Tweaking a newly discovered gene in the black cottonwood tree caused the trees to grow 37 percent taller in the wild and 200 percent taller in a greenhouse.
Tag: Science
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INDIANA START-UP INTRODUCES GIANT BATTERY ON WHEELS
It looks like a windowless military personnel carrier, or maybe a Humvee on steroids, but it’s actually a self-propelled, all-electric, giant battery on wheels called the Mobile Power Station (MPS), created by Dannar LLC in Indiana.
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HOW TO TURN LEAVES INTO ELECTRONIC CIRCUIT BOARDS
Peeling the valuable electronic components and useful metals from discarded circuit boards is labor-intensive and time-consuming.
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TENS OF THOUSANDS OF NEW HUMAN GENES HAVE BEEN REVEALED. WHAT ARE THEY FOR?
Scientists surveying previously overlooked crannies of the human genome have found thousands of new genes that might hold the key to everything from understanding neurodegenerative conditions to curing cancer.
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OLD CARPETS MAKE BETTER CONCRETE
Chucking old carpet fibers into concrete strengthens the concrete by up to 40 percent, reduces cracking by as much as 30 percent, and helps it last longer, according to a study by Australia’s Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT).
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RELAX, MOM AND DAD. ALL THAT GAMING IS BUILDING CAREER SKILLS
People who regularly take part in massive multiplayer online (MMO) games are building skills that pay off in the workplace, according to a new study from the University of Houston’s College of Technology.
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ENGINEERED CELLS CURE “INCURABLE” AUTOIMMUNE DISEASES
In a small experiment at Germany’s Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen-Nürnberg, 15 people suffering from three different incurable autoimmune diseases—lupus, systemic hardening of the body’s tissues, and inflammation of the muscles—saw their symptoms disappear after they were given an infusion of altered cells designed to refresh their immune systems.
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AFRICAN MEALWORM EATS STYROFOAM
Those blocks of hard foam packing around your flat-screen TV look like dinner to an African mealworm.
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JET FUEL DISTILLED FROM WASTEWATER CUTS EMISSIONS 70 PERCENT
Researchers at the Argonne National Laboratory have created a process to salvage organic matter from wastewater and use it as a feedstock to make “sustainable”—non-polluting—jet fuel.
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SLEEPING BRAIN CELLS COULD WAKE UP AND COMBAT A RANGE OF ILLNESSES
Our brains have hordes of neural stem cells that can grow into new brain cells. They’re dormant until a signal jolts them awake and they begin to make young and healthy new cells.