University of Sheffield

Image via Wikipedia Synthetic biology is a science that lies at the intersection of biology and engineering—and is therefore quite an intriguing subject for a microbiologist to venture into. The microbiologist is used to seeing cells as complex and exciting organisms to explore and DNA as the starting point at which to begin those explorations.

Technology developed at the University of Maryland could safely reduce malaria mosquito populations, including insecticide-resistant strains According to the World Health Organization, malaria affects hundreds of millions of people around the world, killing more than 400,000 annually. Decades of insecticide use has failed to control mosquitoes that carry the malaria parasite and has led to

A Chinese threat to halt exports of rare minerals — vital for high-performance electric motors in wind turbines, hybrid cars and missiles — appears to have backfired.

LG has just shown off the world’s first 84-inch Ultra Definition (UD) LCD interactive whiteboard, and it’s truly something to behold. The technology is being geared towards schools, where teachers could use it as a new tool for teaching their students. Gone could be the days of nails on a chalkboard, slamming erasers together to

Almost 500,000 Americans die each year from cardiac arrest, when the heart suddenly stops beating. People experiencing cardiac arrest will suddenly become unresponsive and either stop breathing or gasp for air, a sign known as agonal breathing. Immediate CPR can double or triple someone’s chance of survival, but that requires a bystander to be present. Cardiac

Hybrid Energy Storage Device Is as Small as It Can Possibly Get The world at large runs on lithium ion batteries. New research at Rice University shows that tiny worlds may soon do the same. The Rice lab of Professor Pulickel Ajayan has packed an entire lithium ion energy storage device into a single nanowire,

For military missions in particular, these MAVs must be able to fly successfully through complex urban environments To improve the next generation of insect-size flying machines, Johns Hopkins engineers have been aiming high-speed video cameras at some of the prettiest bugs on the planet. By figuring out how butterflies flutter among flowers with amazing grace

The mosquitoes that are outside the wall seem blocked   You’re in the middle of a great chat with friends on a warm summer night, and then “ouch” a mosquito interrupts your conversation with a bite on your forearm. Experimental physicist Szabolcs Marka hopes to make this occurrence a thing of the past, but in

The war on drugs could get a boost with a new method that analyzes sewage to track levels of illicit drug use in local communities in real time. The new study, a first-of-its-kind in the U.S., was published in the ACS journal Environmental Science & Technology and could help law enforcement identify new drug hot spots and

As computers continue to infiltrate almost every aspect of modern life, their negative impact on the environment grows. According to recent estimates, the electricity required to power today’s computers releases a total of more than 1 gigatonne of carbon emissions to the atmosphere each year. Now, researchers reporting in ACS Nano have developed a new manufacturing process