Gene That Can Cure Your Coffee Addiction

                Researchers have identified a gene that appears to curb caffeine consumption, a finding which may explain why some people tend to drink fewer cups of coffee. The study by researchers found that people with a DNA variation in a gene called PDSS2 tend to drink fewer cups of coffee. The findings suggest that the gene reduces the ability of cells to breakdown caffeine, causing it to stay in the body for longer. This means that a person would not need to consume as much coffee to get the same caffeine hit. The findings add to previous studies that have identified genes linked to coffee habits and shed new light on the biological mechanisms of caffeine metabolism. Researchers looked at genetic information from 370 people living in a village in south Italy and 843 people from six villages in north-east Italy. Each of the participants was asked to complete a survey that included a question about how many cups of coffee they drank each day. Researchers found that people with the DNA variation in coffee than people without the variation. Researchers replicated the study in a group of 1,721 people from the Netherlands. The results were similar but the effect of the gene on the number of cups of coffee consumed was slightly lower.

US Scientists Trick Solid Into Behaving Like Liquid

                Scientists have discovered how to get a solid material to act like a liquid without actually changing its state, opening a new world of possibilities for the electronic, optics and computing industries. Researchers discovered a nano sponge like, non-flammable human made material and pressed it into pellets the size of a pinkie nail. They noticed something odd when they looked at its X-ray diffraction pattern. The material’s internal crystal structure arranged in a strange pattern. Researchers then turned the pellets on their side and ran the X-ray analysis again. The crystal structures within the material fell into precise patterns that allow for lithium ions to flow easily – like a liquid. The findings are significant because using current liquid materials sometimes is problematic. For example, lithium-ion batteries are among the most efficient ones, charging many of our gadgets. However, they tend to be big and bulky due to use of a liquid to transfer lithium ions from one side of the battery to the other to store and disperses energy.

China To Get Driverless Train in '17

                China first driverless subway line in the capital city Beijing is expected to start operations at the end of 2017. Operations on the Yanfang line will be fully automatic, including train departures, opening and closing of its doors and cleaning. The trains will only use domestic technology. China’s CRRC Corporation Limited, the world’s largest supplier of rail transit equipments, started developing the fully automatic subway system in 2010 and has mastered the core technologies. It completed the construction of the subway trains in 2015.

                Beijing subway line 3, 12, 17, 19 and the new airport line will operate with the completely automated, driverless trains. It is expected that the total length of the fully automated subway lines in Beijing will reach 300 km by 2020. Nationwide, the fully automatic system will cover 1,000 kilometres. The development and use of domestic operation systems is part of the “Made in China 2025” initiative, which aims to comprehensively upgrade the Chinese industry. The move will also help strengthen China’s presence in the global rail transport industry and ensure security of the country’s key infrastructures.

Coming, Clothes That Can Mend Themselves

                Coating made from squid proteins may help clothes that could fix their own rips. The coating may not only lead to self healing clothes, but also help create garments tailored for protection against chemical and biological warfare and that can repair themselves. The researchers investigated molecules from the suction cups on squid tentacles for use in self-repairing films. They focused on proteins from razor-sharp, tooth-like structures around the openings of these suction cups that help squids latch onto its prey. Previous research suggested proteins from these “squid ring teeth” are tough and elastic under both wet and dry conditions. When a fabric covered in this coating is soaked in water, the proteins diffuse towards holes and tears in the coating, linking segments of coating and fabric together to make repairs. Researchers were surprised at the rapidity of the healing process and the strength of the healed materials.

'Second Earth' Found, 5 Ways To Get There

                              Proxima b might have the right conditions to support life, but its 4.3 lightyears away and the trip would take conventional rockets thousands of years. Some technologies that might take us there:

 1.   IONIC PROPULSION

Once considered the stuff of science fiction, ion drives have now been tested in a number of spacecraft. The idea is to use electrical energy to propel charged molecules of gas, or ions, from a thruster. Far more fuel-efficient than a traditional rocket and, despite a weaker thrust, allows a long period of acceleration.

