How Philosophy Was Saved Thanks to a Slaughter

Professor Theodoris Pelegrinis, University of Athens

Ever since philosophy appeared (in the 6th century BCE), its fate has been insolubly linked to the operation of schools — not necessarily in the sense of buildings or shared spaces where philosophers would meet to discuss matters of their concern, but rather in the sense that any opinion on a given subject, no matter whose it might have been, could be challenged by somebody else, even though the challenger could well be — and usually was — a disciple of the former. Provided that the disciple had spotted some kind of structural weakness in his or her teacher’s approach, or in case he or she felt an innovative one was applicable, any opinion could be challenged.

How Does the Brain Memorize a Sequence of Events?

By Robert Schmidt, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin

Walking from the hall to the kitchen may take a few seconds. Remembering this event is an ability we all expect to have, but this should not be taken for granted. Memorizing a sequence of events requires certain connections between nerve cells to undergo a long-term strengthening. This also happens in the brain of rats running along a certain path between sources of food — preferably not the path between your hall and your kitchen.

Reliable Research through Biobanking

By Wolfgang Thasler, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität (LMU) Munich

The immense faith that patients have in their physicians greatly promotes the healing process, along with their hope to continue living. Sadly, in the case of advanced cancers, faith and hope do little.

Nevertheless, new knowledge about cancer gives rise to new hope. Studies have shown that with cancer, a damaged cell fails to disintegrate into its components and continues to replicate instead. Cell death in which the cell breaks into fragments is called apoptosis and this healthy process forms a vital balance with the complex healing process of regeneration. Signaling pathways strongly affect this balance. Researchers examining regeneration have been able to distinguish goodand bad factors within these signaling pathways. For example, the lack of a certain growth factor that improves liver regeneration seems to favor the development of liver cancer. Signaling pathways can malfunction in various ways and to different extents, and these malfunctions develop in various ways. This is why, apart from surgery to remove the cancerous part, there is no universal cure for cancer, and it is also why there are some cancers for which there is no cure.

Graphene: The Future of Electronics Lies in Quantum Theory

By Adam Rycerz, Jagiellonian University in Krakow

Could solving the problems of theoretical physics, seemingly distant from reality, influence our daily life? The story of graphene, already called the wonder material, suggests that the answer is Yes.

Let’s consider one of the most relevant elements to human life, carbon. The best-known allotropes of carbon are diamond and graphite. Graphite, which is the more commonly found form, consists of separate layers, each only one atom thick, which have a honeycomb-like structure. These layers are relatively weakly bound to each other and separate easily — a property that makes writing possible, pencil-lead simply transferring to paper. In fact, graphite gets its name from the Greek word γράφω, which means to write. In 1984, Gordon W. Semenoff showed that electrons in a single layer of graphite are described by the Dirac equation in its simplest form, valid for particles in a two-dimensional world that have no mass. Isolating a single layer of graphite (later called graphene), however, seemed a remote possibility at that time. A breakthrough in our knowledge of different forms of carbon followed soon enough in the form of fullerenes (1985) and nanotubes (1990). But it took another 15 years to rid ourselves of the dogma that such a truly two-dimensional system cannot exist in our world. Finally, in 2004, Andre Geim and Konstantin Novoselov from the University of Manchester succeeded in producing the first isolated graphene flakes.

You say “po-TAY-to,” I say “po-TAH-to”: How Tailored Food Processing Could Solve Malnutrition

By Pietro Rocculi, University of Bologna

The alarming increase in the number of people who are obese in Western countries stands paradoxically in contrast with the number of starving or undernourished people in developing countries—500 million obese men and women (with forty million children overweight) compared to 827 million people starving or undernourished in developing countries, according to recent estimates. Yet both those in the West and those in developing countries are malnourished — in the first case because of consumption of nutrient-poor junk food and in the second because of the lack of food and other economic problems.

Nanoscience and Nanotechnology: A Perspective from the Very Small

By Stefano Zacchini, University of Bologna

As a chemist, I have had to deal with the very small since the beginning of my studies. Although I started my research career as a molecular chemist at the University of Bologna, my interest has moved towards the tiny realm of nanoscience and nanotechnology. In particular, I focus on the possibility of shedding light into this nanoworld using the knowledge and experimental experience of large molecular metal clusters gained by chemists through the years. In fact, these clusters are “large” only in an atomic sense — some are so small that they can only be found at the very end of the nanoscale.

Healing Chronic Wounds, Trojan Horse–Style

By Magdalena Kozakowska, Jagiellonian University in Krakow

Although the term “muscle damage” may sound serious, it is usually a mild injury that nearly all of us experience sometime during our lives. Muscle injuries normally heal quickly and the muscle becomes as efficient as it was before the injury.

Key to the rapid recovery of muscle tissue is a group of small, simple cells known as muscle satellite cells. In undamaged muscle, these cells remain quiescent on the periphery of muscle fibres. But when injury or disease damages muscle tissue, these satellite cells become activated and differentiate to form new muscle fibres that reconstruct the damaged area.

Applied Quantum Physics with Single Photons: How Light Particles Can Make Communication Safe from Interception

By Thomas Aichele, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin

In 1905, Albert Einstein published his ingenious explanation of the photoelectric effect, for which he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1921. In this work he explained the emission of electrons from a metal plate by the absorption of light particles (or photons); this was in opposition to the classical wave picture. Even today, the photon is the workhorse used to test the foundations of quantum physics against a purely classical interpretation of nature.

How Healthy Cells Take Orders and Cancer Cells Run Amok

By Madelon M. Maurice, University of Utrecht

One of the most fascinating mysteries in life is the process by which one fertilized egg develops into a whole organism composed of trillions of cells, each with its own specialized shape and function.

How is this achieved? Communication is the key.

In the growing and developing embryo, cells continuously communicate with each other about their locations and activities in order to ensure that the organism develops correctly. The molecular messengers used in this process are signalling proteins (ligands) that are secreted outside the cell. These ligands move to nearby cells, where they bind to specific protein receptors on the cell surface. The ligand–receptor pairs at the surface then trigger changes in protein behaviour in the interior of the cell — transmitting the signal. In this manner, the ligand-sending cells instruct their neighbours to, for example, replicate by cell division, migrate to another location or adopt a specific function. Importantly, the developmental signals are turned “on” and “off” in a highly controlled way to prevent excessive growth.