A landmark small safety study of a promising new gene therapy approach provides early evidence that directly editing the defective gene may restore some vision loss in people with CEP290-associated retinal degeneration.
Science
“Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I'm not sure about the universe.” ― Albert EinsteinScience
Gene Editing Gives Hope for Inherited Blindness
Gene Editing Gives Hope for Inherited Blindness
A landmark small safety study of a promising new gene therapy approach provides early evidence that directly editing the defective gene may restore some vision loss in people with CEP290-associated retinal degeneration.
A Wild Orangutan’s Self-Medication Secret
A Wild Orangutan’s Self-Medication Secret
Deep in the forests of Sumatra, scientists made an unexpected discovery - a wild orangutan was treating its own wound using plants in a way that provided the first...
Measuring the Thickness of Water’s Airy Interface
Measuring the Thickness of Water’s Airy Interface
Aqueous interfaces are ubiquitous in many natural and artificial processes and their significance arises from the unique properties of water molecules within the interfacial region, with a crucial parameter being the thickness of its structural anisotropy or 'healing depthg'
The Mystery of the Disappearing Fireflies
The Mystery of the Disappearing Fireflies
Fireflies have illuminated summer evenings with their magical glow as long as humanity has observed the night sky, but now anecdotal reports from across North America have suggested that firefly populations have been declining.
Fighting the Nanoplastics
Fighting the Nanoplastics
Most people are familiar with the scourge of microplastics pollution - the microscopic pieces of plastic debris that are pervasive in our waters. But an even smaller and more insidious form of plastic pollution is gaining attention from scientists - nanoplastics.
AI | Hallucinations and Illusions of AI in Science
AI | Hallucinations and Illusions of AI in Science
A new perspective paper published in Nature warns that an overreliance on AI comes with epistemic risks that could undermine the very goals of increased productivity and objectivity that AI promises. See the April DarkDrug Editorial based on this paper
AI | Can AI Assist in Peer Review?
AI | Can AI Assist in Peer Review?
The constant growth in research output has placed tremendous strain on this system as the number of papers requiring expert evaluation increases each year. Could artificial intelligence (AI) offer a solution by assisting reviewers or automating certain tasks?
AI | Will AI Diminish the Rigor of Peer Review?
AI | Will AI Diminish the Rigor of Peer Review?
As the use of AI by researchers to aid them write abstracts and journal submissions grows, this research looks at the use of AI in reviewing them
Imaging Atoms in Quantum Wave Motion
Imaging Atoms in Quantum Wave Motion
Erwin Schrödinger's 1920 equation that predicts how particles-turned-waves should behave. is now being recreated in laboratories by researchers
Ocean Productivity Declines as Marine Heatwaves Intensify
Ocean Productivity Declines as Marine Heatwaves Intensify
Marine primary productivity is pivotal for transferring carbon dioxide from the atmosphere into the ocean. This study shows a 65% decline in net primary production in the surveyed area.
- Ion irradiation offers promise for 2D material...on May, 2024 at 8:41 pm
Two-dimensional materials such as graphene promise to form the basis of incredibly small and fast technologies, but this requires a detailed understanding of their electronic properties. New research demonstrates that fast electronic processes can be probed by irradiating the materials with ions […]
- Physicists propose path to faster, more flexible...on May, 2024 at 8:41 pm
Physicists revealed a microscopic phenomenon that could greatly improve the performance of soft devices, such as agile flexible robots or microscopic capsules for drug delivery.
- Can we revolutionize the chemical industry and...on May, 2024 at 3:15 pm
A new commentary paper puts forth a transformative solution to the unsustainable reliance on fossil resources by the chemical industry: catalysis to leverage sustainable waste resources, ushering the industry from a linear to a circular economy.
- Diamond glitter: A play of colors with artificial...on May, 2024 at 3:15 pm
Using DNA origami, researchers have built a diamond lattice with a periodicity of hundreds of nanometers -- a new approach for manufacturing semiconductors for visible light.
- Deep-sea sponge's 'zero-energy' flow control...on May, 2024 at 3:15 pm
The deep-sea Venus flower basket sponge can filter feed using only the faint ambient currents of the ocean depths, no pumping required, new research reveals. This discovery of natural 'zero energy' flow control could help engineers design more efficient chemical reactors, air purification systems, […]
After 11 years, Boston Dynamics has said goodbye to its humanoid robot ATLAS HD. The robotics company says it’s time for ATLAS to “kick back and relax” in retirement, letting the new all electric ATLAS take over. This video was shared to remember ATLAS HD’s great moments and those not so great.
Header Banner: On 4 July 2012, the ATLAS and CMS experiments at CERN’s Large Hadron Collider announced they had each observed a new particle in the mass region around 126 GeV. This particle is consistent with the Higgs boson predicted by the Standard Model. The Higgs boson, as proposed within the Standard Model, is the simplest manifestation of the Brout-Englert-Higgs mechanism. Other types of Higgs bosons are predicted by other theories that go beyond the Standard Model. On 8 October 2013 the Nobel prize in physics (link is external) was awarded jointly to François Englert and Peter Higgs “for the theoretical discovery of a mechanism that contributes to our understanding of the origin of mass of subatomic particles, and which recently was confirmed through the discovery of the predicted fundamental particle, by the ATLAS and CMS experiments at CERN’s Large Hadron Collider”. The DarkDrug logo shows the Milky Way, the galaxy we call home and yet only explored a fraction of.