INSIDER

Using a single drop of blood, a team of engineers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison has developed what they say is a faster, cheaper, and more accurate tool for diagnosing even mild cases of asthma.

An international team of engineers from Penn state University, University Park, PA, and King Abdullah University of Science and Technology, Saudi Arabia, have discovered that saliva-powered micro-sized microbial fuel cells can produce minute amounts of energy—enough to run on-chip applications, they say. This...

A team of researchers at Johns Hopkins Medicine, Baltimore, has designed a computerized imaging process to make minimally invasive surgery more accurate and streamlined using equipment already common in the operating room.

Physicians at the Medical College of Georgia and Georgia Regents University, Augusta, say that the intra-aortic balloon pump, one of the most frequently used mechanical circulatory assist devices in the world may have untapped potential. One of its many uses is helping ensure adequate oxygen...

Researchers at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, led by Professor John Rogers, PhD, are taking on the challenge of health and sustainability issues simultaneously by developing a vast toolbox of materials—from magnesium and silicon to silk and even rice paper—to make biodegradable...

A team of researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, CA, has developed two inexpensive adapters that enable a smartphone to capture high-quality images of the front and back of the eye. The adapters can allow anyone with minimal training to take a picture of the eye and share it securely...

A team of scientists at the University of Cincinnati, OH, says that an electrical stimulus can promote the growth of blood vessels and help to speed healing in diabetic ulcers and other hard-to-heal chronic wounds. Their research examines the best stimulus parameters, such as frequency and magnitude,...

A new technique to purify blood uses a nanofiber mesh, which could be useful as a cheap, wearable alternative to kidney dialysis, say a team of researchers at the International Center for Materials Nanoarchitectonics, National Institute for Materials Science in Ibaraki, Japan. The mesh could be incorporated...

Using an inexpensive 3D printer, biomedical engineers at Washington University in St. Louis, MO, say that they have developed a custom-fitted, implantable device with embedded sensors that could treat cardiac disorders.

A team of scientists from Nanjing University in China and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign is exploring the use of metamaterials to create devices that manipulate sound in versatile and unprecedented ways. This was reported in the journal, Applied Physics Letters.

Engineers at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee first discovered a new way to propagate multiple beams of light through a single strand of optical fiber. Now, they say that their unique fiber architecture can transmit images of comparable or better quality than commercial endoscopy imaging...

Cochlear implants, which electrically stimulate the auditory nerve, grant some hearing to those who might otherwise be deaf. One drawback has been that the devices require that a transmitter be affixed externally to the skull, with a wire snaking down to a joint microphone and power source that looks like...

A team of physics researchers at the University of Adelaide, Australia, say that they have developed a new type of laser that will enable advances in areas as diverse as breath analysis for disease diagnosis and remote sensing of critical greenhouse gases.

A team of Washington State University (WSU), Pullman, researchers has developed a gummy battery material that, they say, could dramatically improve the safety of lithium ion batteries.

A team of graduate students along with a chemistry professor at Tulane University, New Orleans, LA, say that they have invented a new scientific instrument—the world’s first fully automated dual-frequency, two-dimensional infrared spectrometer.

Hot on the heels of the Super Bowl, comes new research from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, on concussions and head hits in football players and how the head reacts to impacts. Using crash test dummies wearing helmets and a laboratory drop tower, the researchers approximated the force of...

When rhinos charge each other, their heavy skulls protect them from serious damage. But football players must rely on helmets that may not prevent concussion or other serious head injuries that may occur. To improve the odds of a safer helmet, researchers at Virginia Tech, Blacksburg,...

Silk and diamonds are the ingredients for a new kind of tiny glowing particle that could provide researchers with a novel technique for biological imaging and drug delivery. The particles, just tens of nanometers across, are made of nanodiamonds covered in silk.

First-of-its-kind research being done at the Innovation Institute at Henry Ford Hospital, Detroit, MI, shows promise for developing a method of clearly identifying cancerous tissue during surgery on glioblastoma multiforme (GBM), a tumor that attacks tissue around nerve cells in the brain.

Studying how primitive man learned to walk upright, say researchers in the College of Engineering at Oregon State University, Corvallis, could lead to improved prosthetic lower limbs. Their findings outline a specific interaction between the ankle, knee, muscles, and tendons that improve understanding of how...

Researchers at the University of Delaware, Newark, have developed a “smart” hydrogel that can deliver medicine on demand, in response to mechanical force. What’s new about their material, is its ability to release medicine in response to force, a major challenge for people with osteoarthritis, which...

A University of Toronto lab is partnering with an international NGO and a Ugandan hospital to use 3D scanning and printing to speed the process of creating and fitting sockets for artificial limbs. While 3D printing has been around for some time, a new generation of fast, cheap 3D...