Water is largely tasteless to humans. But to the microbial world, it is anything but. Bacteria that live in contaminated environments have spent millions of years evolving exquisitely sensitive molecular detectors—proteins that latch onto specific chemical threats and trigger a cellular response.
Imagine a laptop that never gets hot, a phone that holds its charge for days, or a computer memory chip designed to permanently retain data, even when the power goes out. This is the possibility sitting inside a remarkable family of materials that a team of researchers from the University of Ottawa and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) has spent years trying to understand, and they just published a comprehensive roadmap of the field to date in the journal Newton.
When it comes to space debris, what goes up is coming down more often—and not safely.
Most Americans know what a real expert's credentials look like: relevant degree, years of experience, and respect from peers. The problem, according to a study recently published in Scientific Reports, is that none of it matters as much once we find out their politics.
