Tag: Life Science

Thanks to 3D-printed alternatives, things are getting better for living test objects. Animals, too, could soon be spared chemical testing thanks to the work of an Edinburgh-based research team. Using a 3D printer, the team created a model comprising five interconnected compartments and filled each of those with human cells from the brain, heart, lungs, liver and kidney respectively....

Maze-like paths keeps insects away from plants. Mosquitoes aren’t just annoying; they are also carriers of disease. Sometimes simple concepts are the best. An idea that an Alabama research team has developed to create a material that protects humans from mosquito bites. The insects can bend their piercing and sucking proboscises at 90 degree angles, penetrating even the thickest...

Video games can help diagnose depression, and smartphones identify blocked arteries. Now, a research team in Singapore has developed a light-emitting diode (LED), less than a micrometre in size, which has been used to build a holographic mini-microscope. Both LED and microscope are the smallest of their kind in the world. A neural network-algorithm converts objects measured by the microscope, such as cells...

Human urine could help build astronauts’ sleeping quarters on the moon, or supply fertiliser for farming. Cattle, however, are a major contributor to greenhouse gases by passing methane front and back. According to a study by a Washington State University research team, help might come from an unlikely source: the faeces of baby kangaroos. For, in contrast to their...

Lip movements can be translated into text by smartphone. And as a research team from Taiwan recently discovered, smartphone video recordings can help analyse messages contained in our blood flow. Carotid arteries clogged up by fatty deposits restrict blood flow to the brain, potentially leading to strokes. Such reduced moving patterns, although just below the skin, cannot be detected...

Vibrating beds soothe premature babies. The desire to become a parent is not based on gender. In the course of a lifetime some females identify as male and undergo bodily changes. But the desire to be a parent can remain. This means interrupting testosterone therapy and enduring accompanying physical and psychological challenges. Now a reproductive biologist from Edinburgh University...

Windscreen-wipers aren’t just useful in cars. For doctors examining lungs, it’s equally important to have a clear view. During a feasibility study, a research team at Leeds University developed a mini-robot that can reach the lungs’ smallest bronchial tubes. Manually-operated instruments currently used in lung examinations are either too wide in diameter, or too difficult to control. The robot,...

Recently, an unusual album stormed the Australian charts. Now, an international research team has been focusing their attention on a species which, according to DNA comparisons, is remarkably similar to our own. The team analysed the sounds of pigs in happy and stressful situations, with recordings made from birth to death. Positive feelings were expressed by a short grunt;...