UW engineers borrow from electronics to build largest circuits to date in living eukaryotic cells

Living cells must constantly process information to keep track of the changing world around them and arrive at an appropriate response.

Through billions of years of trial and error, evolution has arrived at a mode of information processing at the cellular level. In the microchips that run our computers, information processing capabilities reduce data to unambiguous zeros and ones. In cells, it’s not that simple. DNA, proteins, lipids and sugars are arranged in complex and compartmentalized structures.

But scientists — who want to harness the potential of cells as living computers that can respond to disease, efficiently produce biofuels or develop plant-based chemicals — don’t want to wait for evolution to craft their desired cellular system.

Sediment from Himalayas may have made 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake more severe

Sediment that eroded from the Himalayas and Tibetan plateau over millions of years was transported thousands of kilometers by rivers and in the Indian Ocean – and became sufficiently thick over time to generate temperatures warm enough to strengthen the sediment and increase the severity of the catastrophic 2004 Sumatra earthquake.

The magnitude 9.2 earthquake on Dec. 26, 2004, generated a massive tsunami that devastated coastal regions of the Indian Ocean. The earthquake and tsunami together killed more than 250,000 people making it one of the deadliest natural disasters in history.

Why Don't Green Buildings Live Up to Hype on Energy Efficiency?

Not long ago in the southwest of England, a local community set out to replace a 1960s-vintage school with a new building using triple-pane windows and super-insulated walls to achieve the highest possible energy efficiency. The new school proudly opened on the same site as the old one, with the same number of students, and the same head person—and was soon burning more energy in a month than the old building had in a year.

Effective restoration of aquatic ecosystems

Despite having increased human wellbeing in the past, intense modifications by multiple and interacting pressures have degraded ecosystems and the sustainability of their goods and services. For ecosystem restoration to deliver on multiple environmental and societal targets, the process of restoration must be redesigned to create a unified and scale-dependent approach that integrates natural and social sciences as well as the broader restoration community.

9 Ways to Lower Your Skin Cancer Risk

Everything under the sun you need to know about protecting your skin.

With summer right ahead, you may be planning to relax poolside or at the beach. But enjoying summer's longer and sunnier days outdoors means your skin is vulnerable to sunburn. Unless you take the right precautions, sun exposure (even if you don't get scorched) can damage your skin, causing wrinkles, age spots and even skin cancer.

L'Oreal Takes Eco-Certification Mainstream

On Tuesday, L’Oreal achieved silver certification from the nonprofit Cradle to Cradle Products Innovation Institute for its Biolage R.A.W. (Real – Authentic – Wholesome) haircare line, the company announced at the Sustainable Brands conference in Detroit.

Solar-Powered EV Charging Arrives in the San Joaquin Valley

Some coastal residents might describe Fowler, California, as the middle of nowhere. But it’s smack in the center of the San Joaquin Valley, a region critical for growing food for the rest of the state and much of the U.S. Like much of the Valley, this town of 5,500 people, located a 15-minute drive south of Fresno, struggles with terrible air quality. But a growing movement may soon change that.

Summer rainfall in vulnerable African region can be predicted

Summer rainfall in one of the world’s most drought-prone regions can now be predicted months or years in advance, climate scientists at the Met Office and the University of Exeter say.

Increasing Aridity and Land-use Overlap Have Potential to Cause Social and Economic Conflict in Dryland Areas

Climate change combined with overlapping high-intensity land uses are likely to create conditions detrimental to the recreation economy, wildlife habitat, water availability and other resources in hyper-arid landscapes, or drylands, in the future, according to a recent paper published in Ecosphere.

Drylands are of concern because broad-scale changes in these systems have the potential to affect 36 percent of the world’s human population.

Solving one of nature's great puzzles: what drives the accelerating expansion of the universe?

University of British Columbia (UBC) physicists may have solved one of nature’s great puzzles: what causes the accelerating expansion of our universe?

PhD student Qingdi Wang has tackled this question in a new study that tries to resolve a major incompatibility issue between two of the most successful theories that explain how our universe works: quantum mechanics and Einstein’s theory of general relativity.