Scientists develop unique polymer coating to tackle harmful fungi

Fungi on different surfaces

Scientists from the University of Nottingham have developed a new way to control harmful fungi, without the need to use chemical bioactives like fungicides or antifungals.

Fungi cause diverse, serious societal and economic problems in the UK and globally. As well as causing fatal diseases in humans, fungi devastate food crops and spoil valuable products and materials. This has led to an antifungals/fungicide industry worth around $30bn globally.

There are tight regulations around the use of fungicides and antifungals and there is also growing resistance of fungi to these agents.

In a paper published today in Science Advances, experts from the University’s Schools of Life Sciences, Pharmacy, and Engineering, show how they have developed an innovative...

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Scientists Apply Revolutionary 30 Year-Old Principle and Find Black Holes Could Be Like Holograms

What researchers have done is apply the theory of the holographic principle to black holes. In this way, their mysterious thermodynamic properties have become more understandable: focusing on predicting that these bodies have a great entropy and observing them in terms of quantum mechanics, you can describe them just like a hologram: they have two dimensions, in which gravity disappears, but they reproduce an object in three dimensions.

According to new research, black holes could be like a hologram, where all the information is amassed in a 2D surface able to reproduce a 3D image.

We can all picture that incredible image of a black hole that traveled around the world about a year ago...

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New image of a Cancer-related Enzyme in action helps explain Gene Regulation

corest connects nucleosome and LSD1
A new atomic model for the LSD1/CoREST histone methylase in complex with its nucleosome substrate could provide important insight into how cells regulate their genes.
 IMAGE: SONG TAN, PENN STATE

New images of an enzyme in action as it interacts with the chromosome could provide important insight into how cells—including cancer cells—regulate their genes.

The enzyme, LSD1, can “turn off gene expression by removing chemical flags (methyl groups) from the nucleosome—tightly packed units of DNA and protein in chromosomes. This LSD1 histone demethylase is over-expressed in multiple cancer types, resulting in disruption to normal cell development, and the new structure could inform therapeutic interventions that target the enzyme.

A paper by Penn State researchers describing the ...

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A System for the Nonreciprocal Transmission of Microwave Acoustic Waves

Rendered image of the device developed by the researchers. Credit: Shao et al.

Acoustic waves have been found to be highly versatile and promising carriers of information between chip-based electronic devices. This characteristic is ideal for the development of a number of electronic components, including microwave filters and transducers.

In the past, some researchers have tried to build devices in which waves are transmitted between two ports in a non-symmetric way. These are known as nonreciprocal devices. These devices could be particularly promising for the manipulation and routing of phonons, quasiparticles associated with acoustic waves...

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