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Converting the combustion engine into a clean machine is an enormous challenge. A new diesel engine that uses incoming fuel to mop up pollutants in the exhaust could be a winner.
Microscopes that reveal the structures of surfaces one atom at a time are good at imaging conductors but perform poorly with insulators. That may be about to change.
When bacteria attack another organism, one of the first steps is the injection of 'virulence effector proteins' into its cells. Two of the main players in such a system have been caught in action.
Many-body systems, such as electrons flowing in a superconductor, are among the most difficult theoretical problems to study. A new family of exactly solvable models may offer some answers.
Nearly all cells have membranes spanned by potassium-conducting channel proteins, without which your nerves (and much else) simply wouldn't work. Ion permeation through these channels can now be seen in dazzling detail.
An ideal probe should be as small as possible so it doesn't interfere with the observation. When measuring the distribution of a light field, it seems that a single atom is up to the job.
Humans have several ways of keeping cancer at bay, and the p53 protein forms a crucial part of this self-defence. The newly discovered action of a p53-binding protein helps explain how cells respond to p53.
The structures of crystals, from metals to proteins, have successfully been explored with X-rays. An ultrafast switch turns this idea around and uses a crystal to control the timing of X-ray pulses.
Phase transitions occurring at a temperature of absolute zero — quantum phase transitions — are hard to measure. A new type of quantum phase transition is now predicted to occur in two dimensions, rather than three.
The Wnt family of proteins is a large one. Various combinations of its members control all sorts of developmental processes, including, it now seems, a pathway involving cell adhesion.
The 'how, where and when' of possible Neanderthal coexistence with Cro-Magnons, and their extinction, continue to exercise a varied community of researchers. The latest interpretations of the fossil and archaeological records were aired at two meetings.
Ancient Egyptians used sophisticated combinations of natural substances to embalm the human body. Over time, they modified their recipes to balance quality of preservation with cost and availability of materials.
Icebergs could represent a source of fresh water to arid lands, if they wandered from the coast of Antarctica. A new simulation provides some answers and raises more questions about iceberg movements.
Atmospheric disturbances, such as aurorae and meteorites, are sometimes noisy. If the root cause of the sound could be harnessed artificially, it would make a useful public-address system.
Many messenger RNAs are not functional until they are processed by a complex called the spliceosome. It seems increasingly likely that processing is catalysed by the RNA — and not the protein — parts of this complex.
The trail of a particle undergoing brownian motion might be unkindly described as a drunken walk. A 40-year-old conjecture related to brownian motion and such random walks has finally been proved.
Conventional wisdom says that magnetic materials have to contain some metallic atoms. So the discovery of a type of pure carbon that is magnetic at room temperature is bound to invite controversy.
