Injectable nanoparticles that could protect an injured person from further damage due to oxidative stress have proven to be astoundingly effective in tests to study their mechanism.

Researchers at Imperial College London and the Laboratoire de chimie de la matière condensée de Paris (CNRS/Collège de France/UPMC) have designed and developed hybrid gold-silica nanoparticles, which are turning out to be genuine therapeutic "Swiss Army knives". Tested in mice and on cultured human cells, they make it possible to combine two forms of tumor treatment and three imaging techniques. They notably have a greater drug loading and delivery capacity than carriers currently on the market, which opens interesting perspectives for cancer research. The results were published in PNAS on February 4, 2015.

With properties that promise faster computers, better sensors and much more, graphene has been dubbed the 'miracle material'. But progress in producing it on an industrial scale without compromising its properties has proved elusive. University of Groningen scientists may now have made a breakthrough. Their results will be published in the journal Nano Letters.

Treated buckyballs not only remove valuable but potentially toxic metal particles from water and other liquids, but also reserve them for future use, according to scientists at Rice University.

Gabriel Caballero Robledo from the Center for Research and Advanced Studies (CINVESTAV)at Monterrey, Mexico, is working on the design of a small medical device capable of detecting allergies or diseases quickly and at a low cost.

(Phys.org) —You already are accustomed to attaching lots of items in your emails. Pictures. Portfolios. Contracts. Resumes. White papers. For those in the UK there's something else as well. You can not only send a friend a picture of the cabin to be rented on your next holiday but your share of the rent.

(Phys.org) —Scratches on the smartphone display cover and phone drops on the pavement are two dreaded events that put a damper on any pleasure that comes from owning a sleek, feature-rich phone. The word "Gorilla" was a successful choice of a name that bolsters the perception of glass standing up to damages.

This summer, you could be walking into a theme-park hotel to find the greeter is not a person but a robot. Once you stop rubbing your eyes, you will see that a robot appears, to carry your bags to your room. Once you get used to this hotel, you will probably not be very surprised to find the cloakroom attendant is a robot as well as the cleaner.

Plans to transfer control of Internet overseer ICANN from US hands to a globally representative body could be jeopardised unless a deal is reached before the 2016 US elections, the group's chief warned Monday.

London-born Where's Waldo? creator Martin Handford started out as a commercial illustrator with a specialty in drawing crowd scenes. By now we know how that talent supported his success and fame. His first book, Where's Waldo?, was published in 1987.

It's on its way: the first Ubuntu-based smartphone is to go on sale soon for a little over $190 in a flash sale across Europe; there will be a series of online flash sales over the coming weeks. This will be offered as the Aquaris E4.5 Ubuntu Edition.

Automakers are cramming cars with wireless technology, but they have failed to adequately protect those features against the real possibility that hackers could take control of vehicles or steal personal data, a member of the U.S. Senate is asserting.

As UN climate negotiators gather in Geneva this week, one Japan-inspired Hungarian inventor believes he has found a revolutionary and inexpensive way to construct buildings that could slash humanity's energy needs.

Even at historically low natural gas prices, bioenergy may not be out of the running—it just may need a little help from the sun. A new study from researchers at the University of Minnesota examining the financial viability of solar-heated biomass gasification technologies that produce a natural gas substitute product concludes that combining these renewable resources can make economic sense.

We've heard much about technology's presence in the car market, adding an increasingly electronic infrastructure rich with sensors. German supplier Hella has turned to the outer shell of the car; they have come up with smart body panels that can tell when someone damages your car. Vehicles are to get this sense of touch, said reports, with Hella's Intelligent Damage Detection System. It can detect whenever a car's body panel sustains damages, from scratches and dents to worse events.

(AP)—The hackers who stole millions of health insurance records from Anthem Inc. commandeered the credentials of five different employees while seeking to penetrate the company's computer network—and they may have been inside the system since December.

With one year under his belt, Microsoft chief executive Satya Nadella has made strides in changing the focus of the technology giant that some feared was turning into a dinosaur.

(AP)—Today's cars can come with many high-tech features that interact wirelessly with the electronic systems. Tiny, built-in computers control increasing numbers of vehicle functions, making keeping track of what they control or how well protected that data is difficult.

Do you want to know how often your college student attends class? Missouri University of Science and Technology has an app for that.

Connecting different kinds of devices, not just computers and communications devices, to the Internet could lead to new ways of working with a wide range of machinery, sensors, domestic and other appliances. Writing in the International Journal of Innovation and Learning, suggest that we are on the verge of a another technological revolution but practicalities and legal obstacles may stymie the development of the so-called Internet of Things if they are not addressed quickly.

