Researchers at Brigham and Women’s Hospital (BWH) have invented a microneedle adhesive more than 3x stronger than surgical staples for skin graft fixation, inspired by Pomphorhynchus laevis, a spiny-headed worm that lives in the intestines of its hosts, in this case fish.
The worm securely attaches to the host’s intestinal wall by penetrating, and then plumping up its elongated, cactus-like head into the intestinal tissue.… read more
UC Berkeley researchers have uncovered exactly how acute stress — short-lived, not chronic — primes the brain for improved performance.
In studies on rats, Daniela Kaufer, associate professor of integrative biology at the University of California, Berkeley and post-doctoral fellow Elizabeth Kirby they found that significant but brief stressful events caused stem cells in rat brains to proliferate into new nerve cells that,… read more
A brain-training task that increases the number of items an individual can remember over a short period of time may boost performance in other problem-solving tasks by enhancing communication between different brain areas.
The new study is one of a growing number of experiments on how working-memory training can measurably improve a range of skills — from multiplying in your head to reading a complex paragraph.
“Working memory… read more
Princeton University researchers have found that making an erroneous decision is caused by errors, or “noise,” in the information coming into your brain, rather than errors in how your brain accumulates or processes that information.
The researchers separated sensory inputs from the internal mental process. ”To our great surprise, the internal mental process was perfectly noiseless. All of the imperfections came from noise in the sensory… read more
Researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine have succeeded in transforming skin cells directly into oligodendrocyte precursor cells (OPCs), the cells that myelinate nerve cells (wrap them in the insulating myelin sheaths that help nerve signals propagate) and would work successfully when transplanted into the brains of mice with a myelin disorder.
The current research was done in mice and rats. If the approach also works… read more
Bioengineered rat kidneys developed by Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) investigators successfully produced urine both in a laboratory apparatus and after being transplanted into living animals.
This is important, cutting-edge research by Mass General, which conducts the largest hospital-based research program in the U.S. On Monday, the hospital received 29 patients, eight in critical condition, victims of Monday’s twin explosions near the finish line… read more
A DNA sequencing system that combines a solid-state nanopore with a technique known as DNA origami for use in DNA sequencing, protein sensing and other applications, has been developed by Dr. Ulrich Keyser of Cambridge University’s Cavendish Laboratory, along with PhD student Nick Bell and other colleagues.
The technology has been licensed for development and commercialization to UK-based company Oxford Nanopore, which is… read more
A new chemical process can transform waste sulfur into a lightweight plastic that may improve batteries for electric cars, reports a University of Arizona-led team.
The new plastic also has other potential uses, including optical uses.
The team has successfully used the new plastic to make lithium-sulfur batteries.
Next-generation lithium-sulfur, or Li-S, batteries based on the plastic will be better for electric and… read more
A new, minimally invasive treatment that creates microscopic holes in tumors without harming healthy tissue is a promising treatment for challenging cancers, suggests a preliminary study being presented at the Society of Interventional Radiology‘s 38th Annual Scientific Meeting in New Orleans.
“Irreversible electroporation (or IRE) is a new way to attack cancer, using microsecond electrical pulses to kill cancer at the cellular level… read more
To improve brain mapping, a group of French scientists have produced the world’s first biocompatible microscopic organic transistors that can amplify and record signals directly from the surface of the brain, building on prototypes developed at the Cornell NanoScale Science and Technology Facility (CNF).
This is the first in vivo use of transistor arrays to record brain activity directly on the surface of the cortex… read more
New research from the University of Copenhagen combines formal philosophy, social psychology, and decision theory to understand and tackle these phenomena.
“Group behavior that encourages us to make decisions based on false beliefs has always existed.
However, with the advent of the Internet and social media, this kind of behavior is more likely to occur than ever, and on a much larger scale, with… read more
Researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign have developed tiny devices containing light-emitting diodes (LEDs) the size of individual neurons that activate brain cells with light.
“This strategy should allow us to identify and map brain circuits involved in complex behaviors related to sleep, depression, addiction, and anxiety,” says co-principal investigator Michael R. Bruchas, PhD, assistant… read more
German artist Martin Missfeldt has created an infographic that attempts to show how Google Glass works, based on various sources (listed below). One correction: an image is actually not projected directly onto the retina; it is refracted by the cornea and focused by the lens.
A technique that uses light-activated proteins to stimulate particular brain cells and positron emission tomography (PET) scans to trace their effects throughout the entire brain of fully-awake, moving animals has been developed by U.S. Department of Energy’s Brookhaven National Laboratory
The method will allow researchers to map exactly which downstream neurological pathways are activated or deactivated by stimulation of targeted brain regions, and how that brain activity… read more
In a paper published online in the journal ACS Nano, Joshua Goldberger, assistant professor of chemistry at Ohio State University, and colleagues describe how they created a stable, one-atom-thick single layer of germanium atoms.
In this form, the crystalline material is called germanane.
The chemists found that it conducts electrons more than ten times faster than silicon and five times faster than conventional germanium — the same material that… read more