Chickpeas and so on: "lunar" bean beds and quantum RAM
Russian biotechnological scientists have found a way to "turn off" bacterial immunity to create new drugs, and their physicist colleagues have developed a quantum memory chip that will help in the future to construct telescopes to search for life on exoplanets. Meanwhile, a Russian-Uzbek team has found a way to enhance biochar six times to clean the soil of heavy metals, and experts from the United States have grown chickpeas in an improved lunar soil simulator. Italian psychologists have explained why left-handers are "more resilient" than right-handers. About the news of science and technology of the past week — in the material of Izvestia.
Hacking bacteria will help create medicines and vaccines
Experts from the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology have found a way to turn off the immune defenses of bacteria. This opens up opportunities for gene editing of microorganisms in order to obtain valuable medicines and vaccines.
As the scientists explained, the development center has the bacterium Bacillus licheniformis, a microorganism that is used in the world of biotechnology in the production of enzymes, antibiotics and other substances. Many producing strains are created on its basis.
— We not only described the protective system, but also showed for the first time that its work can be effectively suppressed in vitro using the ArdB protein. Previously, it was believed that proteins of this family act only in living cells, which imposed restrictions on their study and application. Our work is changing this paradigm," said Rodion Berezov, one of the authors of the project, an engineer at the MIPT Laboratory of Molecular Genetics.
The proposed algorithm allows for the unhindered insertion of foreign DNA into it and forcing the microorganism to produce the necessary substances, such as components of medicines, the developers noted. In case of epidemics, development can accelerate the biosynthesis of vaccine components (antigens, proteins) with the help of bacteria.
Quantum memory will make it possible to find life on exoplanets in the future.
A prototype of controlled quantum memory was created by Russian scientists in the Quantum Park cluster of the Bauman Moscow State Technical University and the All-Russian Scientific Research Institute of Automation named after N.L. Dukhov. The device stores quantum signals "packaged" as microwave pulses and can reproduce them on request.
— The chip is a system of "cells"-resonators that operate at different frequencies of the microwave range, and an active "key". In the device, the input pulse frequencies diverge through the resonator system, like the notes of an orchestra in their parts, and freeze in anticipation," Alexey Matanin, one of the developers, a junior researcher at the Quantum Park cluster, explained to Izvestia.
In the experiment, the storage period of quantum information was 1.51 microseconds, and the efficiency in the first reading cycle reached 57.5%, he said. The development is compatible with superconducting qubits, which will allow it to be integrated into real quantum processors.
The introduction of quantum memory will make it possible to implement complex error correction algorithms, which will increase the accuracy of quantum computing. In the future, such devices will be in demand when creating ultra-sensitive devices.
For example, hypothetical quantum radars will be able to detect "invisible" aircraft, and hypothetical quantum telescopes will be able to examine the surface of exoplanets at a distance of 10-20 light-years. This, in turn, will make it possible to draw conclusions about the presence of life on them.
Russian-Uzbek biochar to purify soil of heavy metals
Scientists from the Southern Federal University and the Institute of Plant Genetics and Experimental Biology of the Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Uzbekistan have found a way to improve the properties of natural biochar for soil purification from heavy metals.
Biochar is usually obtained by pyrolysis (heating without air access) of organic raw materials — straw, husks, husks, etc. It has a porous structure and absorbs various substances well. The scientists coated the surface of the particles with a layer of special organometallic compounds forming nanostructures, which increased its surface area and, consequently, its sorption properties by six times.
— The proposed material is effective even at low dosages — it is enough to apply it in an amount of 1-2% of the soil weight. This is more profitable than expensive removal and removal of soil to landfills," said Tatiana Bauer, a leading researcher at the laboratory of Agrobiotechnology for Improving Soil Fertility and Agricultural Product Quality at SFU.
The development will make it possible to effectively restore the soils of industrial zones, urban areas and agricultural lands.
Scientists have grown chickpeas in an analogue of the lunar soil
For the first time in the world, researchers from the University of Texas at Austin and Texas A&M University (USA) have collected the fruits of chickpeas grown in a lunar soil simulator, a plant of the legume family.
"The aim of the study is to understand whether it is possible to grow crops on the Moon, how to turn lunar regolith into soil, and what natural mechanisms can lead to such a transformation," explained Sarah Santos, project leader and postdoctoral researcher at the Institute of Geophysics at the University of Texas.
To create conditions suitable for growth, scientists added 25% vermicompost to the "lunar soil", and chickpea seeds were treated with cultures of microscopic fungi. In the future, the experimenters believe, these technologies will help create "beds" directly on the Moon. They will provide the staff of the inhabited stations with local products.
Psychologists explained the "vitality" of lefties by the desire for competition
Left—handers are more likely to compete in one-on-one situations, while right-handers are more likely to engage in team interaction. This is the conclusion reached by scientists at the Gabriele d University.'Annunzio (Italy), who investigated the connection of the left and right cerebral hemispheres with the strategies of social behavior of people.
Experts conducted a survey of more than 1.1 thousand people. The results showed that left-handers tend to strive to achieve success through competition, they are not inclined to give up competitions due to anxiety or fear.
—We came to the conclusion that the lateral coefficient (an indicator of the degree of preference for one side of the body) is directly related to competitiveness," the scientists said in their publication.
Left-handedness provides certain advantages, due to which the proportion of left-handers in the population has consistently remained at the level of 10% throughout the history of mankind, they noted.
The results of the work can be used in sports psychology in the selection of athletes for individual and group sports, the formation of behavioral strategies and understanding the individual characteristics of people.
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