Despite recent advances in technology for upper-limb prostheses, artificial arms and hands are still unable to provide users with sensory feedback, such as the "feel" of things being touched or awareness of limb position and movement. Without this feedback, even the most advanced prosthetic limbs remain numb to users, a factor that impairs the limbs' effectiveness and their wearers' willingness to use them. In a step toward overcoming these challenges, DARPA has awarded prime contracts for Phase 1of its Hand Proprioception and Touch Interfaces (HAPTIX) program.

Investors in a Hong Kong-based Bitcoin trading company fear they have fallen victim to a scam after it closed down, a lawmaker said Monday, adding losses could total HK$3 billion ($387 million).

Everyone worries about stolen credit cards or hacked bank accounts, but just visiting the doctor may put you at greater risk for identity fraud.

Streaming US television giant Netflix said Monday it was now offering service to Cuba with "a curated selection of popular movies and TV shows."

Google on Monday said that it has bought smartphone photo backup and sharing platform Odysee to beef up picture-handling capabilities at its online social network.

Twitter said Monday it saw a 40 percent jump in government request for user data in late 2014, with sharp rises coming from both Turkey and Russia.

Dish Network's online television service, Sling TV, debuted Monday as a way to entice people who have dropped their cable or satellite TV service or never had one.

US mobile chip titan Qualcomm on Monday said it will pay nearly a billion dollars as part of a deal to end a long-running antitrust probe in China.

The trend of wearable devices (smart accessories) like bracelets, sunglasses and watches, is rarely focused on the elderly population. However, Mexican Francisco Lopez-Lira Fennel, who lives in Spain, wants these devices to be used by older adults benefiting them with the first smart watch that remotely monitors real-time health status.

The average person can take several basic steps to guard against identity theft both inside and outside the health care world. Here's a sample of what experts advise:

In 1969, two psychologists at the University of Illinois proposed what they called the Pollyanna Hypothesis—the idea that there is a universal human tendency to use positive words more frequently than negative ones. "Put even more simply," they wrote, "humans tend to look on (and talk about) the bright side of life." It was a speculation that has provoked debate ever since.

What if the touchscreen of your smartphone or tablet could touch you back? What if touch was as integrated into our ubiquitous technology as sight and sound?

It took 16 years of twists and turns. Over and over, Dr. Nancy Sullivan thought she was close to an Ebola vaccine, only to see the next experiment fail.

Through an investigation of a fundamental process that guides the maturation of immune cells, researchers have revealed new insights into possible ways to vaccinate people to generate potent antibodies of the type that are predicted to offer protection against diverse strains of the highly mutable HIV.

There is conclusive evidence that there is a fat taste, according to Deakin University sensory science researchers.

Scientists at Weill Cornell Medical College and Cornell University have gained new insights into the function of biological machines that scoop up glutamate, the most common neurotransmitter in the brain, from the nerve synapse. Their findings may offer investigators new strategies to develop more effective treatments for stroke, traumatic injury and neurodegenerative diseases.

Applying lessons learned from autism to brain cancer, researchers at The Johns Hopkins University have discovered why elevated levels of the protein NHE9 add to the lethality of the most common and aggressive form of brain cancer, glioblastoma. Their discovery suggests that drugs designed to target NHE9 could help to successfully fight the deadly disease.

Rapamycin, an FDA-approved drug, extends lifespan in mice up to 30%, making it of major interest to researchers intent on slowing the aging process in humans in order to extend healthspan, the healthy years of life. But long term use of rapamycin, approved for use in several disease indications, has side effects - raising questions about its use to prevent the chronic diseases of aging. In a study, now published online in Aging Cell, researchers at the Buck Institute have discovered new insights into how rapamycin inhibits the nutrient signaling pathway mTOR (mechanistic target of rapamycin) - a finding that could provide a way to avoid or eliminate side effects of the drug.

Receiving the human papillomavirus vaccine does not increase rates of sexually transmitted infections (STIs) in adolescent females. The vaccine, which can prevent cervical cancer in women, has had a low uptake, partly because of concerns about how it will affect adolescent sexual activity.

The first comprehensive computer model to simulate the development of blood cells could help in the development of new treatments for leukaemia and lymphoma, say researchers at the University of Cambridge and Microsoft Research.

