The method could viably produce enough skin samples to be used commercially for drug and cosmetics testing.
The use of animal testing for medical research than for cosmetics testing is much easier to defend. Yet many cosmetics companies continue to test on animals to ensure that their products don’t produce negative outcomes for their human customers.
The “off-switch” could help scientists develop treatments for patients with some brain diseases.
Scientists have essentially developed an “off-switch” for the brain by using light pulses to effectively shut down neural activity.
Continue reading… “Scientists develop an ‘off-switch’ for the brain”
In recent decades, many Western nations have experienced significant declines in crime, but could the removal of lead from gasoline explain that?
Continue reading… “Did removing lead from gasoline spark a decline in crime rates?”
The U.S. Navy hopes to power all non-nuclear powered ships through seawater.
The U.S. Navy scientists believe they may have solved one of the world’s great challenges after decades of experiments. They know how to turn seawater into fuel. (Video)
The discovery could lead to developing a drug that can trigger regrowth of damaged nerves.
Spinal cord injuries are currently irreparable. Most people who suffer from such an injury never fully recover, and many end up with partial or even full paralysis. Although we’ve made great strides in understanding how spinal injuries damage nerves and how we might fix the spinal cord in the future, and even how those patients can cope in the meantime, we still don’t know how to repair the nerves themselves when such an injury occurs. However, scientists at Imperial College London have recently discovered a mechanism that allows them to repair, and even regenerate, nerves in the central nervous system after a spinal cord injury.
Continue reading… “Scientists discover mechanism that could regrow damaged nerves”
The prospect of yeast-by-design is tantalizing for many researchers in the brewing industry.
Man-made yeasts could irreversibly change everything from the biofuel to the brewing industry. A team of geneticists led by Jef Boeke at Johns Hopkins University is genetically engineering a yeast from scratch, as part of the Synthetic Yeast 2.0 project. They have designed and written a code made up of roughly 11 million letters of DNA—the As, Cs, Gs, and Ts that write the book of life—which they are synthesizing and subbing in for a yeast’s natural DNA.
Continue reading… “Scientists unlock the future of beer”
Researchers embedded carbon nanotubes in the chloroplasts of the plants to create “artificial antennae.”
Plants make life possible. Chloroplasts are the tiny organelles with a plant’s leaves. The chloroplasts use incoming sunlight to split water molecules and then knit together the energy-rich carbon and hydrogen compounds found in everything from food to fossil fuels. The leftover “waste” is the oxygen that we and the rest of the animal kingdom depend on to survive and thrive.
Continue reading… “Bionic plants use nanotechnology to boost photosynthesis”
Physicists create a device that binds photons together to form “light molecules.”
A vacuum chamber the size of a shoebox has made history in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Harvard physicist Ofer Firstenberg has created a new form of matter: a pair of photons, stuck together.
Continue reading… “Physicists turn light into matter”
Diamond sample containing the hydrous ringwoodite.
The Earth’s transition zone is the part of the Earth that exists between the upper and lower mantle. Scientists often theorize what lies in the transition zone. Many believe that the transition zone contains a lot of water, but there was no proof to support that idea. A group of geologists from the University of Alberta uncovered a water-containing gem that finally confirms this theory: there is water, possibly massive oceans of it, deep beneath the Earth’s surface.
Continue reading… “Discovery of water-containing gem points to vast oceans beneath the Earth”
The discovery of cannabinoid receptors may help explain why marijuana users say they take the drug mainly to reduce anxiety.
Researchers at Vanderbilt University have found cannabinoid receptors, through which marijuana exerts its effects, in a key emotional hub in the brain involved in regulating anxiety and the flight-or-fight response.
Continue reading… “Researchers discover marijuana’s anxiety relief effects”
Stem cell therapy could be used to help older patients recover from muscular injuries.
People become less able to bounce back from injuries as they age. This is a problem that adds risk to many of the common medical procedures the elderly face. At the same time, stem cells’ greatest promise is to allow people to produce new, healthy tissue to recover from illness or injury. But because stem cell therapies remain cutting edge, they have largely been used to target life-threatening problems such as heart failure.
Continue reading… “Stem cells repair and strengthen muscles in aged mice”
A switch in the brain sends us off to sleep.
In a study in fruit flies, researchers at Oxford University’s Centre for Neural Circuits and Behavior have identified a switch in the brain that sends us off to sleep.
Continue reading… “Scientists discover a switch in the brain that makes us sleep”
By delving into the futuring techniques of Futurist Thomas Frey, you’ll embark on an enlightening journey.
Learn More about this exciting program.