Knocking out the Spop protein in developing mouse limb leads to brachydactyly, a shortening of the fingers and toes (left) and reduced bone density (right). Credit: Liu Laboratory, Penn State University

Loss of a key protein leads to defects in skeletal development including reduced bone density and a shortening of the fingers and toes – brachydactyly. The discovery was made by researchers at Penn State University who knocked out the Speckle-type POZ Protein (Spop) in the mouse and characterized the impact on bone development. The research redefines the role of Spop during bone development and provides a new potential target for the diagnosis and treatment of bone diseases such as osteoporosis.

“The Spop protein is involved in Hedgehog signaling – a well-studied cell-to-cell communicatio...

This foldable keyboard, created by Michigan State University engineer Nelson Sepulveda and his research team, operates by touch; no battery is needed. Sepulveda developed a new way to harvest energy from human motion using a pioneering device called a biocompatible ferroelectret nanogenerator, or FENG. Credit: Image courtesy of Michigan State University

The day of charging cellphones with finger swipes and powering Bluetooth headsets simply by walking is now much closer. Michigan State University engineering researchers have created a new way to harvest energy from human motion, using a film-like device that actually can be folded to create more power...

Illustration of the filtering of unwanted quasiparticles (red spheres) from a stream of superconducting electron pairs (blue spheres) using a microwave-driven pump. Credit: Copyright Philip Krantz, Krantz NanoArt

An international team has succeeded in making further improvements to the lifetime of superconducting quantum circuits. An important prerequisite for the realization of high-performance quantum computers is that the stored data should remain intact for as long as possible. Researchers have developed and tested a technique that removes unpaired electrons from the circuits. These are known to shorten the qubit lifetime (to be published online by the journal Science today.

Superconducting circuits belong to the most promising candidates for implementing quantum bits, ie qubits, with ...

Artist’s rendition of a typical millisecond pulsar binary system in which the shape of the companion star (l.) is deformed by the gravitational pull of the pulsar (r.) seen emitting beams of radiation. Credit: NASA

A professional astrophysicist and an amateur astronomer have teamed up to reveal surprising details about an unusual millisecond pulsar (MSP) binary system comprising one of the fastest-spinning pulsars in our Galaxy and its unique companion star. Their observations are the first to identify “star spots” on an MSP’s companion star. Plus, the observations show that the companion has a strong magnetic field, and provide clues into why pulsars in some MSP binaries switch on and off.

John Antoniadis, a Dunlap Fellow with the Dunlap Institute for Astronomy & Astrophysics, University ...