Engineered strains of E. coli and other microbes are being tested in people to combat a slew of illnesses. People often take medicines to rid themselves of problem bacteria. Now, a counterintuitive approach — turning genetically modified bacteria into medicines — is gaining ground. Several companies are testing whether engineered bacteria can treat conditions that affect the […]

Cyborgs, and interstellar probes and AI, oh my Researchers working on Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) efforts hunt for the same thing that their predecessors sought for decades—a sign that life arose, as Carl Sagan would say, on another humdrum planet around another humdrum star and rose up into something technologically advanced. It could happen […]

Researchers from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Texas A&M University used satellite images, on-the-ground measurements and a statistical model to determine how much of the earth is covered by rivers and streams. They found that global river and stream surface area is about 45 percent greater than what was indicated by […]

Elias is not a person. It’s a robot that teaches language to students of Finnish primary schools. Elias doesn’t get tired of repeating answers to questions that students ask over and over. It doesn’t embarrass children with reprimands about undone homework, failing grades, repeated absences, tardiness and other forms of delinquencies. It can even break into a […]

One of the world’s leading plasma research facilities just broke a new record, showing we really are getting closer to the wonderful goal of fusion power – a virtually limitless supply of clean energy. Experiments on the Wendelstein 7-X stellarator – a device that uses magnets to confine clouds of plasma (hot, charged gas) – […]

The miniscule carriers successfully transported and released live cells at a particular location within living mice. Researchers used magnetically driven microrobots to carry cells to predetermined spots within living zebrafish and mice, they report in Science Robotics today (June 27). The authors propose using these hair-width gadgets as delivery vehicles in regenerative medicine and cell therapy. The […]

Flight attendants may have a higher risk of a number of cancers, a new study finds. Researchers found that women and men on U.S. cabin crews have higher rates of many types of cancer, compared with the general population. This includes cancers of the breast, cervix, skin, thyroid and uterus, as well as gastrointestinal system […]

Hayabusa2 is a Japanese asteroid-sampling spacecraft that launched in December 2014. It is currently on the way to asteroid 162173 Ryugu and will arrive there between June and July 2018, according to the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA). The mission is a follow-up of Hayabusa, which returned samples of asteroid 25143 Itokawa to Earth in […]

Summary: Researchers have discovered a new kind of small-cell lung cancer (SCLC). The discovery paves the way for developing personalized medicine approaches to target this previously unnoticed form of the disease. Researchers have discovered a new kind of small-cell lung cancer (SCLC). The discovery paves the way for developing personalized medicine approaches to target this […]

Researchers were able to turn down behavioral problems in mice. Add this to the list of possible applications for the seemingly-magical gene editing technology CRISPR: helping people with neurological disorders edit their brains with pinpoint accuracy to alleviate the symptoms of their disorder. That’s the potential promise of a new study, out today in the journal Nature Biomedical Engineering. […]