 2.   NUCLEAR THERMAL PROPULSION

Uses N-reactions to heat up liquid hydrogen and channel it to generate thrust. Estimates say such an engine could power a spaceship to mars in just 90 days.

 3.   LASER SAIL

It involves shining a powerful laser beam on a large ‘sail’ to push spacecraft forward. Concept is simple, but has the potential to generate velocities up to half the speed of light and beyond. Could help reach Proxima b in 20-25 years.

 4.   NUCLEAR PULSE PROPULSION

The idea is to explode a series of N-bombs behind a spacecraft for powerful accelerating force. Such a spaceship could reach velocities as high as 5% of the speed of light but it is costly and unsafe.

 5.   FUSION ROCKETS

Here, deuterium and helium-3 pellets are ignited in a fusion reaction, the same nuclear force that power the Sun, to generate a high-energy gas that can be used to provide thrust. A two-stage fusion rocket could make it possible to travel to Proxima b in 36 years. But fusion power is still in its infancy.

A Sensor To Help Your Smartphone Detect Toxic Gases

                Researchers have developed a cheap sensor that can be integrated to electronic circuits and can enable smartphones to detect toxic gases within seconds. Researchers said the chemical sensor’s electrical conductivity increases up to 3,000 times when it is exposed to electrophilic toxic gases. They integrated the sensor into the electronic circuit in a near-field communication (NFC) tag, which is embedded in smart cards. This technology made it possible for smartphones to detect toxic gases in five seconds at a low concentration (10 parts per million). Today people are subject to risks of being exposed to toxic gases derived from natural sources and currently available toxic gas sensors are expensive, bulky, heavy and difficult to operate.

The new device consists of a group of carbon nanotubes (CNTs) individually wrapped with supramolecular polymers – clusters of monomers held together through weak interactions – which reduces its manufacturing price. CNTs alone are highly conductive materials, but when they are wrapped with supramolecular polymers, they become poor conductors. The supramolecular polymers were designed so that weakly-bound sites in the molecules are dissociated when these sites are exposed to toxic gases. Users can determine the presence of toxic gas by holding an NFC-compatible smartphone over a sensor-embedded NFC tag while making sure that communication between the two devices is intact.

A Galaxy With 99% Mysterious Matter Spotted

                Scientist have found a “ghost” galaxy – roughly the same mass as our own, but entirely made up of dark matter. Dragonfly 44 is almost entirely made up of dark matter, the mysterious – and for now mostly theoretical – stuff that makes up 27% of the universe but has never actually been seen. Though the galaxy is relatively nearby, at least in the scale of the universe, it is so dark that scientists completely missed it for decades. But it was finally spotted last year. It sits in the Coma galaxy cluster, about 330 million light years from us. When scientists looked at it further, they found that it was not just a normal set of stars – but instead a ghost, made up of dark matter. Though it has about the same mass as our own Milky Way galaxy, only one hundredth of 1% is made of up of the normal matter like stars, dust and gas that surround us.

                Rather, it is 99.99% made up of dark matter. Nobody knows what exactly that is, how it came about – or even how a galaxy could have arisen that looked that way. Dragonfly 44 does have some normal stars of its own. But our galaxy has a hundred times more stars than are there. Astronomers found out about the strange ghost galaxy by looking at the movement of the galaxy’s stars – movement that seemed to be influenced by matter that doesn’t by normal measures exist. Motions of the stars tell us how much matter there is. They don’t care what form the matter is, that just tell us that it’s there. In the Dragonfly galaxy, stars move very fast. So there was a huge discrepancy. We found many times more mass indicated by the motions of the stars than there is mass in the stars themselves. Scientists know that there must be something providing the gravity that is needed to hold the galaxy together. But the mass that would normally provide that isn’t there.