Blue light is illuminating new understanding of a key signaling pathway in embryo development, tissue maintenance and cancer genesis. Researchers at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign developed an approach using blue light to activate the Wnt (pronounced “wint”) signaling pathway in frog embryos. The pathway plays a wide variety of roles in animal and human […]

The future connection between human waste, sanitation technology and sustainable agriculture is becoming more evident. According to research directed by University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign civil and environmental engineering professor Jeremy Guest, countries could be moving closer to using human waste as fertilizer, closing the loop to more circular, sustainable economies. A new study characterizes the spatial distribution of […]

There is good and bad news about ginseng collection and production in Pennsylvania, and likely much of Appalachia, according to a new study conducted by Penn State researchers. On the positive side, it seems that many collectors of the endangered forest herb valued for its medicinal qualities are planting seeds in forests, conserving and supplementing […]

Scientists have taken the clearest picture yet of electronic particles that make up a mysterious magnetic state called a quantum spin liquid (QSL). The achievement could facilitate the development of superfast quantum computers and energy-efficient superconductors. The scientists are the first to capture an image of how electrons in a QSL decompose into spin-like particles called […]

For more than 15 years, management and organizations professor Rick Larrick has insisted his students at Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business leave their names off of their exams before turning them in. Instead, they should identify their work with only a student number so Larrick can’t see whose essay he is reading. As a social psychologist who researches […]

There is ample and compelling – and a growing body of – evidence that supports the premise that all across the world average temperature at Earth’s surface has risen, is rising and, barring a full-on-and-throughly-effective mitigating response, will continue to do so. It also is agreed upon by a cadre of scientists and climatological or […]

British umbrella funding agency UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) announced its long-awaited open access policy at a virtual roundtable with science minister Amanda Solloway earlier this month. Under the new terms, researchers submitting papers to journals from April 2022 will need to make sure they are immediately free to read upon publication.  Monographs, book chapters […]

With the addition of computers, laser cutters have rapidly become a relatively simple and powerful tool, with software controlling shiny machinery that can chop metals, woods, papers, and plastics. While this curious amalgam of materials feels encompassing, users still face difficulties distinguishing between stockpiles of visually similar materials, where the wrong stuff can make gooey […]

The following press release was issued today by the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard. Researchers from MIT, the McGovern Institute for Brain Research at MIT, the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, and the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard have developed a new way to deliver molecular therapies to cells. The system, called SEND, can […]

Scientists around the world are developing new hardware for quantum computers, a new type of device that could accelerate drug design, financial modeling, and weather prediction. These computers rely on qubits, bits of matter that can represent some combination of 1 and 0 simultaneously. The problem is that qubits are fickle, degrading into regular bits […]