A protein called YAP, which drives the growth of organs during development and regulates their size in adulthood, plays a key role in the emergence of resistance to targeted cancer therapies, according to a new study led by UC San Francisco researchers.

A study led by researchers at the Institute for Molecular Medicine Finland FIMM and Faculty of Medicine, University of Helsinki and the Helsinki University Central Hospital Comprehensive Cancer Center, in close collaboration with researchers at Pfizer, has identified a previously unrecognized action of Pfizer's axitinib as a potent inhibitor of the dominant mutation that confers drug resistance to all well tolerated treatments in patients with certain types of leukemia. The findings of this international joint effort were published online today, 9 February, 2015, in the journal Nature.

Magicians have astonished audiences for centuries by subtly, yet powerfully, influencing their decisions. But there has been little systematic study of the psychological factors that make magic tricks work.

For patients with type 1 diabetes (T1D), the burden of constantly monitoring their blood sugar and judging when and how much insulin to self-inject, is bad enough. Even worse, a miscalculation or lapse in regimen can cause blood sugar levels to rise too high (hyperglycemia), potentially leading to heart disease, blindness and other long-term complications, or to plummet too low (hypoglycemia), which in the worst cases can result in coma or even death.

For the first time, Keck Medicine of the University of Southern California (USC) cancer researchers have traced the origins of colorectal cancer cells, finding important clues to why tumor cells become "good" or "bad," with the potential of stopping them before they start.

St. Jude Children's Research Hospital investigators have discovered inherited genetic variations that are associated with rapid hearing loss in young cancer patients treated with the drug cisplatin. The research appears in the current online issue of the scientific journal Nature Genetics.

When people perceive anger and fear in others, a region of the brain called the amygdala sends signals throughout the rest of the brain that allow us to prepare for potentially threatening situations.

Mice genetically deficient in serotonin—a crucial brain chemical implicated in clinical depression—are more vulnerable than their normal littermates to social stressors, according to a Duke study appearing this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

(AP)—Students entering the University of California system in 2017 will have to be vaccinated against measles and other diseases under new immunization rules announced Friday.

(HealthDay)—Soy food/isoflavone intake is not associated with endometrial cancer risk in Japanese women, according to a study published in the February issue of BJOG: An International Journal of Obstetrics & Gynaecology.

(HealthDay)—Lifestyle factors, including personal effort in oral hygiene, can have long-term effects on perceived facial age, according to a study published online Jan. 27 in the British Journal of Dermatology.

(HealthDay)—Motivational interviewing can be a useful approach for reaching noncompliant patients, according to an article published Jan. 22 in Medical Economics.

(HealthDay)—Taking care of your gums plays an important role in protecting your teeth.

A study led by Howard Steiger, PhD, head of the Douglas Mental Health University Institute Eating Disorders Program (EDP), in Montreal, in collaboration with Linda Booij, a researcher with Sainte-Justine Hospital and an assistant professor at Queen's University, is the first to observe effects suggesting that the longer one suffers from active anorexia nervosa (AN), the more likely they are to show disorder-relevant alterations in DNA methylation.

By combining experimental data from X-ray crystallography, NMR spectroscopy, cryoelectron microscopy and lipidomics (the study of cellular lipid networks), researchers at the University of Oxford have built a complete model of the outer envelope of an influenza A virion for the first time. The approach, known as a coarse-grained molecular dynamics simulation, has allowed them to generate trajectories at different temperatures and lipid compositions - revealing various characteristics about the membrane components that may help scientists better understand how the virus survives in the wild or find new ways to combat it.

Don't go chomping on a handful of chili peppers just yet, but there may be help for hopeful dieters in those fiery little Native American fruits.

Strokes, heart attacks and traumatic brain injuries are separate diseases with certain shared pathologies that achieve a common end - cell death and human injury due to hypoxia, or lack of oxygen. In these diseases, a lack of blood supply to affected tissues begins a signaling pathway that ultimately halts the production of energy-releasing ATP molecules - a death sentence for most cells.

Researchers at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center have identified eight highly specific physical and cognitive signs associated with imminent death in cancer patients. The findings, published in the journal Cancer, could offer clinicians the ability to better communicate with patients and families. They may also guide both the medical team and caregivers on complex decision making, such as discontinuation of tests and therapy, plans for hospital discharge and hospice referral.

New research reveals the physical and psychosocial factors that significantly increase the risk of low back pain onset. In fact results published in Arthritis Care & Research, a journal of the American College of Rheumatology (ACR), show that being engaged in manual tasks involving awkward positions will increase the risk of low back pain by eight times. Those who are distracted during activities or fatigued also significantly increase their risk of acute low back pain.

