For The Better

Researchers have uncovered a basic but surprising fact: your kitchen sponge is a better incubator for diverse bacterial communities than a laboratory Petri dish. But it’s not just the trapped leftovers that make the cornucopia of microbes swarming arou…

Chemical engineers tested how different-sized polymer nanoparticles circulate in the body and interact with platelets, the cells that promote blood clotting. Such particles could be used to help stop internal bleeding after traumatic injuries.

Epidemiological data have long linked depression with Alzheimer’s disease (AD), a neurodegenerative disease characterized by progressive dementia that affects nearly 6 million Americans. Now, a new study identifies common genetic factors in both depres…

Synthetic biologists have developed a low-cost, easy-to-use, hand-held device that can let users know — within mere minutes — if their water is safe to drink. The new device works by using powerful and programmable genetic networks, which mimic elect…

Researchers have demonstrated how dendrites — branch-like extensions that protrude from neurons — help neurons perform computations on information that comes in from other parts of the brain.

A new method is using Monte Carlo simulations to extend the capabilities of transmission electron microscopy and answer fundamental questions in polymer science.

Annual MRI screenings starting at ages 30 to 35 may reduce breast-cancer mortality by more than 50% among women who carry certain genetic changes in three genes, according to a comparative modeling analysis. The predictions involve pathogenic variants …

Tunability in lenses typically requires bulky components, but researchers have created a metasurface lens that uses a piezoelectric thin film to change focal length when a small voltage is applied. The compact and lightweight lens could be useful for p…

Scientists have found a previously overlooked mutation in a subtype of pediatric leukemia that has implications for identifying high-risk patients.

Eddies in an exotic liquid known as a superfluid merge to form large vortices, analogous to how cyclones form in the turbulent atmosphere.

Certain types of bacteria are unable to survive and thrive outside host organisms. This makes their isolation and identification technically challenging. Recently, a researcher successfully isolated a new bacterial strain of the candidate bacterial gro…

Acute myeloid leukemia, which affects blood and bone marrow cells, is a particularly dangerous form of cancer. More than half of patients under the age of 60 die. This proportion rises to 85% for patients over 60. A team has now identified a previously…

Whether nectar-sucking butterflies or blood-sucking mosquitoes – the ingestion of liquid food has long been known for many insects and other arthropods. A research team now shows that millipedes also use a sucking pump to ingest liquid food. A sucking …

Just before the closing scenes of the Cretaceous Period, India was a rogue subcontinent on a collision course with Asia. Before the two landmasses merged, however, India rafted over a ‘hot spot’ within the Earth’s crust, triggering one of the largest v…

A team of researchers has discovered blood biomarkers that can potentially predict patient response in the treatment of melanoma.

Agility dogs lacking core strength from routine physical exercise may be more susceptible to one of the most common canine knee injuries, a cranial cruciate ligament rupture, which is similar to an ACL tear in humans. According to a research survey doc…

Advanced imaging technology has helped scientists confirm that the destruction of brain synapses underlies the cognitive deficits experienced by patients with Alzheimer’s disease. For many years, scientists have assumed that the loss of connections bet…

The time a person spends on different smartphone apps is enough to identify them from a larger group in more than one in three cases say researchers, who warn of the implications for security and privacy. They fed 4,680 days of app usage data into stat…

Conducting a meta-analysis of 3,000 patients over 36 studies (carefully vetted from more than 1,200 studies in all), psychologists were able to find that specific exercise helps episodic memory — 3 times a week for 4 months, with greater improvements …