Press Releases
January 2010
31 January 2010 - EMBL
MicroRNA: a glimpse into the past
The last ancestor we shared with worms, which roamed the seas around 600 million years ago, may already have had a sophisticated brain. Fossils cannot give us this information, but scientists at EMBL Heidelberg obtained it by studying small molecules called microRNAs. Their findings are published today in Nature.
27 January 2010 - ESO
Black Hole Hunters Set New Distance Record
Astronomers using ESO’s Very Large Telescope have detected, in another galaxy, a stellar-mass black hole much farther away than any other previously known. With a mass above fifteen times that of the Sun, this is also the second most massive stellar-mass black hole ever found. It is entwined with a star that will soon become a black hole itself.
26 January 2010 - EMBL
How to shoot the messenger
By determining the structure of DAPK bound to calmodulin, scientists from EMBL Hamburg have found a way to hack into a vital cellular communications system, raising the possibility of developing new drugs to tackle disorders like neurodegeneration, cancer and cardiovascular disease.
20 January 2010 - ESO
On the Trail of a Cosmic Cat
ESO has just released a stunning new image of the vast cloud known as the Cat’s Paw Nebula or NGC 6334. This complex region of gas and dust, where numerous massive stars are born, lies near the heart of the Milky Way galaxy, and is heavily obscured by intervening dust clouds.
19 January 2010 - EMBL
Membrane-coat proteins: bacteria have them too
EMBL scientists have discovered that a group of bacteria possess proteins thought to exist only in eukaryotes. Published today in PLoS Biology, the study could help unravel part of our own evolutionary history.
18 January 2010 - EMBL
Open access drug discovery database launches with half a million compounds
ChEMBLdb, a vast online database of information on the properties and activities of drugs and drug-like small molecules and their targets, launches today with information on over half a million compounds. The data lie at the heart of translating information from the human genome into successful new drugs in the clinic.
13 January 2010 - ESO
VLT Captures First Direct Spectrum of an Exoplanet
By studying a triple planetary system that resembles a scaled-up version of our own Sun’s family of planets, astronomers have been able to obtain the first direct spectrum - the “chemical fingerprint” - of a planet orbiting a distant star, thus bringing new insights into the planet's formation and composition. The result represents a milestone in the search for life elsewhere in the Universe.
4 January 2010 - ESO
Closing the Loop for ALMA
The Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) has passed a key milestone crucial for the high quality images that will be the trademark of this revolutionary new tool for astronomy.