The good news is that people born as extremely low birth weight babies are less likely than others to have alcohol or substance use disorders as adults. The less encouraging news is that they may have a higher risk of other types of psychiatric problems.

An Indian "woman" who discovered she had mostly male chromosomes has given birth to healthy twins after intensive treatment in what doctors said Monday was the "rarest of rare cases".

A new study by researchers at Yale School of Public Health and George Mason University provides an in-depth look at the positive aspects of sexual encounters among black men who have sex with men (MSM) versus MSM of other races in the United States.

A new system of wireless microelectrodes aims to detect the location of epilepsy in the brain with high precision. This technique, under development at EPFL, is much less invasive than the current method. It will allow patients to go about their daily life while their brain activity is being monitored.

The Centre for Brain Research at the MedUni Vienna is regarded as a world leader in researching the mechanisms involved with multiple sclerosis (MS). Now, in a paper published in the highly respected journal Lancet Neurology, an international team of researchers from Edinburgh, Cleveland and Vienna, under the leadership of Hans Lassmann, Head of the Department of Neuroimmunology at the MedUni Vienna, has for the first time documented the pathological progress of the disease from its early to late stage and also shown that inflammatory and neurodegenerative processes have a role to play. This raises the possibility of new treatment options.  

A collaborative study led by scientists from the Mechanobiology Institute (MBI) at the National University of Singapore (NUS) has revealed the mechanical forces that drive epithelial wound healing in the absence of cell supporting environment. This research was published in Nature Communications in January 2015.

When the mucosal surfaces in the lungs of healthy people come into contact with allergenic substances, so-called regulatory T cells also known as Treg cells, are activated. These are capable of actively preventing the development of allergies. However, if these regulatory mechanisms malfunction the cells of the immune system attack innocuous substances which enter the body from the environment, ultimately leading to the development of atopic diseases such as allergic asthma. In western countries, asthma is the most common chronic disease in children under the age of 15 years.

Biologists at the University of Oslo are now making a giant effort to identify the relationship between climate change, rat infestations, and the many major plague epidemics throughout history. The knowledge may be used to predict the next plague outbreak.

In a recent study Dianna Smith and Graham Kirkwood, of QMUL's Blizard Institute, found there were more childhood injuries in areas of deprivation but, they write, with a thorough recording process better prevention can take place.

Now that we're in to February, are you struggling to stick to your New Year's resolution exercise plan? There may be more to your success or failure than meets the eye.

It is often said that people who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it. Not being one of those people requires a network of different brain regions to work in concert.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, two million people become infected with antibiotic resistant bacteria each year, leading to at least 23,000 deaths. And these infections cost a lot – US$20billion in extra health care costs each year. To combat the problem, the White House is requesting $1.2 billion in the 2016 budget for diagnostics, new antibiotics, outbreak surveillance – and stewardship, which is how antibiotics are prescribed and used.

Middle-school children who consume heavily sweetened energy drinks are 66% more likely to be at risk for hyperactivity and inattention symptoms, a new study led by the Yale School of Public Health has found.

Getting help from the family doctor may be a better way for overweight, middle-aged women to increase their physical activity, rather than trying to go it alone, according to a trial led by researchers at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine and funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Obesity and physical inactivity are significant risk factors for cardiovascular disease in middle-aged women.

When the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) identifies problems in its inspections of clinical sites where biomedical research is performed on human subjects, those findings seldom are reflected in peer-reviewed literature later written about the research, according to an article published online by JAMA Internal Medicine.

Doctors treating patients battling both HIV and tuberculosis (TB)—many of whom live in Africa—are faced with the decision when to start those patients on antiretroviral therapy (ART) while they are being treated with antibiotics for active TB disease. Some patients fare well on both interventions, with the immune system in check and the TB controlled. Others undergo complications from TB, such as paradoxical immune reconstitution inflammatory syndrome (IRIS), a worsening of TB symptoms despite response to therapy, while still others experience immune failure and early death. The best way to determine which patients go on to develop IRIS or die after treatment begins is not fully understood.

Insecure? Craving attention and needing to feel good about yourself? Chances are Facebook is your friend. A new study suggests that people who are generally insecure in their relationships are more actively engaged on the social media site - frequently posting on walls, commenting, updating their status or "liking" something - in hopes of getting attention.

Shorter duty hours for medical residents, although marginally better for residents themselves, may result in worse patient care, according to a randomized trial assessing resident duty hour schedules in the intensive care unit (ICU), which is published in CMAJ (Canadian Medical Association Journal).

