Hydrogels are already used in clinical practice for the delivery of drugs, and as lenses, bone cement, wound dressings, 3D scaffolds in tissue engineering and other applications. However, bonding different hydrogel polymers to one another has remained a challenge; yet it could enable numerous new applications. Now, researchers have pioneered a new method that uses a thin film of chitosan, a fibrous sugar-based material derived from the processed outer skeletons of shellfish, to make different hydrogels instantaneously and strongly stick to each other. They used their approach to locally protect and cool tissues, seal vascular injuries, and prevent unwanted 'surgical adhesions' of internal body surfaces.
In the largest genome-wide association study to date on Type 2 diabetes, a team of international researchers has located 1,289 genetic markers associated with Type 2 diabetes (145 of which are newly identified) and generated risk scores for diabetes complications.
In a group of plants that is famous for luring its pollinators into a death trap, one species offers its flowers as a nursery in exchange. The discovery blurs the line between mutualism and parasitism and sheds light on the evolution of complex plant-insect interactions.
The prospect of the worrisome triple threat of COVID, RSV and flu was assuaged last year by the effectiveness of flu vaccines. Two recent studies from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's VISION Network have found that flu vaccines were effective for all ages against both moderate and severe flu in the U.S. during the 2022-2023 flu season.
Consuming over 22% of dietary calories from protein can lead to increased activation of immune cells that play a role in atherosclerotic plaque formation and drive the disease risk, new study showed.
Imageomics, a new field of science, has made stunning progress in the past year and is on the verge of major discoveries about life on Earth, according to one of the founders of the discipline.
Armed with a catalog of hundreds of thousands of DNA and RNA virus species in the world's oceans, scientists are now zeroing in on the viruses most likely to combat climate change by helping trap carbon dioxide in seawater or, using similar techniques, different viruses that may prevent methane's escape from thawing Arctic soil.
Potassium deficiency in agricultural soils is a largely unrecognized but potentially significant threat to global food security if left unaddressed, finds new research.
Book sharing is a popular way parents engage young children in conversation. However, not all parents are comfortable with book sharing and not all children like having books read to them. Research provides an alternative. To boost the quality of a preschooler's language experience and skills, consider reminiscing with them. Findings show reminiscing is very good at eliciting high quality speech from parents, and in many ways, is just as good as book sharing (wordless picture books).
A cryptographic tag uses terahertz waves to authenticate items by recognizing the unique pattern of microscopic metal particles that are mixed into the glue that sticks the tag to the item's surface.
Until recently, Orthacanthus gracilis could have been considered the 'John Smith' of prehistoric shark names, given how common it was. Three different species of sharks from the late Paleozoic Era -- about 310 million years ago -- were mistakenly given that same name, causing lots of grief to paleontologists who studied and wrote about the sharks through the years and had trouble keeping them apart. But now a professor has finished the arduous task of renaming two of the three sharks -- and in the process rediscovered a wealth of fossil fishes that had been stored at a museum for years but had been largely forgotten.
Researchers have identified a new pathway that contributes to cardiovascular disease associated with high levels of niacin, a common B vitamin previously recommended to lower cholesterol. The team discovered a link between 4PY, a breakdown product from excess niacin, and heart disease. Higher circulating levels of 4PY were strongly associated with development of heart attack, stroke and other adverse cardiac events in large-scale clinical studies. The researchers also showed in preclinical studies that 4PY directly triggers vascular inflammation which damages blood vessels and can lead to atherosclerosis over time.
John Jumper has been developing novel methods to apply artificial intelligence and and machine learning to protein biology
Despite a long career in physics, he published sparsely and never produced another work of similar value
The menus delve into different aspects of history — the heritage of a city, of a place, ingredients that have stood the test of time, and even, classic drinks
Instead of carrying the babies until they hatched, as in most species of sea spiders, one parent (likely the father) spent two days attaching the eggs to the rocky bottom where they developed for several months before hatching as tiny larvae.
What would be its use? Won’t it violate the provisions of the Outer Space Treaty? What kind of damage can it cause? Do Russia and the U.S. have ASAT capabilities? Why do theories about it also include the nuclear question?
On February 17, 1869, legend has it that Russian chemist and inventor Dmitri Mendeleev conceived and created the table that we now know as the periodic table. While that might be an exaggeration, Mendeleev’s role in creating the table is indisputable. A.S.Ganesh takes a look at how the periodic table came to be…
There is wide variability in the way humans respond to immune challenges, such as bacterial or viral infections, as seen with the diverse range of clinical outcomes observed after infection with SARS-CoV-2
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