All posts tagged: Research

MIT scientists develop a new way to grow artificial blood vessels

MIT scientists develop a new way to grow artificial blood vessels

Published by Jenni Sidey

Artificial tissues can mimic muscle, liver, kidney and skin, but they still face a basic survival problem: cells need blood vessels. Without a dense vascular network, oxygen and nutrients cannot reach deep into engineered tissue, and waste cannot escape. MIT engineers have now shown that mechanical stretching can help solve that problem. By repeatedly pulling on a lab-grown vessel, they increased the growth of new capillary-like sprouts and guided the direction those sprouts followed. The work, reported in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, introduces a vessel-on-a-chip platform that uses magnets to apply controlled strain inside a three-dimensional tissue model. The system lets researchers adjust how strongly, how often and in which direction a vessel is stretched. “Healthy tissues depend on organized blood vessel networks, but state-of-the-art protocols don’t enable fabricating such networks within engineered tissues,” said Ritu Raman, an associate professor of mechanical engineering at MIT and the study’s co-lead author. “The ability to program blood vessel growth with physical cues may enable reproducible and scalable fabrication of engineered tissues that can …

First x-rays captured in space mark breakthrough for astronaut health

First x-rays captured in space mark breakthrough for astronaut health

Published by Jenni Sidey

Medical care in space has long faced a quiet but serious limitation. For more than 40 years, astronauts relied on ultrasound as their only imaging tool. While useful, it cannot answer every question when something goes wrong. Now, a new study shows a major step forward. Crew members aboard a commercial spaceflight have captured the first diagnostic X-rays in orbit. The results suggest that a simple, portable device could transform how health and safety are managed in space. A Longstanding Gap In Space Medicine Space travel places the human body under strain. Bones weaken, fluids shift, and injuries become harder to diagnose. As missions grow longer, risks increase. Ultrasound has served as the main imaging tool because it is compact and safe. Still, it has limits. It depends heavily on operator skill and cannot always detect fractures or lung problems. Preflight, in-flight, and postflight nonmedical radiographs. (CREDIT: Radiology) Dr. Sheyna Gifford, lead researcher and assistant professor of aerospace medicine at Mayo Clinic, explained the challenge. “It’s been a dream for aerospace medicine to have more …

Brain implant helps paralyzed man move his hand and feel touch again

Brain implant helps paralyzed man move his hand and feel touch again

Published by Jenni Sidey

A man paralyzed from the shoulders down can now bring his hands to his face, grasp a cup and feel pressure on his wrist. A brain and spinal cord system helped restore abilities once considered exceedingly difficult to recover. The experimental “double neural bypass” combines brain implants, electrical stimulation, artificial intelligence and a wearable hand device. It reads the man’s intention to move, activates his own muscles and sends touch information back to his brain. Some improvements continued when stimulation stopped. That result suggests the system could act as both an assistive device and a rehabilitation tool, according to research published in Nature Medicine. The trial involved a 42-year-old man with complete tetraplegia following a diving accident. His injury occurred at the C4 sensory and C5 motor levels, leaving him unable to lift his hands to his face, grasp objects or feel his hands and lower forearms. Keith Thomas (left) who lives with paralysis, can now feel touch, as demonstrated by Dr. Chad Bouton of the Feinstein Institutes for Medical Research, thanks to the first-of-its-kind …

Clean hydrogen research in Oulu drives societal change

Clean hydrogen research in Oulu drives societal change

Published by skeptic

At the University of Oulu, knowledge, collaboration and societal insight help guide clean technology towards the needs of society In northern Finland, clean hydrogen is becoming more than a future energy carrier. Around Oulu, University of Oulu researchers, energy companies and heavy industry are exploring how it could reshape industrial processes, regional infrastructure and future skills needs. Beyond the energy system, hydrogen technologies could also transform transport, agriculture and politics — in practice, society as a whole. The projects now taking shape in the region are generating scalable solutions and knowledge with relevance far beyond Finland. In Oulu, those ambitions are closely tied to the city’s northern setting and long history of practical innovation. A northern innovation ecosystem built on local strengths Oulu is a Finnish coastal city, located slightly further north than the city of Reykjavík in Iceland. The climate and long distances have always required the people of Oulu to build well-being from locally available resources. The city has excelled in this, both in trade and in innovation development—from the tar merchants of …

Leading research on agricultural and companion animals

Leading research on agricultural and companion animals

Published by skeptic

The research and teaching programmes at the University of Guelph’s Department of Animal Biosciences underpin the ethical and sustainable production of food and animal products and care of companion animals that enhance human and animal health and wellbeing. The Department of Animal Biosciences (ABSc) – a globally recognised leader in animal health, welfare and sustainable production, within the Ontario Agricultural College (OAC) at the University of Guelph – is a leader in innovation and research, driving the agricultural and aquaculture sectors forward. Being the only department of its kind in Ontario and sitting amongst the top animal science departments globally, ABSc plays a vital role in advancing food animal production in Canada and beyond. Home to more than 24 faculty members, over 150 graduate students, and 1,500 undergraduate students, the department is deeply committed to understanding the biology of animals and applying that knowledge to create real-world impact. Through cutting-edge research, strong industry partnerships, and the development of highly skilled graduates, ABSc supplies Ontario’s agriculture and food industries with the knowledge, talent, and innovations needed …