Stress may partly explain why young and middle-aged women have a worse recovery after heart attack, according to new research published in the American Heart Association journal Circulation.

A new book released this week by a researcher at the University of Colorado Denver examines the social conversations around sexting. In her book "Sexting Panic" Dr. Amy Hasinoff, a professor of Communication at CU Denver, discusses how teenage sexing - sending sexually explicit images or text messages over cell phones and social media - is thought about, talked about, and regulated.

Scottish author Robert Louis Stevenson tapped into primal fears when he penned "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde," a 19th century novel about a sinister physician, raising the question, "Can evil and good exist in the same person?"

People living close to the coast in England have higher vitamin D levels than inland dwellers, according to a new study published in the journal Environment International.

Chronic inflammation is directly associated with several types of cancer, yet the reasons as to why this happens at a cellular level remain unclear. Now, an international team of scientists led by researchers at The Wistar Institute has identified a multistep process showing not only how these cancers develop but also potentially discovering new therapeutic targets that could halt the formation and progression of tumor cells.

The more a Facebook user gets involved in alcohol-related pages or posts - whether it's a like, share or comment - the more likely that person is to consider drinking alcohol.

Anyone who lives with Type 1 diabetes is all too familiar with the sheer amount of effort—and often round-the-clock attention—required to manage the disease. Food intake is closely monitored, as is physical activity, and the period between meals is carefully tracked in order to calculate appropriate insulin dosages, which have to be delivered at the right time.

What should doctors wear? And how does something as simple as their choice of a suit, scrubs or slacks influence how patients view them?

A region of the brain thought to control speech production develops abnormally in children who stutter—a pattern that persists into adulthood, according to new University of Alberta research.

Chronic narcotic use is more than twice as prevalent in children with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), compared with children without this disease, according to a new study published in Clinical Gastroenterology and Hepatology, the official journal of the American Gastroenterological Association.

Gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender adolescents who come out at school have higher self-esteem and lower levels of depression as young adults, compared to LGBT youth who don't disclose their sexual orientation or gender identity at school, according to a new study led by University of Arizona researcher Stephen Russell.

Intensive behavioral intervention can be effective at eliminating pica, which is the repeated ingestion of inedible substances, researchers from Marcus Autism Center report.

Treadmill desks can help overweight or obese office workers get out of their chairs and get moving, but a 12-week study by an Oregon State University researcher found that the increase in physical activity was small and did not help workers meet public health guidelines for daily exercise.

Personal information taken from social media, blogs, page views and so on are used to detect disease outbreaks, however, does this violate our privacy, consent and trust?

(HealthDay)—The number of measles cases in the United States has reached 121 patients in 17 states and the District of Columbia, federal health officials reported Monday.

Nova Southeastern University (NSU) researchers recently discovered that, contrary to prior belief, tissues of different mammalian organs have very different abilities to repair damage to their DNA.

Research led by Charles Nichols, PhD, Associate Professor of Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics at the LSU Health New Orleans School of Medicine, has found that a psychedelic drug, (R)-DOI, prevents the development of allergic asthma in a mouse model. The effects are potent and effective at a concentration 50-100 times less than would influence behavior. The research was published in the January 15 issue of the American Journal of Physiology - Lung Cellular and Molecular Physiology.

A set of guidelines developed to help standardized lung cancer screening would have generated considerably fewer false-positives than the National Lung Screening Trial produced, according to a new retrospective study.

The drug Gleevec (imatinib mesylate) is well known not only for its effectiveness against chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) and acute lymphoblastic leukemia, but also for the story behinds its development. The drug was specifically designed to target an abnormal molecule—a fusion of two normal cell proteins—that fueled a tumor's growth.

Researchers have known that transplanted human umbilical cord cells (HUCBCs) can have a restorative effect on the brain and brain function following a stroke. However, just how the cells exert their therapeutic effects has not been clear. Now, a research team from the University of South Florida using animal models of stroke has found that the HUCBCs are most beneficial in preventing neuron loss when the Akt signaling pathway is activated by secretions from the HUCBCs and that Akt activation subsequently impacts a specific gene involved in reducing inflammation. A reduction in inflammation can help neural cell survival following a stroke.

When skyscrapers go up, contractors rely on an infrastructure of steel beams and braces. Some cancers grow the same way, using a biological matrix from which the tumor can thrive and spread.

