Early on in the pandemic, in 2021, Hugh Potter ate dinner and watched TV next to his wife while she coughed violently from COVID-19, yet he never even sniffled. It's been thought that some people may not have gotten COVID because they were careful to avoid exposure. Alternatively, some people may have been infected [...]
Amid the unpredictability and occasional chaos of emergency rooms, a robot has the potential to assist health care workers and support clinical teamwork, Cornell and Michigan State University researchers found. The research team's robotic crash cart prototype highlights the potential for robots to assist health care workers in bedside patient care and offers [...]
Harnessing nanoparticles to deliver drugs precisely to a surgically repaired tendon is a promising new approach that reduced scar tissue formation and improved mechanical function. Researchers' success in pinpointing a drug therapy inside the body, at the cellular level, proved to be a highly efficient delivery method that could be used to treat other [...]
Gold particles of the size of billionths of a meter are lethal to cancer cells. This fact has been known for a long time, as has a simple correlation: The smaller the nanoparticles used to fight the cancer cells, the faster they die. However, a more interesting, more complex picture of these interactions is [...]
Investigations into gravitational waves and their relationship with Finsler geometry are providing new insights into spacetime, suggesting ways to harmonize relativity and quantum mechanics. When speaking of our universe, it’s often said that ‘matter tells spacetime how to curve, and curved spacetime tells matter how to move’. This is the essence of Albert Einstein’s famous general [...]
Research teams have successfully regenerated mouse brain circuits using rat stem cells, showcasing a new method for restoring brain function and studying interspecies brain development. These findings open up possibilities for treating neurological diseases and understanding brain evolution, while also hinting at future clinical applications and ethical challenges in using similar techniques for human [...]
Studies at the University of Jyväskylä in Finland show that resin-treated plastics can quickly deactivate viruses, part of a larger effort under the BIOPROT project to develop bio-based antiviral materials for protective gear. Viruses can remain active on solid surfaces for extended periods, potentially raising the risk of infection. Professor Varpu Marjomäki, a Cell [...]
The more that people know about gene editing, the more likely they are to feel it is safe to use in agriculture and medicine, according to a survey of more than 4,500 people across the United States. While there is a technical difference between "gene editing" and "genetic modification," also known as transgenics, people [...]
As the deadly disease that came to be known as COVID-19 started spreading in late 2019, scientists rushed to answer a critical question: Who is most at risk? They quickly recognized that a handful of characteristics—including age, smoking history, high body mass index (BMI) and the presence of other diseases such as diabetes—made people [...]
Researchers determine the lifetimes of commercial drinking straws in the coastal ocean and develop a prototype bioplastic straw that degrades even faster than paper. A WHOI study has shown that some biodegradable straws degrade up to 50% within 16 weeks in marine environments, presenting a sustainable alternative to traditional plastics and contributing to reduced [...]
