Quickly detecting a lone electron is a difficult task agsandrew/Shutterstock We can now detect single electrons with the resolution of a few trillionths of a second, and this could prove essential for building a new generation of quantum electronic devices. Traditional electronic circuits are filled with many electrons, but interactions between these particles often diminish…
Movie night might mean more than you think South_agency/Getty Images Strangers are more likely to become friends if their brains respond similarly to movie clips, suggesting neural activity can predict relationships. Across cultures, humans tend to surround themselves with like-minded people. This phenomenon, known as homophily, explains why past studies have found neural similarities amongst…
The herpes virus can help treat severe skin cancer Science Photo Library/Alamy Viruses have shown huge potential in treating various kinds of cancer, but the immune response has limited their application to tumours near the body’s surface. Now, scientists have demonstrated that shielding viruses with genetically engineered bacteria bypasses this issue, slowing the growth of…
Some atoms simply refuse to obey entropy Shutterstock / Mendin Repeatedly energising a collection of ultracold atoms should destroy their collective structure, but quantum effects seem to counteract the process. The ultimate fate of any physical system ought to be “thermalisation,” a process by which everything heats up and becomes even and featureless, like an…
Researchers stabilised a ring-shaped carbon molecule by adding “bumpers” to protect its atoms Harry Anderson A new type of all-carbon molecule has been studied under normal room-temperature conditions. This marks only the second time this has ever been done, after spherical buckyballs were synthesised 35 years ago. The breakthrough could lead to extremely efficient materials…
Classical type 1 diabetes may not be the most common diabetes subtype in sub-Saharan Africa Miro May / Alamy Some sub-Saharan African people with the autoimmune disease type 1 diabetes actually have a newly recognised, non-autoimmune form of it – which may require new treatment strategies. All people with diabetes have difficulty producing or using…
Someone with paralysis using the brain-computer interface. The text above is the cued sentence and the text below is what is being decoded in real-time as she imagines speaking the sentence Emory BrainGate Team People with paralysis can now have their thoughts turned into speech just by imagining talking in their heads. While brain-computer interfaces…
Elaine Knox When I was growing up, it was customary for children to join the scouts once they reached fifth grade, around the age of 9 or 10. My parents bought me the scout uniform with the matching scarf and leather loop to fasten it around the collar, and I still remember feeling special and…
M’hammed Kilito Wellcome Collection A man gazes at the water level in a well in Morocco as the dunes of the Sahara desert extend to the horizon in the main image shown above, taken by M’hammed Kilito. The stark shot is part of the photographer’s ongoing project entitled Before It’s Gone, which documents the degradation…
Microfluidics makes it possible for devices like this chip to simulate biological organs WLADIMIR BULGAR/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY How the World Flows(Albert Folch, Oxford University Press, on sale now) What do rainbows, inkjet printers, human skin, pregnancy tests and fish gills have in common? To answer this question, we must travel to what Albert Folch, a bioengineering…