Science

Natural silk, as we all know, has a strength that manmade materials have long struggled to match. In a discovery that sounds more like an ancient Chinese proverb than a materials science breakthrough, MIT researchers have discovered that silk gets its strength from its weakness. Or, more specifically, its many weaknesses. Silk gets its extraordinary durability and ductility from an unusual arrangement of hydrogen bonds that are inherently very weak but that work together to create a strong, flexible structure.

Morphine is potent, effective and in many cases the only pleasant aspect accompanying a visit to the surgeon. But the opium from which it is derived is the base ingredient for heroin and a politically problematic cash crop in places like Afghanistan.

Researchers at the CSIRO have found that variations in the wind on the Southern Ocean can affect the surface layer of water that regulates the exchanges of heat and carbon dioxide between the ocean and the atmosphere.

Researchers at Monash University have developed a new way to treat HIV, cancer and lymphatic diseases using a nano-materials. sized drug delivery system. PEGylated Polylysine dendrimers, a new type of nano-sized drug delivery system, can be altered to target either the lymphatic system or the bloodstream.

Springtime on Mars means the thaw of carbon dioxide ice in the northern hemisphere. And when the dry ice goes, the party's over for any trapped debris that then goes tumbling down Martian cliffs in spectacular images such as this.

ANU researchers have helped to uncover the courses of some of the world’s oldest rivers and streams, buried for millions of years under the Simpson Desert in central Australia. The research project was able to peer beneath the desert sands to map the underlying landscape thanks to software that models how water moves across the surface of the continent.

Arsenic levels detected in toenail clippings from children living in the Victorian Goldfields region are not alarming, but suggest that we should not be too complacent, according to research from the University of Ballarat.

Our solar system's 'hood may get a bit rougher sometime during the next 1.5 million years. An astronomer has given an 86 percent chance for a neighboring star to smash into the frozen Oort Cloud surrounding the outskirts of the solar system, and may scatter some comets toward Earth, Technology Review reports.

The early detection of life threatening diseases such as cancer, bacterial or viral infections is essential for effective treatment. It is also crucial in the control of pandemics such as influenza and Dengue. Now a research team at James Cook University funded by the National Health and Medical Research Council has successfully developed a new ultrasensitive diagnostic technology.

In a discovery of consequence for efforts to save Tasmanian devils in the wild, scientists have found some devils from north-west Tasmania are genetically different and potentially resistant to the deadly cancer threatening the species. The discovery by University of Sydney and University of Tasmania researchers will have implications for efforts to contain the spread of Devil Facial Tumour Disease (DFTD) which has decimated 70 per cent of the devil population since the first diagnosis in east Tasmania in 1996.

When methane and freezing cold water fuse under tremendous pressure, they create a substance as paradoxical as it coveted: burning ice. Earlier in the year, a report from the National Research Council identified the combustible water, also known as methane hydrate, as a potential source of natural gas.

Despite coming from a range of different backgrounds, everyone whose genome has been fully sequenced has had one thing in common: they were all healthy. But now, two teams have decoded the first genomes of people who carry genetic diseases, with one group also performing the first-ever full sequencing of an entire nuclear family.

Rainbow trout with six-pack abs and burly shoulders have emerged from a University of Rhode Island laboratory, and could someday find their way to humans' dinner tables. That's assuming diners don't panic at the sight of the muscular ichthyoid awaiting their knives and forks.

Researchers from Swinburne University of Technology have made a discovery that could go a long way to improving the success rates of artificial implants and reduce the risk of bacterial outbreaks in hospitals. In a paper published in Langmuir, the journal of the American Chemical Society, the researchers debunked a common theory about the way bacteria adhere to surfaces.

A vaccine developed by University of Melbourne researchers has been found to totally eliminate the spread of a fatal form of brain disease. A recent pilot trial was undertaken in Cameroon against the parasite Taenia solium which causes 50 million tapeworm infections and 50,000 deaths from brain disease in the developing world each year.