A dynamic gel made of DNA mechanically responds to stimuli in much the same way that cells do. This DNA gel, at only 10 microns in width, is roughly the size of a eukaryotic cell, the type of cell of which humans are made. The miniscule gel contains within it stiff DNA nanotubes linked together by longer, flexible DNA strands that serve as the substrate for molecular motors.

We won't have artificial muscles and self-propelled goo just yet, but Omar Saleh and Deborah Fygenson of UC Santa Barbara feel like they have gotten a lot closer.

A court in L'Aquila, Italy, handed six-year-prison sentences to members of a national "Great Risks Commission". Residents noticed increased seismic activity. They were used to tremors, because L’Aquila sits on a major fault line, and they clearly noticed differences. Despite the increase in both size and frequency of the tremors, the scientists rejected the possibility of a major earthquake:

“It is unlikely that an earthquake like the one in 1703 could occur in the short term, …”

Six days later, the disaster struck. The L'Aquila 2009 earthquake killed over 300 people and left 1,500 injured.

We humans take great pride in our ability to come together and cooperate as a society.  Interestingly, many microbes cooperate as well.  A central conundrum among scientists studying microbial cooperation has been how bacteria manage to prevent cheaters from taking over their population, even without jails or stocks or scarlet letters.  Now, a new study finds a surprising genetic mechanism that manages to punish cheaters by depriving them of a private good.

Bacteria manage to punish cheaters, even without overloading their prison system.  (Apologies to SolieLInitiative and Raul654 of wikimedia for my poor graphics skills)

Italy is a beautiful, crazy country. Take today's verdict, which condemns seven scientists (Franco Barberi, Enzo Boschi, Mauro Dolce, Bernardo De Bernardinis, Giulio Selvaggi, Claudio Eva, and Gianmichele Calvi) to six years of prison, plus a huge fine, for allegedly reassuring the population about the unlikelihood of an earthquake on the eve of the devastating shock of April 6th, 2009, which caused 309 deaths and destroyed most of the mid-size town of L'Aquila, in central Italy.

Blasting over two million lights years from the center of a distant galaxy, PKS 0637-752 is a 'supersonic jet' of material that looks a lot like the afterburner flow of a fighter jet - but in this case the jet engine is a supermassive black hole and the jet material is actually moving at closer to the speed of light.

This megaparsec, galaxy-scale jet has bright and dark regions, similar to the phenomenon in  afterburner exhaust called ‘shock diamonds.’ This new image of the previously studied jet reveals regularly spaced areas that are brighter than the rest of the jet in a pattern that echoes the way the afterburner from a jet engine has brighter diamond-shaped areas in its general glow.

Psychology of Women Quarterly, the scientific, peer-reviewed journal of feminism, contends that there are gender stereotypes in the media - photographs of men focus on male faces while photographs of women are focused on female bodies. Such "face-ism" is even more extreme in cultures with less educational, professional, and political gender discrimination.

Design, according to some, needs a designer. However, famous biologists and neo-Darwinists such as D. Dennett say that evolution “designs” by natural selection. If we accept that usage of the term, “design” does not by definition imply an intentional act (much like “the hand evolved in order to grasp” does not imply that evolution desires to achieve anything). If there are “blind watchmakers” who do “design”, then the following question is scientific:

Can we possibly, for example by investigating the designed “creation”, distinguish an intelligent designer, one that did have intentions, from an aimless design process like algorithmic evolution?

57 percent of dietitians say nutritional success  only happens if people can indulge once in a while; in foods where taste is the priority.

A survey of 200 dietitians and attendees at the Food&Nutrition Conference&Expo on Oct. 6th-8th by online retailer FreshDirect determined that a majority of respondents said they would acquire a taste for anything that's good for them and like it, 65 percent admit to cooking or seasoning their vegetables to tolerate the taste.

The Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use (CHMP) of the European Medicines Agency (EMA) has adopted a positive opinion, recommending the granting of a marketing authorization for BETMIGA[ (mirabegron) for the symptomatic treatment of urgency, increased micturition frequency and/or urgency incontinence as may occur in adult patients with overactive bladder (OAB) syndrome. 

The opinion now needs ratification by decision of the European Commission which is expected within the next 74-90 days. If approved, mirabegron will be the first in a new class of OAB treatment, offering healthcare professionals an alternative option to antimuscarinics (currently the only licensed oral treatment option) when treating patients with OAB.