Loyola University Chicago

Tübingen neuroscientists develop inexpensive, self-manufactured lab equipment Laboratory equipment is one of the largest cost factors in neuroscience. However, many experiments can be performed with good results using self-assembled setups involving 3-D printed components and self-programmed electronics. In a study publishing July 18 in the open access journal PLOS Biology, André Maia Chagas and Tom Baden

A billion-pixel view from the surface of Mars, from NASA’s Mars rover Curiosity, offers armchair explorers a way to examine one part of the Red Planet in great detail. The first NASA-produced view from the surface of Mars larger than one billion pixels stitches together nearly 900 exposures taken by cameras onboard Curiosity and shows

The solution to a 75-year-old materials mystery might one day allow farmers in developing nations to produce their own fertilizer on demand, using sunlight and nitrogen from the air. Thanks to a specialized X-ray source at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology have confirmed the existence of a long-hypothesized interaction between

Eventually yielding more effective pharmaceuticals with fewer side effects. It’s not a magic trick and it’s not sleight of hand – scientists really are using levitation to improve the drug development process, eventually yielding more effective pharmaceuticals with fewer side effects. Scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Argonne National Laboratory have discovered a

3-D printing turns nanomachines into life-size workers Chenfeng Ke, CC BY-ND Chenfeng Ke, Dartmouth College Nanomachines are tiny molecules – more than 10,000 lined up side by side would be narrower than the diameter of a human hair – that can move when they receive an external stimulus. They can already deliver medication within a

With MIT-developed algorithms, robots plan underwater missions autonomously For the last decade, scientists have deployed increasingly capable underwater robots to map and monitor pockets of the ocean to track the health of fisheries, and survey marine habitats and species. In general, such robots are effective at carrying out low-level tasks, specifically assigned to them by

A fleet of robotic submarines, based at the National Oceanography Centre (NOC), head-quartered in Southampton, have been used to map vulnerable cold-water coral reefs in the deep ocean off southwest England. This data set is being used to inform the management of a new Marine Conservation Zone (MCZ) that protects the only area of deep-sea

A new genetics project could help “unlock a series of secrets about devastating diseases”, the NHS says. Under the scheme, 11 Genomics Medicine Centres are being set up in English hospitals to gather DNA samples to help devise targeted treatments for a wide range of diseases. It is focusing on cancer and rare genetic diseases.

Some are calling it the World Cup for Drones, while the United Arab Emirates (UAE) has simply labeled it the Drones For Good award. Whichever way you spin it, offering up US$1 million in prize money is sure to bring out great ideas from all corners of the globe. The international competition seeks to emphasize

Has the threat of cyberwar entered a significant new phase? Unpicking the burgeoning reports of activity on the digital battlefield   CYBERSPACE. Some call it the new domain of war, after land, sea, air and space. The 2010 Stuxnet cyberattack on Iran’s uranium enrichment plant, suspected to have come from Israel or the US, seemed