anticipate and avoid recurring threats to the science communication environment—the myriad everyday channels through which the public becomes apprised of decision-relevant science. This is the thesis of an article published this week in Science magazine by Dan M. Kahan, Elizabeth ...

Researchers can now identify DNA regions within non-coding DNA, the major part of the genome that is not translated into a protein, where mutations can cause diseases such as cancer. Their approach reveals many potential genetic variants within non-coding DNA that drive the development of a variety of different cancers. This approach has great potential to find other disease-causing variants. Unlike the coding region of the genome where our 23,000 protein-coding genes lie, the non-coding region - which makes up 98% of our genome – is poorly understood. Recent studies ...

Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM), a disease in which cardiac muscle thickens, weakening the heart, can be prevented from developing for several months in mice by reducing production of a mutant protein, according to a new study by researchers at Harvard Medical School. The work takes a first step toward being able to treat or prevent the leading cause of sudden death in athletes and sudden heart-related death inpeople under 30 in the United States. "There's really no treatment for HCM right now. You can treat symptoms like chest pain or an arrhythmia, but that's not ...

To gain complete control over chemical reactions is one of the main goals of chemists around the world. Scientists at the University of Basel and the Center of Free-Electron Laser Science in Hamburg were able to for the first time successfully sort out single forms of molecules with electric fields and have them react specifically. Analysis of the reaction rates showed a relation between the spatial structure of the sorted molecules and their chemical reactivity. The results have been published in the renowned magazine Science. The reactivity of a chemical compound, ...

VIDEO: Watch as Stowers Investigator Jennifer Gerton, Ph.D. describes her most recent research discovery. Click here for more information. KANSAS CITY, MO—Children born with developmental disorders called cohesinopathies can suffer severe consequences, including intellectual disabilities, limb shortening, craniofacial anomalies, and slowed growth. Researchers know which mutations underlie some cohesinopathies, but have developed little understanding of the downstream signals ...

Mitochondria are the power plants of cells, manufacturing chemical fuel so a cell can perform its many tasks. These cellular power plants also are well known for their role in ridding the body of old or damaged cells. Now, researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis and the University of Padua-Dulbecco Telethon Institute in Italy have shown that mitochondria remarkably also orchestrate events that determine a cell's future, at least in the embryonic mouse heart. The new study identifies new potential genetic culprits in the origins of some congenital ...

How does the human brain control compliance with social norms? The biological mechanisms that underlie norm compliance are still poorly understood. In a new study, Christian Ruff, Giuseppe Ugazio, and Ernst Fehr from the University of Zurich show that the lateral prefrontal cortex plays a central role in norm compliance. Prefrontal cortex controls norm behavior For the study, 63 participants took part in an experiment in which they received money and were asked to decide how much of it they wanted to share with an anonymous partner. A prevalent fairness norm in Western ...

A genetic and demographic analysis of river herring populations along the U.S. east coast, published October 2 in Evolutionary Applications, has identified distinct genetic stocks, providing crucial guidance for efforts to manage their declining populations. River herring include two related species, alewife and blueback herring, which migrate between freshwater spawning grounds and the ocean, where they spend most of their lives. The species are important for both ecological and economic reasons, according to Eric Palkovacs, assistant professor of ecology and evolutionary ...

3D printing isn't just cheaper, it's also greener, says Michigan Technological University's Joshua Pearce. Even Pearce, an aficionado of the make-it-yourself-and-save technology, was surprised at his study's results. It showed that making stuff on a 3D printer uses less energy—and therefore releases less carbon dioxide—than producing it en masse in a factory and shipping it to a warehouse. Most 3D printers for home use, like the RepRap used in this study, are about the size of microwave ovens. They work by melting filament, usually plastic, and depositing it layer by ...

Warning Instagrammers: you might want to stop taking so many pictures of your food. New research out of Brigham Young University finds that looking at too many pictures of food can actually make it less enjoyable to eat. Turns out your foodie friend's obsession with taking pictures of everything they eat and posting it on Instagram or Pinterest may be ruining your appetite by making you feel like you've already experienced eating that food. "In a way, you're becoming tired of that taste without even eating the food," said study coauthor and BYU professor Ryan Elder. ...