The It Ain't Magic Science Blog

Ultraprecise clocks and the Tokyo Skytree verify Einstein’s theory of relativity

Time measured at the top and bottom of the Tokyo Skytree with ultraprecise clocks has verified the time dilation effect predicted by Einstein.

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New lab-grown retinal sheets almost ready for clinical trials

A new retinal transplant technique works by preventing bipolar cells from maturing in lab-grown retinal sheets.

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Real webshooters? Synthetic spider silk spun from artificial gland

Scientists create a microfluidic device that spins artificial spider silk from spidroins proteins, duplicating silk’s complex molecular structure.

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Scientists create new type of self-healing material

This newly created ethylene-based material has shape memory that allows self-healing!

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Electric rays to help us map the ocean floor

Electric rays and sting rays could map the ocean floor through their natural behavior, helping us find resources and collect data on other ocean life.

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New rice fights off drought

Researchers have created drought resistant transgenic rice using a gene from a small Eurasian flowering plant

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Self-assembly of spider silk

This gut microbe might protect against diabetes and reduce insulin resistance

NEW: One-way hydrogel guides motion of tiny worms!

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Dietary amino acid linked to cancer in flies

Researchers have found a dietary amino acid linked to oncogene expression / tumor formation; reduced consumption reduced cancer in flies.

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Skipping fatty acids could be recipe for schizophrenia

Prenatal lack of omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids linked to epigenetic changes that lead to schizophrenic symptoms in mice.

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Staining that lights up whole organs and bodies

Scientists have developed a staining procedure that makes see-through tissue, organs, and bodies useful.

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Toward human hibernation: cold-resistant mouse stem cells

Cold-resistant stem cells from “deep torpor” mice are a big step toward understanding why tissue survives hibernation.

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Albumin drops medicine off at cancer site then leaves the body

By changing albumin’s identity, drugs can carried to their targets and then removed from the body after being used.

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Flies smell through a gore-tex system

The newly named gore-tex gene is responsible for the development of nanopores that allow chemicals in the air to be detected (in flies).

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Mar

Heat shock system helps dried up bug come back to life

by jens wilkinson | Hot Off the Press

An international collaboration has determined that cooption of the Heat Shock Factor (HSF) gene system is what allows larvae of the sleeping chironomid to be able to survive severe desiccation.

Feb

In living color: imaging the brain with synthetic bioluminescence

by admin | Hot Off the Press

A new way to image the brain from outside the head using bioluminescence.

Feb

Deep-brain exploration with nanomaterials

by admin | Hot Off the Press

A new way to optogenetically activate neurons deep in the brain using infrared light and upconversion nanoparticles. It’s non-invasive!

Feb

Running away from carbon dioxide: the terminal connection

by adam phillips | Hot Off the Press

Even fish want to avoid carbon dioxide. Now we know that they can because of chemosensation and the Terminal Nerve.

Jan

Rainbow engineering to make the brain glow

by admin | Drop of science

Bar talk about tinkering with bioluminescent molecules from jellyfish, corals, and algae, figuring out how they work, and making them more useful for brain science.

Jan

Geostationary satellite enables better precipitation and flood predictions

by jens wilkinson | Hot Off the Press

Data from the Himawari-8 geosynchronous satellite was used in weather simulations to improve forecasts of sudden precipitation and tropical storm development.

Jan

Clean and green: a moss that removes lead (Pb) from water

by adam phillips | Hot Off the Press

Scientists show that the moss Funaria hygrometrica can remove harmful lead from water when in the protonema stage of development.

Jan

The brain’s GPS has a buddy system

by admin | Hot Off the Press

In addition to encoding self location, brain cells in the rat hippocampus act like a GPS that encodes the location of other rats.

Dec

Leaky plants bad for drought resistance

by adam phillips | Research in Depth

The KAI2 receptor for compounds found in smoke helps plants retain water and survive during drought.

Transgenic plants ??on acid survive without water

Scientists designed transgenic plants that survive drought-like conditions by bumping up acetic acid production only when water is scarce.

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Social contact-seeking behavior and loneliness in the brain

Levels of the peptide amylin in the brain are related to loneliness; activating amylin neurons in the MPOA drives isolated mice to seek social contact.