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Europeans push the bionanotechnology envelope
Researchers in Germany have once again made a major breakthrough in bionanotechnology, this time in the area of solid-state nanopore sensors, enhancing their capabilities by fitting them with cover plates made of deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA). This major advance was made in part thanks to the DNA ORIGAMI DEVICES ('Single-molecule studies of protein-protein-DNA interactions, enabled by DNA origami') project, which has clinched a European Research Council (ERC) grant worth EUR 1.5 million under the EU's Seventh Framework Programme (FP7). This project has opened up novel opportunities for a systematic study of macromolecular interactions in biology and is likely to deepen our understanding of regulatory processes in biology. The findings of this latest study were presented in the journal Angewandte Chemie International Edition.
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Let the sun shine and the plants will follow
Leonardo da Vinci, the Italian Renaissance scientist and artist extraordinaire, in the 15th century was the first to record his observation that some plants appeared to follow the Sun, and he was not the last. How this was scientifically achieved and why this occurred, however, remained a mystery to him and everyone that followed. But a European team of researchers may have come one step closer to solving this mystery. The answer, they say, lies with auxin — a class of plant hormone. The findings of their study were published in the journal Nature.
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Czech scientists uncover déjà vu mystery
In a groundbreaking study, researchers from the Czech Republic and the United Kingdom have discovered a link between the déjà vu phenomenon and structures in the human brain, effectively confirming the neurological origin of this phenomenon. Despite past studies investigating this phenomenon in healthy individuals, no concrete evidence had ever emerged ... until now. The study, presented in the journal Cortex, was funded in part by the EU.
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