For The Better

Antimicrobials are used to kill or slow the growth of bacteria, viruses and other microorganisms. They are essential to preventing and treating infections, but they also pose a global threat to public health when microorganisms develop antimicrobial re…

Researchers have created insecticide-free, mosquito-resistant clothing using textile materials they confirmed to be bite-proof in experiments with live mosquitoes.

New research has shown that the mutations arising in the COVID-19-causing SARS-CoV-2 virus seem to run in the family — or at least the genus of coronaviruses most dangerous to humans. After comparing the early evolution of SARS-CoV-2 against that of i…

Humans have known for over two thousand years that shipworms, a worm-like mollusk, are responsible for damage to wooden boats, docks, dikes and piers. Yet new research reveals that we still don’t know the most basic thing about them: how they eat.

Researchers have developed a new device that harvests energy from the sweat on — of all places — your fingertips. To date, the device is believed to be the most efficient on-body energy harvester ever invented, producing 300 millijoules (mJ) of energ…

Researchers provide an update on how electrical impulses in the heart travel from cell to cell. The connections between cells forming the low resistance pathway and facilitating the current flow are called gap junctions. Each consists of many channels,…

Scientists have developed a computational method based on large-scale molecular dynamics simulations to predict the cell-membrane permeability of cyclic peptides using a supercomputer. Their protocol has exhibited promising accuracy and may become a us…

Crenarchaeol is a large, closed-loop lipid that is present in the membranes of ammonium-oxidizing archaea. In comparison to other archaeal membrane lipids, crenarchaeol is very complex and, so far, attempts to confirm its structure by synthesizing the …

Low-income neighborhoods and communities with higher Black, Hispanic and Asian populations experience significantly more urban heat than wealthier and predominantly white neighborhoods within a vast majority of populous US counties, according new resea…

As rechargeable batteries get more powerful, the chance of batteries overheating — thermal runaway — increases. Seeking a way to make batteries safer, researchers have investigated one of thermal runaway’s main triggers: oxygen release.

A recently published study identifies 11 rare candidate variants for Alzheimer’s disease. Researchers found 19 different families in Utah that suffered from Alzheimer’s disease more frequently than what is considered normal.

In addition to chemical factors, mechanical influences play an important role in the natural growth of human organs such as kidneys, lungs and mammary glands – but also in the development of tumors. Now a research team has investigated the process in d…

The absorption of energy from laser light by free electrons in a liquid has been demonstrated for the first time. Until now, this process was observed only in the gas phase. The findings open new doors for ultra-fast electron microscopy.

Scientists have published a global study on the effectiveness of protected areas in preventing deforestation. The study explored the success of country-level protected areas at reducing forest loss, and used machine learning to uncover some of the fact…

New research shows how control over self-propelled microswimmers could be achieved using exotic materials named ‘nematic liquid crystals’ – whose viscosity and elasticity can vary depending on the direction of an applied force.

New research has identified the processes that underpin the trajectories of microplastics below the ocean surface. The authors analyzed how biofouling — the accumulation of algae on the surface of microplastics — impacts the vertical movement of buoy…

As the complexity of radiation therapy has grown, so too has the amount of data that goes into treatment machines. With more data comes more opportunity for errors in data transfer. A medical physics researcher is working to make those errors less like…

Two very different teams of scientists have worked together to reveal important insights into how we sense texture by looking at the whiskers of a rat.

A new study shows that a diet rich in isoflavone, a phytoestrogen or plant-based compound that resembles estrogen, protects against multiple sclerosis-like symptoms in a mouse model of the disease. Importantly, the isoflavone diet was only protective w…

Australian reptiles face serious conservation threats from illegal poaching fueled by international demand and the exotic pet trade.