(Reactor nuclear plant Confrentes. Image: C. N. Cofrentes.)

“Substantially increase controls on physical protection of facilities, nuclear materials and radioactive sources”, is the objective that includes the Royal Decree approved today by the Council of Ministers.

The law also reinforces international cooperation, especially in relation to urgent measures to take to locate and recover stolen nuclear material or smuggled, mitigate any radiological consequences of sabotage and trying to prevent and combat crime related to any possible these materials.

This Royal Decree, Spain adapted to the Spanish legislation on protection of nuclear materials-set by a Royal Decree of 1995 – the commitments made in the last amendment to the Convention on the Physical Protection of Nuclear Material in July 2005. States members of the Convention committed themselves to substantially strengthen controls on these materials.

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The University of the Balearic Islands is home to the Astro-GR International Congress 2011 will take place from 5 to 9 September 2011 on the campus of the UIB in Palma. This meeting has been organized by the Relativity and Gravitation Group of UIB, will bring together over 80 scientists from around the world, including representatives from the European Space Agency (ESA). The central theme of this edition of the Astro-GR will be the impact and scientific potential of the new e-LISA space mission.

The opening of the congress has been carried out by the Chancellor of the UIB, Dr. Montserrat Casas, Dr. Paul Amaro-Seoane, a researcher at the Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics (Germany) and Dr. Alicia Sintes, professor in the Department of Physics UIB.

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A team of researchers has observed a supermassive black hole at the moment, apparently, attracted a star that was near and absorbed. This has been possible due to space observatory Swiftat NASA.

“Until now, this is a unique event. Although it has long been expected that such events should occur, the glow it emits is a surprise, “said Jamie A. SINC Kennea, a researcher at Pennsylvania State University and coauthor of the study published in the latest issue of the journal Nature .

Scientists have determined that the black hole is at the center of a galaxy at a distance such that the light of this phenomenon took about 4 billion years to reach.

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(Recreation of the birth of a baby plesiosaur. Image: S. Abramovicz)

The new hall of dinosaurs from the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles has a unique example of adult plesiosaur fossil. As reported in the latest edition of the journal Science , a group of researchers from the museum and the Marshal University in Huntington has found that it is a fossil marine reptile embryo on the inside of the fossil from his mother.

The research, led by Robin O’Keefe, Marshall University in Huntington, and Luis Chiappe, director of the Institute of Dinosaurs Museum of Natural History shows that this double is the first fossil evidence that plesiosaurs gave birth to offspring alive and not incubating eggs in the soil.

This is a Polycotylus latippinus of  15.4 feet in length . A giant reptile, carnivore with four fins called plesiosaurs, which lived during the Mesozoic Era. “The skeleton of the embryo contained inside this issue we also provides information on the development of body, ribs, vertebrae 20, shoulders, hips and bones of the fins,” explained the expert.

 ”Although there is evidence that other groups of aquatic reptiles of the Mesozoic also gave birth to offspring (and therefore, were viviparous), so far no evidence had been found earlier in an order as important as that of the plesiosaurs’ research aims.

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(In the picture, the parasite Plasmodium chabaudi. Picture: Wellcome Images.)

An international team of scientists has discovered how to keep track of the number of malaria parasites in an infection. They studied mice infected with the parasite Plasmodium chabaudi to estimate the “effective number of spreading” or the potential for survival rates of parasitic populations in the bloodstreams of rodents.

The new model, published today in the journal Science , takes into account the host’s immune defenses, the interactions between parasites and the availability of red blood cells. “Together, these factors effectively portray the parasitemia, the volume of parasites in the host’s blood,” says Jessica Metcalf, first author of the study and researcher at the University of Oxford (United Kingdom).

Metcalf and his team found that the host’s immune responses not only exterminate the infected red blood cells but also kill infected cells and thereby depleting the resources available to the parasites.

The authors explain that when a large number of malaria parasites infecting a host immune defenses it exhausts itself quickly after a couple of days. However, when the initial load of parasites is small, the host’s immune defenses decline to a slower pace.

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(Zebrafish embryo with human DNA sequence. Image: CSIC.)

