The left side of the figure illustrates the retina transplantation procedure. The right side of the figure represents examples of orientation tuning curves recorded from three rats: a normal rat, a rat with a transplant and a rat with a degenerated retina (blind). Displayed below the tuning curves are the responses to sinusoidal grating stimuli. The response patterns indicate that neurons in the brains of transplant recipients are very similar to those of the rats with normal vision.

Researchers from the University of California, Irvine School of Medicine, have discovered that neurons located in the vision centers of the brains of blind rats functioned normally following fetal retina cell transplants, indicating the successful restoration of vision...

Simultaneous photocatalytic hydrogen generation and dye degradation using a visible light active metal-organic framework.
Credit: Alina-Stavroula Kampouri/EPFL

Researchers have developed a photocatalytic system based on a material in the class of metal-organic frameworks. The system can be used to degrade pollutants present in water while simultaneously producing hydrogen that can be captured and used further.

Some of the most useful and versatile materials today are the metal-organic frameworks (MOFs). MOFs are a class of materials demonstrating structural versatility, high porosity, fascinating optical and electronic properties, all of which makes them promising candidates for a variety of applications, including gas capture and separation, sensors, and photocatalysis.

Because MOFs are so...

Artist impression of Abell 2597 showing the central supermassive black hole expelling cold, molecular gas — like the pump of a giant intergalactic fountain.
Credit: NRAO/AUI/NSF; D. Berry

Plumes of cold molecular gas spray out by black hole a billion light-years from Earth. Galaxy evolution can be chaotic and messy, but it seems that streams of cold gas spraying out from the region around supermassive black holes may act to calm the storm. This is according to an international team of scientists who have provided the first clear and compelling evidence of this process in action.

Using the Atacama Large Millimetre/submillimetre Array (ALMA) of telescopes, the team, which includes researchers from Cardiff University, has observed a supermassive black hole acting like a ‘monumental fountain’...

Estimates of the Heritability of Human Longevity Are Substantially Inflated due to Assortative Mating. Genetics, 2018; 210 (3): 1109 DOI: 10.1534/genetics.118.301613

Study of huge Ancestry.com pedigree set suggests similar life spans between spouses may have inflated previous estimates of life span heritability. Although long life tends to run in families, genetics has far less influence on life span than previously thought, according to a new analysis of an aggregated set of family trees of more than 400 million people. The results suggest that the heritability of life span is well below past estimates, which failed to account for our tendency to select partners with similar traits to our own...