Science

Tattoo made of gold nanoparticles revolutionizes medical diagnostics

5 days ago Andreas Milano

IMAGE: Gold nanoparticles embedded in a porous hydrogel can be implanted under the skin and used as medical sensors. The sensor is like an invisible tattoo revealing concentration changes of substances…
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Credit: ill./©: Nanobiotechnology Group, JGU Department of Chemistry

The idea of implantable sensors that continuously transmit information on vital values and concentrations of substances or drugs in the body has fascinated physicians and scientists for a long time. Such sensors enable the constant monitoring of disease progression and therapeutic success. However, until now implantable sensors have not been suitable to remain in the body permanently but had

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Newly made laser-cooled antimatter could test physics’ foundations

5 days ago Andreas Milano

For the first time, physicists have used lasers to deep-freeze antimatter.

In a new experiment, an ultraviolet laser quelled the thermal jitters of antihydrogen atoms, chilling the antiatoms to just above absolute zero. This technique for slowing down antimatter — the oppositely charged counterpart to normal matter — could help scientists build the first antimatter molecules. Taming unruly antimatter with laser light may also allow physicists to measure the properties of antiatoms much more precisely, researchers report in the April 1 Nature. Comparing antiatoms with normal atoms could test some fundamental symmetries of the universe.

Lasers can cool

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New depictions of ancient hominids aim to overcome artistic biases

6 days ago Andreas Milano

Depictions of extinct human ancestors and cousins are often more art than science.

Take, for example, two reconstructions of the Taung child, a 2.8-million-year-old Australopithecus africanus skull discovered in South Africa in 1924. One version, made using a sculptor’s intuition, appears more apelike. A second version, made while working alongside a scientist, appears more humanlike.

Now, the researchers that produced the dueling images are attempting to remove some of this subjectivity by introducing standards that may give more accurate and reproducible portraits of species known only from fossilized bone. The team points out some of the flaws in facial reconstructions

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Surprising nuggets from the WHO report: NPR science correspondent digs in

6 days ago Andreas Milano

When COVID-19 first broke out in Wuhan, scientists tracked a large number of the cases to the Huanan Seafood Market in Wuhan. Above: The Wuhan Hygiene Emergency Response Team departs the market on Jan. 11, 2020, after it had been shut down to prevent the spread of the coronavirus.

Noel Celis/AFP via Getty Images

This week, the World Health Organization finally released its long-awaited report about its investigation into how and where the COVID-19 pandemic began.

Although the main conclusions were roughly what the agency had already reported to the media, deep inside the 300-page paper there are tantalizing nuggets

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‘Ape Initiative’ brings real-world science to Nashville students

6 days ago Andreas Milano

NASHVILLE, Tenn., (WKRN) – A non-profit organization offers a new learning experience about the conservation efforts of primates to students at Vanderbilt University and Metro Nashville Public Schools.

The Ape Initiative bridges world-class research happening around the world with K-12 students by showing them real-world science. The research facility has been the only one in the world dedicated to the study and conservation of the species most closely related to humans – endangered bonobos.

News 2 spoke with Angela Eeds, Director of the School for Science and Math at Vanderbilt,

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EPA head removes Trump-era science advisers

7 days ago Andreas Milano

WASHINGTON (AP) — In a move he said would help restore “scientific integrity,” the new head of the Environmental Protection Agency is removing dozens of scientists and other experts from key advisory boards named under President Donald Trump, saying they were overly friendly to industry.

EPA Administrator Michael Regan, in an Associated Press interview, said the “reset” of the Science Advisory Board and Clean Air Scientific Advisory Committee will return EPA to its time-honored practice of relying on advice from a balanced group of experts. He is clearing out the two important panels, although current members can apply for

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