California Institute of Technology (Caltech) researchers have made an artificial neural network out of DNA, creating a circuit of interacting molecules that can recall memories based on incomplete patterns, just as the human brain can. Detailing the work in Nature, lead author Lulu Qian explained that the neural net consisted of four artificial neurons made […]
Solar cells that mimic nature have been created at North Carolina State University where water-gel-based artificial leaves containing chlorophyll produce electricity. Lead researcher Orlin Velev says the “natural” solar cells have the potential to be less expensive and more environmentally friendly than current silicon-based solar cells. The bendable devices are composed of water-based gel infused […]
A new assessment of the planet’s subterranean reservoirs shows the highest rates of depletion in the world’s major agricultural centers, including northwest India, northeastern China, Pakistan, California and the Midwestern United States. The depletion rate has doubled in recent decades and study author Marc Bierkens, of Utrecht University in the Netherlands, warns of a looming […]
Researchers at Brown University and Women & Infants Hospital have created the first artificial human ovary and used the lab-grown organ to mature human eggs. “An ovary is composed of three main cell types, and this is the first time that anyone has created a 3-D tissue structure with triple cell line,” said Brown researcher […]
Engineers at the University of California, Berkeley, have developed a pressure-sensitive electronic material from semiconductor nanowires that will help overcome a key challenge in robotics: adapting the amount of force needed to hold and manipulate a wide range of objects. The artificial skin has been dubbed “e-skin” and the researchers say it is the first […]
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) researchers have found a novel way to mimic the process by which plants use sunlight to split water into hydrogen and oxygen. They used a modified virus as a “biological scaffold” that can assemble the nanoscale components needed to split a water molecule into hydrogen and oxygen atoms. The new […]
Scientists have directly manipulated the activity of individual neurons to give flies memories of a bad experience they never really had, according to a report in the journal Cell. “Flies have the ability to learn, but the circuits that instruct memory formation were unknown,” said researcher Gero Miesenböck, of the University of Oxford. “We were […]
Photosynthesis’ amazingly efficient conversion of solar energy into chemical energy relies on sunlight being converted almost instantaneously, but how this speedy energy transfer actually happens has been a long-standing mystery. Now, researchers from Berkeley Lab say that quantum mechanical effects may be at the heart of the process. Using femtosecond scale electronic spectroscopy measurements, the […]
Plants are extremely efficient at taking carbon dioxide from the air and converting it into biomass using light as an energy source. Now, chemists may be a step closer to replicating photosynthesis, thanks to a novel catalyst identified by German researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Colloids and Interfaces. Being able to use plain […]
Nanotechnology researchers at the University of Texas at Dallas (UTD) have made chemically powered artificial muscles that are up to 100 times stronger than natural muscles. Fueled by alcohol or hydrogen, the muscles are also able to do 100 times more work per cycle than natural muscles. Dr. Ray H. Baughman, who headed up the […]
