Looking to nature for technological inspiration is nothing new and now a team of scientists are hoping that new insights into spider fangs and the composition and structure of their materials may provide inspiration for the optimization of similar technical materials and devices. Although their armor consists of the same material as their predator’s fangs, [...]

New research shows that tuberculosis and sarcoidosis are not only similar clinically, but their biosignatures also have a number of elements in common and scientists at Max Planck Institute found only four microRNAs that are suitable for distinguishing tuberculosis and sarcoidosis patients. With a range of diseases, doctors need unique features which they can use [...]

Biochemists at the Max Planck Institute used advanced imaging technologies to successfully perform the first comprehensive analysis of the molecular structure of a yeast cell membrane, revealing precisely how it is organized. As the interface between the cell and its environment, the cell membrane, which consists of fats and proteins, fulfills a variety of vital [...]

In an effort to better understand why fruit flies are immediately attracted to our food, a team of scientists developed a device, called Flywalk, to measure the response of insects to odor signals. Researchers discovered males and females of the same species were attracted to different odors and that their brain function, when determining between [...]

If you thought living on fast-food, candy, soda and red meat was dangerous, try a diet of carbon monoxide and hydrogen sulfide. That’s what researchers at the Max Planck Institute found to be the diet of a small marine worm, Olavius algarvensis, which is thriving on these poisons in the seas off the coast of [...]

It not only serves as a tasty raw material for candy, it has medicinal purposes as well. Scientists have found that the liquorice root contains a group of natural substances with an anti-diabetic effect, the amorfrutins, in the plant’s edible root. Research on diabetic mice confirmed that amorfrutins are not only anti-inflammatory, but they also [...]

By subjecting cells to high selection pressure in a laboratory setting, researchers at Max Planck Institute were able to fast-forward gene transfer from the chloroplasts into the nucleus and found that DNA jumps directly from the cell’s chloroplasts into its nucleus without the involvement of RNA. Chloroplasts, the plant cell’s green solar power generators, were [...]

It turns out that infants might not be using rational thinking as a reason for selective imitation. A new study suggests that observed differences in imitation were likely caused by eye-catching distractions during the experiments. In a widely noticed study, developmental psychologists reported that 14-month-old infants imitate an unusual action if it was chosen deliberately [...]

Astrophysicists knew the pulses emitted from the Crab Nebula were powerful, but what they found was 50 to 100 times higher than theorists thought possible. Using the two MAGIC Telescopes on the Canary island of La Palma, researchers observed energy gamma radiation up to 400 GeV. The pulsar at the center of the famous Crab [...]

The Great Barrier Reef is under attack by a disease and new data shows that the Black Band Disease can migrate at a rate fast enough to kill entire coral colonies and put the population size of many coral species at risk for drastically decline. Researchers of the Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology along [...]

By studying the brittlestar Ophiocoma wendtii, whose body is covered with tiny crystalline lenses made of calcium carbonate, scientists were able to create high quality microlenses produced from calcium carbonate structures. Inspired from Mother Nature: The body of the brittlestar Ophiocoma wendtii is studded with tiny crystalline lenses made of calcium carbonate. Microlenses like these [...]

It’s hard to believe that the only tuberculosis vaccine currently available is over 90 years old. Since the BCG vaccine only protects young children, scientists realized the need for something new and improved and developed the VPM1002 vaccine, which is in Phase II trials. The belief is that a new vaccine could prevent millions of [...]