Chiral nematic liquid crystals—otherwise referred to as cholesteric liquid crystals (CLCs)—are self-organized helical superstructures that find practical application in, for example, thermography, reflective displays, tuneable colour filters and mirrorless lasing. Dynamic, remote and three-dimensional control over the helical axis of CLCs is desirable, but challenging. For example, the orientation of the helical axis relative to the substrate can be changed from perpendicular to parallel...
Tag Archives: control
Magnetic mind control works in live animals, makes mice happy
(credit: Windell Oskay)
For a bunch of mind-controlled mice, walking into a magnetic field has never felt sooo good.
The imperceptible force that the genetically tweaked rodents wandered through fired up the reward-related circuits in their brains, likely conjuring the pure pleasure experienced when, for instance, they ate a yummy treat, researchers report Monday in Nature Neuroscience. Of...
The peptidergic control circuit for sighing
Sighs are long, deep breaths expressing sadness, relief or exhaustion. Sighs also occur spontaneously every few minutes to reinflate alveoli, and sighing increases under hypoxia, stress, and certain psychiatric conditions. Here we use molecular, genetic, and pharmacologic approaches to identify a peptidergic sigh control circuit in murine brain. Small neural subpopulations in a key breathing control centre, the retrotrapezoid nucleus/parafacial respiratory group (RTN/pFRG), express...
How Amazon inspired a drone delivery system for birth control in Ghana
When U.N. health experts were trying to come up with a way to deliver contraceptives to women in hard-to-reach areas of Ghana, they took a page from Amazon’s drone delivery playbook. Their pilot project, known as Dr. One, was reportedly inspired in late 2014 by the Seattle-based online retailer’s...
Control of proteasomal proteolysis by mTOR
Nature 529 E1 doi: 10.1038/nature16472
Motor neurons control locomotor circuit function retrogradely via gap junctions
Motor neurons are the final stage of neural processing for the execution of motor behaviours. Traditionally, motor neurons have been viewed as the ‘final common pathway’, serving as passive recipients merely conveying to the muscles the final motor program generated by upstream interneuron circuits. Here we reveal an unforeseen role of motor neurons in controlling the locomotor circuit function via gap junctions in zebrafish....
Vascular biology: Transcriptional control of endothelial energy
The formation of blood vessels requires rapid proliferation of endothelial cells. The transcription factors FOXO1 and MYC have been found to regulate the metabolism and proliferation of vascular endothelial cells.
Nature doi: 10.1038/nature16866
BMW thinks the future of car UI is gesture control
SMN and symmetric arginine dimethylation of RNA polymerase II C-terminal domain control termination
The carboxy-terminal domain (CTD) of the RNA polymerase II (RNAP II) subunit POLR2A is a platform for modifications specifying the recruitment of factors that regulate transcription, mRNA processing, and chromatin remodelling. Here we show that a CTD arginine residue (R1810 in human) that is conserved across vertebrates is symmetrically dimethylated (me2s). This R1810me2s modification requires protein arginine methyltransferase 5 (PRMT5) and recruits the Tudor...
GeekWire Deals: Let Siri control your lights with this HomeKit-enabled smart bulbs
Smart lights are pretty great. You can easily turn them on and off anywhere you get an internet connection, setup custom timers and group whole rooms together to easily light up your home. But taking your phone out of your pocket, unlocking it and opening the...
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