Headless Hydras: Unlocking the secrets behind their immortality
What are hydras? Scientists often take inspiration from nature to tackle problems facing human kind. The latest case of this is a study looking at Hydra vulgaris, a marine animal that is considered immortal! The tube-shaped creatures are one to three centimeters long. They reside in freshwater, Read More...
This super jelly can withstand extreme force
Scientists from the University of Cambridge have created a cutting edge, jelly-like material that can withstand extreme force. The strong yet squishy hydrogel was designed to be able to handle the weight of an elephant standing on it! The team designed this hydrogel to have a high water content Read More...
The secrets behind the ferocity of fungi exposed
Armillaria ostoyae is one of the toughest tree-killing fungi on the planet. It assembles with black tentacle-like structures called rhizomorphs, which leach onto trees and suck out their nutrients. The reason the fungi is so hard to kill has previously baffled scientists, with farmers hacking Read More...
Robots with ‘human like’ brains able to escape maze
Mazes are commonly used in psychology to assess the behavior of rats and mice. As scientists create more and more human-like robot brains, they thought it was time for the machines to have a turn. Robot vs. maze Teams from the Eindhoven University of Technology and the Max Planck Institute for Read More...
'Ghost particle' spotted for the first time in Hadron Collider
The Large Hadron Collider (LHC), nicknamed the world’s greatest atom smasher, is the most powerful particle accelerator in the world. Consisting of a 27 kilometer long ring of superconducting magnets, it sits in a tunnel 100 meters underground at CERN, a research facility in Switzerland. The Read More...
A chemical found in grape seed could promote more gentle aging
We all know the everyday signs of aging, but researchers are still trying to figure out exactly what is happening on a molecular level. Scientists hope that when the process is understood, it can be slowed down to improve the quality of life for older humans. A new paper, published in Nature Read More...
New mRNA flu vaccine shows success in clinical trials
When the common cold returns each year, so does the rise in flu cases. For younger, healthy people, all this means is the sniffles and a day in bed, but as we get older or develop other health conditions, these seasonal diseases can have a more dramatic, sometimes deadly impact on our Read More...
Bug-inspired floating robots can clean up ocean pollutants
Thanks to human behavior, the ocean is cluttered with pollutants like oil and contaminants from drinking water. These materials are harmful to the ecosystem, as they prevent vital oxygen from reaching marine life and are also toxic. Currently, to clean up oil spills, people are sent on ships to do Read More...
Wearable battery opens up new possibilities for medical monitoring
Clothing with integrated electronic technology has a huge number of potential applications in the medical field. This technology can monitor vital signs, like breathing and muscle activity, as well as feed these stats back to computers, allowing cross talk between our clothing and machines. One Read More...
Botswana takes a giant leap in eradicating mother-to-child HIV transmission
The Republic of Botswana has achieved key milestones in eliminating mother-to-child transmission of HIV. The country was previously classified as a “high burden” country, which is defined as more than two percent of women living with HIV. This achievement is thanks to a collaboration of The Read More...