Nucleic acid machines powered by light could one day transport cargo or help synthesise novel nanomaterials

In order to find a method for more cost-effective data storage, a group of researchers from the DFG-Center for Functional Nanostructures (CFN) at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) in Germany and the National Tsing Hua University in Taiwan have created a DNA-based “write-once-read-many-times” (WORM) memory device.

Can drug detection technologies deal with the demands of roadside testing?

When a plant encounters drought, it does its best to cope with this stress by activating a set of protein molecules called receptors. Plant cell biologists have discovered how to rewire this cellular machinery to heighten the plants' stress response -- a finding that can be used to engineer crops ...

Water splitting in photo-electrochemical cells to yield hydrogen is a promising way to sustainable fuels. Scientists have now made major progress in developing highly efficient electrodes – made of an algal protein, thus mimicking a central step in natural photosynthesis.

Medical researchers have developed a decision support tool for objective diagnostics of Alzheimer's disease. The tool compares measurements of a patient to measurements of other persons available in large databases and provides a simple index about the severity of the disease. The project has shown that the tool improves the ...

Scientists take full advantage of asteroid flying uncommonly close to the Earth to gather information on its structure

A biochemist is finding clues that could lead to an early diagnosis of cancer of the large intestine. Specifically, she has focused on certain enzymes known as peptidases and their activity (working rate): she has studied how their activity changes by comparing the tissue encountered at different stages of the ...

Researchers have taken the first step in developing a new type of vaccine to protect chickens against coccidiosis, the most important parasite of poultry globally. A vaccine of this type -- based on proteins from the coccidiosis bug rather than being derived from a live parasite -- could be produced ...

The ability to promote agricultural and conservation successes in the face of rapid environmental change will partly hinge on scientists' understanding of how plants adapt to local climate.

The genetic basis of a plant's adaptability to climate is identifiedThe ability to promote agricultural and conservation successes in the face of rapid environmental change will partly hinge on scientists' understanding of how plants adapt to local climate.To improve scientists' understanding of this phenomenon, a study in the Oct. 7, ...

Metrologists are measurement artists who are very precise – in the case of the Boltzmann constant up to the sixth decimal place. Whoever is able to determine it very exactly will cause a small revolution in the field of worldwide temperature measurement: The temperature unit will then no longer be ...