Transparent plastic and some tape..that's all it took the scientists to invent a coffee cup that works in zero gravity. Yay!

Somewhere in the future it is possible to see flying robots flown by fruit flies! It seems there is some use for them, after all...Enjoy!

Who would've thought shampoo could me so much fun? Scientists of the University of Twente made a video of leaping shampoo. This is actually a fluid effect called Kaye effect. Some fluids in motion can manifest this interesting effect. I don't know about the practical applications of it, but it's very beautiful! Enjoy!

I was really waiting for something bad to happen to this guy: for example, the bullets in the loader to heat enough and shoot everywhere. But it seems he got lucky Redneck - Natural Selection 1 - 0

In two separate experiments, scientists reach some interesting conclusions about our brain's ability to perceive time, and how and when we can modify it. Brilliant!

The switch that turns off and on to command the superconducting property of the new device is a trivial electric field. In practice, what has been done by Andrea Ankle and colleagues at the University of Geneva in the first superconducting transistors. The operation, represents a milestone of applied physics and paves the way for the development of a new generation of microchips - and therefore computers - much faster than at present. To understand how and why the device is considered so promising it must be from another discovery, made last year by the same group of university research in Switzerland and published in Science. In one study, physicists have created a single crystal in which two metal oxides (strontium titanate and lanthanum aluminate) are separated. Between these two materials, researchers have found a layer of free electrons (electronic cloud) and 0.3 Kelvin - that is just above absolute zero - traveling without any resistance. At that temperature, the crystal becomes a superconductor. Scientists have now discovered how to turn off and turn on the superconductivity of this crystal at will, or modules, simply by applying an electric field to the point of contact between the two oxides. The result is a version of superconductive field effect transistors (FET) devices known in applied physics, able to switch from one state to a semiconductor insulator, and basic digital information in electronics (the fact that the current can pass or not is used as a binary 1-0 to store information). As the field effect transistors is a semiconductor, however, it always has resistance to the passage of current. This means that the speed at which you can get the electrons when the device is "on" is limited which means heat develops beyond a certain limit. This side effect is damaging the transistor. A superconducting transistor, however, can pass electrons (and record information) much more quickly, as it does not oppose any resistance to the passage of current and, therefore, not heat. There remains the problem of extremely low temperatures required for superconductivity. A limit that research is a long time trying to overcome.

An amazing material was developed by Chinese scientists which is composed of carbon nanotube films and has a possible application (among otther) to produce the world's thinnest speakers. Nanotubes, are a new carbon breed of material, which is 1000 times smaller than the width of a hair and can give sound with the "same quality of conventional speakers". This, however, does not require magnets of any sort or moving parts for that matter at all. You can easilly imagine speakers everywhere: on walls, helmets, thinner ear plugs or even on your shirt. This is possible because very thin carbon nanotube films, with the right frequency of electric currents, can emit sound. It also has a wide frequency response range and high sound pressure. It also turns out that they are practical to build, and are even stretchable. Here is a video with the actual speackers embedded in a flag!

By comparing DNA of healthy and cancerous tissue of a single person, there were discovered eight new mutations linked to the disease. The study in Nature The complete genome of a person suffering from cancer was decoded for the first time. The comparison between the DNA of normal and cancerous tissue of a woman suffering from acute myeloid leukemia (AML) has identified ten mutations in the genome of cancer cells, including eight so far unknown, which would be linked to the disease. Researchers of the Washington University School of Medicine (USA), coordinated by Richard K. Wilson, presented their findings in Nature. Scientists have taken a sample of tissue from normal skin and a tumor tissue from bone marrow to a patient suffering from AML - cancer that affects the bone marrow cells that produce red blood cells. Subsequently they have decoded the DNA of the two tissues, comparing all three billion bases of which the genomes were composed, to go back to differences in disease characteristics of the individual. There were ten mutations identified, two already known, eight first ever linked to the disease. Of those, three were found in genes that normally can block the growth of tumors (for example in Ptprt, the tyrosine phosphatase gene, often altered in colon cancer). Four changes instead involved genes regulate the molecular pathways that promote tumor development - particularly in a family of genes, usually expressed in embryonic stem cells, which could stimulate cell renewal. A final disturbing deterioration instead of transporting drugs into the cell. According to scientists, these mutations have occurred one after another, each adding something new to the tumor.

An enzyme that can rewind the DNA at points where the two propellers should remain separate, even fatal, causing disturbances. The cause of some serious diseases, such as the rare immune-dysplasia of bone Schimke is a protein able to settle the two propellers of DNA at points in which they should remain separate and thus induce the expression of genes that would otherwise be idle. Under normal circumstances the DNA presents a series of "bubbles", namely the segments in which there is space between them and raggomitolate. The unusual alignment of the two parallel strips, led by newly discovered protein, called Harp (HEPA-related protein), reactivates the expression of genes in these traits, which may in this way to start even occurrence of very serious diseases. The enzyme is and was discovered by James Kadonaga and Timur Yusufzai, two biologists at the University of San Diego (California) authors whose research results were published in Science. Just as a zip, the enzyme flows on the tape of DNA tangles the lines and welding to the two separate entities, thereby according the traits of nucleic acid that ordinarily are designed to remain inactive. Exactly the opposite of what another enzyme, the "elicasi", which has the role to unwind the DNA during replication of the molecule, being essential for life. The protein discovery is only the first of an entire class of enzymes candidates to be the basis of occurrence of disorders characterized by cardiac or kidney malfunction, with even fatal effects on children.

