Category: One
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Mapping the genome. The illusion of “dimensions”…
Cells face a daunting task. They have to neatly pack a several meter-long thread of genetic material into a nucleus that measures only five micrometers across. This origami creates spatial interactions between genes and their switches, which can affect human health and disease. Now, an international team of scientists has devised a powerful new technique…
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Transformations. Modern alchemy. Ancient secrets…
Since the Middle Ages, alchemists have sought to transmute elements, the most famous example being the long quest to turn lead into gold. Transmutation has been realized in modern times, but on a minute scale using a massive particle accelerator. Researchers have now taken a different approach to that alchemists' ancient goal by making one…
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Synchronizing things… That are already in sync…
Scientists have set up the world's most precise 'metronome' for a kilometer-wide network. The timing system synchronizes a 4.7-kilometer-long laser-microwave network with 950 attoseconds precision. An attosecond is a millionth of a millionth of a millionth of a second. (1) Impressive. Or so it seems. Because the problem is not synchronization per se. Everything is…
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Dinosaurs. Νείκος. Φιλότης.
A new publication on the bird-like dinosaur Avimimus, from the late-Cretaceous suggests they were gregarious, social animals - evidence that flies in the face of the long-held mysticism surrounding dinosaurs as solo creatures. "The common mythology of dinosaurs depicts solitary, vicious monsters running around eating everything," explains Gregory Funston, PhD student and Vanier scholar at…
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Remembering rules. Math. Blind cosmos… [Against mathematical operations?!]
Children differ substantially in their mathematical abilities. In fact, some children cannot routinely add or subtract, even after extensive schooling. This new paper proposes that math disability arises from abnormalities in brain areas supporting procedural memory. Procedural memory is a learning and memory system that is crucial for the automation of non-conscious skills, such as…
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