5,993 articles from JUNE 2020

Restoring vision by gene therapy

Macular degeneration is one of the major reasons for visual impairment. Scientists have now developed a therapeutic approach based on gene therapy. They managed to activate degenerated photoreceptors using near-infrared light.

Mothers ensure their offspring's success through epigenetics

Parents pass genes along to their offspring which equip them for their future life. In recent years, research has shown that the reality is much more complex and that parents endow much more than just genes. A new study reveals that active epigenetic modifications are also passed from one generation to the next.

Discovery unlocks 'hot' electrons for more efficient energy use

Highly energetic, "hot" electrons have the potential to help solar panels more efficiently harvest light energy. But up until now, scientists haven't been able to measure the energies of those electrons, limiting their use. Researchers have now demonstrated how a technique using a scanning tunneling microscope integrated with lasers and other optical components reveals the energy distribution of...

DNA-barcoded microbial spores can trace origin of objects, agricultural products

Every year, an estimated 48 million Americans get sick from foodborne illnesses, resulting in some 128,000 hospitalizations and 3,000 deaths, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. This public health problem is compounded by billions in economic damage from product recalls, highlighting the need to rapidly and accurately determine the sources of foodborne illnesses.

Novel switch protein that 'turns on' sperm for fertilization

For a sperm to fertilize an egg, the sperm must first mature in a man's epididymis. Now, an international team of researchers has identified a chain of events in which a protein secreted by the testis travels in the luminal fluid, binds to a receptor on the epididymis to induce its differentiation and secretion of a second protein that matures the sperm and enables each sperm to be motile in...

A fractional corner anomaly reveals higher-order topology

Spectral measurements of boundary-localized topological modes are commonly used to identify topological insulators. For high-order insulators, these modes appear at boundaries of higher codimension, such as the corners of a two-dimensional material. Unfortunately, this spectroscopic approach is only viable if the energies of the topological modes lie within the bulk bandgap, which is not required...

Barcoded microbial system for high-resolution object provenance

Determining where an object has been is a fundamental challenge for human health, commerce, and food safety. Location-specific microbes in principle offer a cheap and sensitive way to determine object provenance. We created a synthetic, scalable microbial spore system that identifies object provenance in under 1 hour at meter-scale resolution and near single-spore sensitivity and can be safely...