The mutation of the gene Alk would be responsible for inherited forms of cancer. Neuroblastoma is a childhood cancer more widespread and aggressive: it attacks the autonomic nervous system during development, forming frequently in tumor masses or into the chest. A study, published in Nature and coordinated by the Children Hospital of Philadelphia (USA), indicates that mutations in the gene anaplastic lymphoma kinase (Alk) would be responsible for inherited forms of the disease. The international group of researchers, including some of the Italian Institute for Cancer Research in Genoa, have collected genetic information of 20 families where the disease was presented in more than one occasion, by analyzing the DNA of 176 people ( of which 49 with neuroblastoma). Eight families, in which at least three individuals suffering from the disease were closely analyzed, possessed the changed Alk gene. The normal role of this gene, which expresses a transmembrane receptor, is not yet understood in depth but, according to previous studies, its alterations increase the risk of developing lymphoma or lung cancer.

The ventral striatum, a part of the brain already known to be associated with rewards and unexpected stimuli, is the center of our desire for adventure. The research in Neuron. A group of researchers from the Wellcome Trust Centre for Neuroimaging at the University College of London has identified the area of the brain directly linked to our desire for adventure. Or, more precisely, our propensity to live new experiences and to experience what we do not know. For the study, published in Neuron, researchers have developed a test: the participants were presented a series of images associated with different sums of money put into a premium, and were asked to guess which of the sums was higher. Although the volunteers easily could identify the image associated with richer rewards, when it was introduced a new figure, all of them tended to choose the latter rather than those already known with secure profits. Through magnetic resonance imaging, neuroscientists have noticed that the area of the ventral Striatum (an area of the brain already known to be associated to receive a reward and unexpected stimuli) was particularly active when participants opted for the novelty.

A newly discovered molecule, Isx-9, is able to make stem cells mature into brain cells. The study in Nature Chemical Biology They came across this behavior, while they were stimulating stem cells to give rise to cardiac cells, when researchers from the Southwestern Medical Center at the University of Texas at Dallas, have discovered that some of the molecules tested have matured however into neural cells. Completely random, therefore, this lead to the isolation of Isx-9, the most powerful among the compounds tested, capable, at very low concentrations, to create differentiated neurons. The study, conducted by researchers led by Jay Schneider and Jenny Hsieh was published on the number of Nature Chemical Biology. Scientists began testing 147 thousand molecules for the project in order to isolate those who could stimulate embryonic stem cells to differentiate into cardiac cells. Stunningly, American researchers have noted that five of these compounds caused the stem to rise to neurons. One of these molecules was selected because it was acting to lower concentrations of the other and was more soluble in water. This, has given life to the compound Isx-9 that has been tested on neural stem cells from the brain, particularly those of the hippo campus of laboratory animals. In the test tube, the stem, under the action of Isx-9, could form the clusters and develop the first steps towards the formation of neurons.

A new advanced thermometer, based on noise Johnson, increased by five times the accuracy of current systems After seven years of work, researchers from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (Nist), the U.S. organization for the development of technologies, have managed to build a new type of thermometer, Johnson Noise Thermometer (Jnt), defined by the same scientists a goal of thermometry, which advances to five times the current state of the art. The new device will in fact take measurements of extreme precision, never obtained so far, fundamental for basic research and for the definition of units of measurement. At the head of the project is Sam Benz, the Quantum Devices Group, which officially presented it on June 9th at a conference on measures of accuracy in Broomfield, Colorado. The new thermometer provides the temperature starting from noise Johnson (hence the name), generated by the random motion of electrons inside a resistance. This measure is directly proportional to the temperature, and the system makes it possible to reduce the error without any additional calibrations. "All measurements are electrical, and do not require volumes of gas or mechanical systems that sometimes, depending on environmental conditions, could give approximate results." says Benz, " beauty is that the measurement is also very simple to perform. "

For the first time a molecule of genetic material was observed in real time, that is able to correct damage in its structure The repair of a damaged DNA molecules is a mechanism well known in genetics, but so far no one had given testimony in real time. Researchers of the Kavli Institute at the University of Delft, the Netherlands, were able to document at the level of a single molecule of DNA, the homologous recombination, one of the mechanisms of repair frequently put in place by the cells. The work was published in the journal Molecular Cell. The rupture of the molecule of DNA can be caused, for example, from ultraviolet rays or X-ray, but it can also happen during normal cell division. The type of damage can affect a part of the structure internal molecules, but the cells are equipped with various mechanisms to repair it. If these damages were not immediately corrected, they could lead to changes in functional levels!

