January 02, 2019
Good Morning,
Need some water? Well, researchers are working on gather H2O from the air, fog, and condensation.
Learn about this and more interesting stories from the scientific community in today's issue.
Until Next Time,
Erin
P.S. Did you miss an issue? You can read every issue from the Gophercentral library of newsletters on our exhaustive archives page. Thousands of issues, all of your favorite publications in chronological order. You can read AND comment. Just click
GopherArchives
*-- Scientists devise method to gather water from fog, condensation --*
A new study may have the answers for how to gather water from ambient air, fog and condensation, taking inspiration from lifeforms in the desert.
The research, published Monday in the journal Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, is focused on how to most efficiently collect water from various surfaces.
"We thought: 'How can we gather water from the ambient air around us?'" Bharat Bhushan, the Howard D. Winbigler Professor of mechanical engineering at Ohio State University, said in a news release. "And so, we looked to the things in nature that already do that: the cactus, the beetle, desert grasses."
Much of Bhushan's work surrounds bringing natural fixes to societal problems. Along those lines, his latest research focused on life that survives on minimal water intake.
Specifically, Bhushan examined at how cacti, beetles and desert grass all collect water from night fog, and then filter it through their roots or reservoir.
"The beetle's surface material is heterogeneous, with hydrophilic spots surrounded by hydrophobic regions, which allows water to flow more easily to the beetle's mouth," Bhushan said.
Along with a team of Ohio State University researchers, Bhushan used 3D printers to build surfaces with a bump, and created foggy environments with a commercial humidifier to observe which solution took in the most water.
They figured that conical objects, similar to the shape of a cactus, brought in more water than cylindrical objects because water gathers at the cone's tip and flows to its bottom reservoir. They also learned that water flowed more quickly through grooved surfaces, comparable to that of grass.
The team found that hydrophilic cone surfaces helped bead the water up a lot more than absorbent surfaces.
"Water supply is a critically important issue, especially for people of the most arid parts of the world," Bhushan said. "By using bio-inspired technologies, we can help address the challenge of providing clean water to people around the globe, in as efficient a way as possible."
*-- Scientists discover how and when DNA replicates --*
Scientists have discovered how and when DNA replicates inside cells.
Researchers first identified DNA replication in the 1950s, but have since struggled to understand the underlying mechanisms.
"It's been quite a mystery," David Gilbert, professor of molecular biology at Florida State University, said in a news release. "Replication seemed resilient to everything we tried to do to perturb it. We've described it in detail, shown it changes in different cell types and that it is disrupted in disease. But until now, we couldn't find that final piece, the control elements or the DNA sequences that control it."
In an attempt to disrupt the replication's timing, Gilbert and doctoral student Jiao Sima engineered dozens of genetic mutations on DNA molecules. The experiments failed to provide insight.
In what the researchers described as a "Hail Mary" approach, Gilbert and Sima studied a single DNA segment in the highest 3D resolution possible. Their analysis revealed three sequences regularly in contact with each other around a DNA molecule.
Using CRISPR, scientists deleted the three sequences simultaneously. To their surprise and relief, the deletion interrupted DNA replication and altered the DNA molecule's structure.
"Removing these elements shifted the segment's replication time from the very beginning to the very end of the process," Gilbert said. "This was one of those moments where just one result knocks your socks off."
Researchers described their breakthrough in the journal Cell.
"We have for the first time pinpointed specific DNA sequences in the genome that regulate chromatin structure and replication timing," Sima said. "These results reflect one possible model of how DNA folds inside cells and how these folding patterns could impact the hereditary materials' function."
Researchers think the disruption of DNA replication could explain the development of certain diseases.
We Found the Coolest Lamp for $5!
TODAY ONLY get this Sleek, Sophisticated Lamp at $20 OFF
CLICK HERE to SEE A VIDEO
|
|