Press monitoring
Eat a purple potato if you know what\'s good for you
6.9.2017 | Press monitoring
Israeli scientists synthesize healthier potatoes and tomatoes in brilliant colors. The technology can also produce unusually hued ornamental flowers. Are you ready for violet-colored potatoes? How about orange tobacco? Researchers at Israel's Weizmann Institute of Science have figured out how produce betalain pigments in plants and flowers that...
Magic enzymes in magic mushrooms analyzed
4.9.2017 | Press monitoring
For centuries, Central American cultures considered Psilocybe mushrooms to be divine and used them for spiritual purposes. More recently, they have been called magic mushrooms and used for their hallucinogenic effects. These mushroom drugs may soon also be in use as pharmaceuticals that treat the existential anxiety of advanced-stage cancer...
Scientists use brewery waste to grow yeast needed for beer making
1.9.2017 | Press monitoring
Scientists from Nanyang Technological University, Singapore (NTU Singapore) have invented a new process to turn spent brewery grains into a valuable product that can grow beer yeast. In beer making, yeast is the key ingredient for fermentation, a process where sugars from the grains are converted into alcohol. The beer brewing process thus needs...
Nanomachines drill holes into cancer cells
30.8.2017 | Press monitoring
Someday doctors may use nanomachines to puncture cancer cells. The new machines are so tiny, at just a nanometer wide, that 50,000 of them could be lined up across the width of a human hair. Although the nanodrillers bear no physical resemblance to a machine we would recognize, the molecules strung together by chemists run like an electric motor....
Sugars in human mother\'s milk are new class of antibacterial agents
28.8.2017 | Press monitoring
Mother's milk, which consists of a complex and continually changing blend of proteins, fats and sugars, helps protect babies against bacterial infections. In the past, scientists have concentrated their search for the source of its antibacterial properties on the proteins it contains. However, an interdisciplinary team of chemists and doctors at...
Biotechnology researchers turn to landfill sites
25.8.2017 | Press monitoring
Far from being a load of rubbish, landfill sites should be considered one of the great untapped resources in the search for new enzymes for biotechnology, and could fuel more efficient biofuel production. A new research paper in mSphere by biologists at Bangor and Liverpool universities has for the first time identified the enzymes which degrade...
Scientists sequence a whole genome to identify a plant species within hours
23.8.2017 | Press monitoring
Over the last forty years, DNA sequencing has revolutionised the scientific world but has remained laboratory-bound. Using current methods, a complete experiment to identify a species, from fieldwork to result, could easily take a scientist months to complete. Species identification is, by nature, a largely a field-based area of pursuit, thereby...
Spider peptides battle superbugs and cancer
21.8.2017 | Press monitoring
As antibiotic resistance rises and fears over superbugs grow, scientists are looking for new treatment options. One area of focus is antimicrobial peptides (AMPs), which could someday be an alternative to currently prescribed antibiotics, many of which are becoming increasingly useless against some bacteria. Now, a team reports in ACS Chemical...
Why NASA Is Launching Massive Balloons of Bacteria During the Eclipse
18.8.2017 | Press monitoring
Monday’s total solar eclipse will provide some much-needed wholesome enjoyment for all of us here in the United States. To make things even sweeter, NASA – in collaboration with researchers at Montana State University – will be seizing the opportunity to launch some giant balloons during the event. Scientists aren’t sending up balloons because...
Scientists use gene editing to eliminate viruses in live pigs
16.8.2017 | Press monitoring
Scientists have edited the pig genome to deactivate a family of retroviruses. The results hold important implications for transplant medicine in humans. The shortage of human organs and tissues for transplantation represents one of the most significant unmet medical needs. One promising prospect is to use animal organs in humans, with pig organs...