“For more than 500 million years of evolution has been selecting ways to combine protein, so that the organs and their physiology have evolved through generations, leading to all kinds of animals living today or that existed in the past. For this reason, one of the goals of contemporary research in biology is to understand the combinatorial mechanism and its evolution, “explains researcher CSIC José Luis Gómez-Skarmeta, the Andalusian Centre for Developmental Biology. 

Only 5% of the DNA of vertebrates is coding. This means that only a small part of the genome containing genes capable of generating RNA that serves as a messenger between DNA and the mechanisms that are responsible for developing protein. The remaining 95% of non-coding DNA has been for many years called junk DNA. 

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Nervous system diseases (such as Parkinson’s or post-traumatic spinal cord injury) are particularly difficult to treat because it is not easy to replace the pieces that have been damaged nerve. The key is to develop functional neurons from cells treated in vitro, But it is essential that the medium on which these cells are treated to simulate the characteristics of the nervous system.

This is what has made Patricia Garcia, biochemistry degree at the UPV / EHU and researcher at the Institute Biodonostia. Garcia has developed and validated a polymeric support can induce neuronal differentiation in vitroIn research carried out in the Health Unit Tecnalia.

Garcia has developed a polymer material containing topographical features and biochemical suitable for converting certain cells into functional neurons. For this purpose, has combined photolithography techniques and neural extracellular matrix technology. Photolithography involves a series of treatments based on light exposure, chemicals, and has served to give the desired topographical shape support.

As for the neural extracellular matrix, is the natural substrate to which cells adhere to be guided and acquire neuronal function, and allows the formation of new tissue transplanted into the nervous system. Garcia has simulated the properties of the matrix support developed.

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(Photomontage of the tropical vine Marcgravia evenia with a bat pollinator. Image: Science)

Bees and birds are guided visually to pollinate flowers with bright colors. But there are signs that attract bioacoustics other pollinators such as bats and allow the dispersal of seeds? Until now little was known about the subject.

The vine of Cuba ( Marcgravia evenia ) has developed a concave blade with flowers reminiscent of a parabolic reflector. According to the British and German scientists, the sheet acts as an acoustic beacon “ideal” strong signals and multi-returns, with acoustic signs easily recognizable and unchanged, to detect bats echolocate flowers.

“This acoustic beacon has benefits for plants and bats. On the one hand increases the efficiency of foraging bats that feed on nectar and flowers visited numerous times each night to meet their energy needs. On the other hand, M. evenia played so little that requires highly mobile pollinators, “said Marc Holderied, co-author and researcher at the School of Biological Sciences, University of Bristol (United Kingdom).

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(Wind tunnel Colorado (USA). Image: UGR.)

The U.S. government has launched a facility called the Wind Tunnel is unique in the world, the Colorado School of Mines (Golden, Colorado). The project has been responsible for the researcher of the UGR Jose Maria Terres Nicoli, who along with Tissa Illangasekare of Colorado State University (USA), worked 4 years at this facility. The funding has made ​​the Department of Defense U.S., the U.S. Air Force Office for Science Research (AFOSR) and the U.S. Army Research Office .

The new wind tunnel is the world’s first research system allows detection of land mines, responsible for many casualties in the military in humanitarian operations carried out around the world.

This tunnel is called the “boundary layer” and is similar to the UGR opened in late 2004. Has, however, a number of capabilities that make it unique. Among these we would highlight the potential for simulation of extreme weather conditions, to study the interaction of wind with the topsoil and the simulation of rain.

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(The new DNA sequencer. Image: Ion Torrent.)

The time and cost of DNA sequencing process have been reduced in recent years, and the holy grail of genomics, the $ 1,000 genome is getting closer. That is the goal to which scientists are directed reporting in Nature on a new sequencing technology.

More than 40 members of a U.S. biotechnology company signed a paper in which they present a sequencing device, unlike others, does not depend on optical media to capture the information in DNA, but instead uses a system of semiconductors or chips ion .

“Though far from a complete human genome sequencing for $ 1,000, together is a very positive development,” values ​​SINC Fernando Carrasco, technical director of the Center for Genomics Service of Molecular Biology “Severo Ochoa” (CSIC-UAM ).

Semiconductors detected protons (hydrogen ions with positive electric charge) emitted during chemical sequencing reaction. Applying this principle chips are used, the production scale is very cheap because they are disposable, inexpensive and do not require optical reading.

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