Little red dot galaxies may solve a cosmic neutrino mystery

Little red dot galaxies may solve a cosmic neutrino mystery

Published by Jenni Sidey

Faint, distant galaxies spotted by the James Webb Space Telescope are beginning to reshape how scientists understand the high-energy universe. These compact objects, known as “Little Red Dots,” may hold clues to one of astronomy’s longest-standing mysteries, the origin of cosmic high-energy neutrinos. A new study led by researchers at Kyoto University suggests that these early galaxies could act as hidden particle factories. Their extreme environments may generate powerful neutrinos while concealing other forms of radiation that astronomers typically rely on for detection. A Strange Population In The Early Universe Observations with the Webb telescope revealed these small, red galaxies at great distances. Their light has traveled billions of years to reach Earth. This means they formed when the universe was still young. Despite their small size, they appear in large numbers. Their density rivals or exceeds that of bright quasars from the same era. This surprised astronomers, who expected fewer energetic objects so early in cosmic history. The multiplet-limit curves are shown for IceCube with six-year data as blue-dashed line and for IceCube-Gen2 as …

New Phantom Twist drone spins so quickly that it virtually disappears

New Phantom Twist drone spins so quickly that it virtually disappears

Published by Jenni Sidey

A drone spinning above the ground can become difficult to separate from the scenery behind it. Northwestern University engineers have turned that visual weakness into the defining feature of a new aircraft called Phantom Twist. The drone does not rely on camouflage paint, transparent shells or optical systems that bend light. Instead, its entire body rotates as fast as 25 times per second. At that speed, the human eye no longer sees a clear machine. What remains is a pale, ghostlike blur. The design uses motion blur, the familiar effect that makes a fast fan or propeller appear transparent. By spreading the drone’s components apart and keeping the full structure in motion, the team reduced the sharp edges and stationary forms that normally make a flying robot easy to notice. Components are spread around the drone — at different heights and different angles with lots of space in between — to prevent them from visually overlapping when spinning. So, when everything blurs together, the drone becomes a faint, semi-transparent cloud rather than a distinct shape. …

FCC approves giant space mirror as astronomers warn of risks to the night sky

FCC approves giant space mirror as astronomers warn of risks to the night sky

Published by Jenni Sidey

Night may soon become something that companies can switch off, briefly and selectively, from hundreds of miles above Earth. The Federal Communications Commission approved Reflect Orbital’s plan to launch Eärendil-1, an experimental satellite carrying an 18-meter-wide reflective surface. The mirror would redirect sunlight toward a targeted area after dark, producing a beam roughly five kilometers wide. The July 9 authorization applies to one demonstration satellite, not the enormous constellation the California company eventually hopes to build. Reflect Orbital has described plans for more than 50,000 mirrors by 2035, creating what it calls “sunlight on demand.” Supporters see possible uses in solar energy, agriculture, construction and emergency response. Critics see a system designed to brighten the night sky while regulators debate whether anyone has authority to consider its broader effects. Reflect Orbital has described plans for more than 50,000 mirrors by 2035. (CREDIT: Reflect Orbital) The decision has therefore opened a much larger argument. It is not simply about whether a mirror can work in orbit. It is about who decides how darkness, the atmosphere and …

Daylight saving time has a negative impact on healthy living, new research finds

Daylight saving time has a negative impact on healthy living, new research finds

Published by Jenni Sidey

Losing one hour in spring may do more than leave people tired. It can also push them toward processed snacks and away from the gym. Research published in the Journal of Marketing examined eating and exercise before and after the start of daylight saving time. Across two studies, unhealthy snacking increased and gym attendance declined after clocks moved forward. “There’s quite a bit of research in health fields related to how well-being is affected by daylight saving time,” said Ram Janakiraman, a professor of marketing analytics at North Carolina State University’s Poole College of Management. “We wanted to explore similar issues through the lens of consumer behavior, giving us new insights into how daylight saving influences the decisions we make.” Losing one hour in spring may do more than leave people tired. (CREDIT: Shutterstock) Snack habits shifted after the lost hour The first study examined information collected by a U.S. packaged food company from 2004 through 2010. Participants in a nationally representative group recorded their snacks for two weeks using mobile devices. They reported what …

Black Hole “ringing” could put Einstein’s theory to its toughest test

Black Hole “ringing” could put Einstein’s theory to its toughest test

Published by Jenni Sidey

A newly merged black hole does not become quiet at once. It vibrates, sheds energy through gravitational waves and produces a fading pattern of tones that scientists are learning to read with increasing precision. Those tones could reveal whether Einstein’s theory of general relativity still holds under some of the most extreme conditions in the universe. They may also help researchers search for dark matter, unfamiliar particles and quantum effects near black hole horizons. The field takes its name from ordinary spectroscopy, where scientists identify atoms by the frequencies of light they emit or absorb. Black hole researchers instead study gravitational-wave frequencies released after a collision. Artwork of a pair of merging black holes with differing masses. The gravity of the black holes bends and twists light around them. (CREDIT: Carl Knox, OzGrav, Swinburne University of Technology) “By listening to the ringing of newly formed black holes, we are turning gravitational waves into a tool for exploring some of the deepest questions in physics, from the nature of gravity itself to the possibility of discovering …