Researchers have developed a new calibration technique that will improve the reliability and stability of the microhotplate -- a novel device being developed as the foundation for miniature yet highly accurate gas sensors that can detect chemical and biological agents, industrial leaks and even signs of extraterrestrial life from aboard a planetary probe.

Physicists have improved an experimental atomic clock based on ytterbium atoms, which now about four times more accurate than it was several years ago, giving it a precision comparable to that of the NIST-F1 cesium fountain clock.

Researchers have conducted a research project to gain in-depth knowledge of the structure of pyruvate carboxylase when it is in solution (in the "natural" state). Pyruvate carboxylase is a metabolic enzyme that plays a fundamental role in the metabolism of fatty acids (the components of fats) and sugars. When its function is not adequately performed (for example, when mutations in the gene arise) diverse metabolic diseases of genetic origin are triggered, amongst them lactic acidaemia, hypoglycaemia, and psycho-motor retardation.

Decoding the complexity of multicellular organisms requires analytical procedures to overcome the limitations of averaged measurements of cell populations, which obscure inherent cell-cell heterogeneity and restrict the ability to distinguish between the responses of individual cells within a sample.

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