(HealthDay)—A new technology designed to reduce stroke risk in certain patients has been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, the agency announced Monday.

(HealthDay)—For most pregnant patients with benign spine tumors, surgery can be postponed until after delivery, according to a study published in the Feb. 1 issue of Spine.

National dietary advice on fat consumption issued to millions of US and UK citizens in 1977 and 1983, to cut coronary heart disease incidence, lacked any solid trial evidence to back it up, and "should not have been introduced," concludes research published in the online journal Open Heart.

(AP)—Colorado lawmakers rejected a proposal to give dying patients the option to seek doctors' help ending their lives, concluding a long day of emotional testimony from more than 100 people.

Breast cancer patients who undergo a mastectomy should receive subsequent radiation treatment if their cancer has spread to four or more nearby lymph nodes, however, according to a new study, only 65 percent of these women are getting the recommended postmastectomy radiation therapy (PMRT). The researchers looked at nearly 57,000 cases of breast cancer, and their study has been published as an "article in press" on the Journal of the American College of Surgeons website in advance of print publication this spring.

Homosexuality has been illegal in Tanzania since colonial times. This legislation is still in force, and during the first 30 years of the HIV epidemic homosexuals were almost never mentioned in HIV prevention campaigns. Today, a growing number of homosexuals in the country have taken up the fight for equal health rights.

Condoms are the latest item to become scarce—and costly—in Venezuela.

Coconut oil is one of the few foods that can be classified as a "superfood." Its unique combination of fatty acids can have profound positive effects on health, including fat loss, better brain function and many other remarkable benefits.

The common practice of excluding patients with a prior cancer diagnosis from lung cancer clinical trials may not be justified, according to a study by researchers from UT Southwestern Medical Center.

Recent research carried out by a team of researchers in Japan has investigated the use of bone marrow transplants (BMTs) to treat hypophosphatasia (HPP). In this study, the researchers carried out BMT for two infants with HPP in combination with allogenic (other-donated) mesenchymal stem cell transplants (MSCTs). The allogenic MSC donors were a parent of the infant.

Hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) can differentiate into all of the different types of cells that comprise the blood and immune cell lineages. HSC transplantation is the only effective treatment for certain blood disorders; however, sources of HSCs are limited. Pluripotent stem cells (PSCs), such as induced PSCs, can differentiate into multiple types of cell lineages, but they do not readily reconstitute the population of cells in blood.

Artists, print designers and interior decorators have long had access to a broad palette of paint and ink colors for their work. Now, researchers have created a broad color palette of electrochromic polymers, materials that can be used for sunglasses, window tinting and other applications that rely on electrical current to produce color changes.

Harvesting sunlight is a trick plants mastered more than a billion years ago, using solar energy to feed themselves from the air and water around them in the process we know as photosynthesis.

It is evident from samples from mammoths, bears, and other fossils: sequenceable DNA can last up to several hundred thousand years. But one does not necessarily need fossil bones as capsules of silica glass spheres can do the same job, as Robert N. Grass and colleagues from the ETH Zurich demonstrate in their Communication in Angewandte Chemie.

The use of silicon carbide as a semiconductor for mechanical and electrical sensor devices is showing promise for improved operations and safety in harsh working environments, according to new research from Griffith University.

University of Tokyo researchers have elucidated how Toll-like receptor 9 (TLR9) binds to pathogen DNA, activating the innate immune system. This discovery is vital for the design of new antiviral, antibacterial, allergy and other drugs targeting TLR9.

Duke University researchers have devised a method to activate genes in any specific location or pattern in a lab dish with the flip of a light switch by crossing a bacterium's viral defense system with a flower's response to sunlight.

Imagine printing out molecules that can respond to their surroundings. A research project at the University of Washington merges custom chemistry and 3-D printing. Scientists created a bone-shaped plastic tab that turns purple under stretching, offering an easy way to record the force on an object.

A good drug is hard to design: to garner FDA approval and reach consumers, it must not only effectively treat a medical condition, but it must also do so without having side effects that outweigh its benefits.

Anyone who's ever been to France knows it's a country that celebrates its food and takes enormous pride in not only the taste, but also the appearance and the overall "joie de vivre" involved. So it should come as no surprise that scientific disciplines like biophysics are being embraced for their ability to reveal the underlying physical and chemical processes that occur during food preparation and consumption.

Researchers from the Universidad Carlos III de Madrid (UC3M) have visualized step-by-step and on a microscopic level how certain steels fracture when extreme loads are applied to them. This could help to improve these materials, which are used in the automobile industry.