Electronic stickers can turn ordinary toy blocks into high-tech sensors within the ‘internet of things.’ Credit: Purdue University image/Chi Hwan Lee

Researchers have developed a new fabrication method that makes tiny, thin-film electronic circuits peelable from a surface. The technique not only eliminates several manufacturing steps and the associated costs, but also allows any object to sense its environment or be controlled through the application of a high-tech sticker. Eventually, these stickers could also facilitate wireless communication. The researchers demonstrate capabilities on various objects in a paper recently published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

As society moves toward connecting all objects to the internet – even furniture and office supplies – ...

Astronomers find a Famous Exoplanet’s Doppelganger

When it comes to extrasolar planets, appearances can be deceiving. Astronomers have imaged a new planet, and it appears nearly identical to one of the best studied gas-giant planets. But this doppelganger differs in one very important way: its origin. “We have found a gas-giant planet that is a virtual twin of a previously known planet, but it looks like the two objects formed in different ways,” said Trent Dupuy, astronomer at the Gemini Observatory and leader of the study.

Emerging from stellar nurseries of gas and dust, stars are born like kittens in a litter, in bunches and inevitably wandering away from their birthplace...

Mauro Sereno et al. Gravitational lensing detection of an extremely dense environment around a galaxy cluster, Nature Astronomy (2018). DOI: 10.1038/s41550-018-0508-y

A study published recently in the journal Nature Astronomy and which questions current models of structure formation in the universe is based on data obtained with the Gran Telescopio Canarias and among its authors is a team of researchers from the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC). The structure of the universe can be compared to that of a sponge, often referred to as the cosmic web. Matter is concentrated along filaments which cross over each other, forming zones where most matter accumulates, and others where there is very little. At the densest points, galaxies group together, forming clusters...

In the absence of SIRT7, a human primary cell displays multiple nucleoli. DNA was stained with DAPI (turquoise) and nucleolus was stained with anti-fibrillarin (red).

Aging is a process of gradual deterioration from exposure to time and the elements; this process begins with deterioration deep inside every cell. Researchers from Stanford University and the VA Palo Alto Health Care System (VAPAHCS) have identified a protein that guards cells against senescence – aging-related problems – by protecting a particularly vulnerable set of genes. The study is published in the July 13 issue of the Journal of Biological Chemistry.

The genes that encode components of the ribosome – the protein-making machine of the cell – are abundant and constantly in use...