An experimental study opens a way for gene therapy as a possible treatment for cases that do not respond to medicines in cases of Epilepsy. Research on Brain. Almost one third of people suffering from epilepsy don't respond to prescription drugs. To date, the only possibility for many of them is to undergo an operation to remove the area affected by the disease in the brain, but an alternative to surgery could rise by gene therapy. An experimental study of the Department of Neuroscience of Mario Negri in Milan, led by Noah, has shown that it is possible to induce the sick cells to produce a protein with anticonvulsant properties. And what this substance does is significantly reduces the recurrence of seizures. The research, conducted in collaboration with international groups led by Gunther Sperk University of Innsbruck (Austria), Asla Pitkanen University of Kuopio (Finland), and Matthew During dell'Ohio State University (USA), was just published on Brain magazine.

Three hours of jogging or 13 of walking per week: according to a U.S. study moderate exercise reduces the risk of breast cancer Being fit, as we know, is not only an aesthetic issue. And now it seems that it is also useful for the prevention of breast cancer. A study of about 65,000 women by researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St.. Louis and from Harvard University in Boston, just published in Journal of the National Cancer Institute, points out that women practicing sports have a 23 per cent lower risk of developing cancer before the menopause. In particular, it may be important to regularly exercise between the ages of 12 and 22 years. "We have prevention strategies for breast cancer pre-menopausal, but our research shows that physical activity during adolescence and youth, between 12 and 35 years, may be important in the long term reduction of the risk of cancer", said Graham Colditz, professor of Prevention and Control and co-director at the Siteman Cancer Center, Washington University School of Medicine and Barnes-Jewish Hospital. "This is just one more reason to encourage young women to exercise regularly."

The sense of justice and the practical idea of efficiency are encoded in different ways and in different areas of the brain. A study in Science. Giving a lot to very few, or just a little at everyone? According to a study published on this number of Science, most people follow the second choice, relying on fairness. The neurophysiologists at the University of Illinois and California Institute of Technology have succeeded, through magnetic resonance imaging, to identify which brain areas are involved in taking such decisions. Scientists have concluded that two different parts of the brain, the insula (a small area of bark MEP to the perception of physiological states) and the putamen (Part nuclei that control voluntary movement), are activated when judging respectively fairness and efficiency. A third area, the caudate nucleus, is the coordination of the first two areas.

The nervous system takes a decision ten seconds before the individual is conscious of it: a German study calls into question the concept of free will! The human brain takes a decision almost ten seconds before the person is aware: the claim comes from researchers of Max Planck Institute for Cognitive Sciences in Leipzig, Germany, led by neuroscientist John-Dylan Haynes. With this claim, the German scientist are taking into question the principle of "free will" during the decision-making process. The researchers asked 14 volunteers to undergo brain imaging during the course of a task: the experiment was to take a decision: in this case pressing between two buttons, with the right hand or with the left at the choice of the subject. At the same time, on a screen it was shown a stream of letters, at a rate of one every half second, and volunteers had to report the letter on the screen at the time of their decision.

Particles in a confined microscopic space, move in a coordinated manner and can be manipulated and observed with a precision never achieved. A nano-trap can be imagined as a tube the size of a billionth of a meter in which electrons are closed to study their behavior. Thus, scientists from the centers of the Italian Institute for physics of matter of Cnr "S3", Modena and "Nest" of Pisa in collaboration with Columbia University in New York, were able to observe with great precision the behavior of a quartet of electrons confined in one of these structures. Result: the particles move in a coordinated manner and with precise frequencies and can be manipulated. The study was published in Nature Phisics. As it is known, the physics of the matter the size of an atom or less follows different laws than those of classical physics. According to these principles, which fall in quantum physics, the behavior of particles such as electrons can not be described as we are used to (for larger bjects),but it is outlined mainly in terms of probabilistic forecasts. The technique developed by Cnr made it possible to determine the frequency of vibrations of particles through the use of a beam of laser light. The electrons in a nano-trap can only move in a coordinated manner and in accordance with the laws of quantum mechanics, vibrate at frequencies well defined that, thanks to this method, was possible to measure with unprecedented precision.

Thanks to special steel plates, the University of Utah is implementing a computer that makes use of terahertz radiation instead of electricity It will be the first computer powered by infrared rays rather than electricity, a super-computer capable of operating at terahertz radiation (far-infrared), the only still unexplored frontier in the electromagnetic spectrum. It is being developed by a group of scientists at the University of Utah. It will probably require ten years of work to be completed. Currently, the group of scientists are making waveguides, the appropriate "channels" that will convey radiation and transmit it from one point to another. To mark a decisive step forward in research, the good results obtained by the use of special sheets of perforated stainless steel which are proving able to lead effectively terahertz radiation (the portion of the electromagnetic spectrum that is between microwaves and infrared, and whose wavelength is between 1 mm and 100 micrometers). As described in the study of Ajay Nahata (which will be published in Optics Express Friday April 18), these sheets will be "the matrix" on which to build the future of computer circuits. According to the surveys conducted so far, in fact, the number of perforations - arranged on a semi-regular on laminate - would maintain control over radiation, not disperse them over the surface of the material. There is still much to be found, for example, the way to drive rays, making them bend, split and reunited later.