Researchers at MIT's Center for Bits and Atoms have created tiny building blocks that exhibit a variety of unique mechanical properties, such as the ability to produce a twisting motion when squeezed. These subunits could potentially be assembled by...
A new material developed by University of Colorado Boulder engineers can transform into complex, pre-programmed shapes via light and temperature stimuli, allowing a literal square peg to morph and fit into a round hole before fully reverting to its...
The world's first bio-brick grown from human urine has been unveiled by University of Cape Town (UCT) master's student in civil engineering Suzanne Lambert, signalling an innovative paradigm shift in waste recovery.
The bio-bricks are created through a natural process...
A Rutgers-led study sheds light on one of the most enduring mysteries of science: How did metabolism—the process by which life powers itself by converting energy from food into movement and growth—begin?
To answer that question, the researchers reverse-engineered a...
University of Oregon chemists have made substantial gains in enhancing the catalytic water dissociation reaction in electrochemical reactors, called bipolar membrane electrolyzers, to more efficiently rip apart water molecules into positively charged protons and negatively charged hydroxide ions.
The discovery,...
Evolution by Darwinian natural selection is immensely powerful—both in nature and within laboratories. Using 'laboratory evolution', we can take an enzyme which combines random mutations and functional selection, and improve its function by more than 1000 times. You can...
A hiker gets disoriented while on a desert trek when she comes upon a drying puddle left by a recent rain.
Consumed by thirst, miles from home, the hiker must decide whether to drink and risk infection from whatever bacteria...
Scientists for the first time have found strong evidence that RNA and DNA could have arisen from the same set of precursor molecules even before life evolved on Earth about four billion years ago.
The discovery, published April 1 in Nature...
Tiny incubators were used to simulate early Earth conditions, tracking microbial diversity and methane emissions over a period of 500 days.
Credit: Rob Felt, Georgia Tech
For much of its first two billion years, Earth was a very different place: oxygen...
Patients with diabetes have to test their blood sugar levels several times a day to make sure they are not getting too high or too low. Studies have shown that more than half of patients don't test often enough,...
Engineers with the University of Cincinnati have created a tiny portable lab that plugs into your phone, connecting it automatically to a doctor's office through a custom app UC developed.
The lab the size of a credit card can diagnose...
