/ en-us Â鶹ŇůÔş internet news portal provides the latest news on science including: Â鶹ŇůÔşics, Nanotechnology, Life Sciences, Space Science, Earth Science, Environment, Health and Medicine. A dangerous hospital superbug has been found to digest plastic—specifically the kind used in some sutures, stents and implants inside the human body. Microbiologists at Brunel University of London show the bacteria can feed on plastic to survive, potentially enabling these pathogens to survive longer in hospital wards and within patients. /news/2025-05-superbug-digest-medical-plastic-dangerous.html Cell & Microbiology Molecular & Computational biology Wed, 07 May 2025 15:42:04 EDT news665851322 Origami—the Japanese art of folding paper—could be the next frontier in innovative materials. Practiced in Japan since the early 1600s, origami involves combining simple folding techniques to create intricate designs. Now, Georgia Tech researchers are leveraging the technique as the foundation for next-generation materials that can both act as a solid and predictably deform, "folding" under the right forces. The research could lead to innovations in everything from heart stents to airplane wings and running shoes. /news/2025-05-class-materials-origami.html General Â鶹ŇůÔşics Mon, 05 May 2025 11:15:59 EDT news665662549 A car accident, football game, or even a bad fall can lead to a serious or fatal head injury. Annually, traumatic brain injuries (TBI) cause half a million permanent disabilities and 50,000 deaths. Monitoring pressure inside the skull is key to treating TBI and preventing long-lasting complications. /news/2025-04-ultra-thin-flexible-silicone-nanosensor.html Bio & Medicine Nanomaterials Mon, 14 Apr 2025 12:23:03 EDT news663852181 An international research team led by the Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) has achieved a breakthrough in the field of medical microrobots by developing the world's first antibiofilm liquid-bodied magnetic-controlled robot. /news/2025-04-liquid-bodied-robot-enables-precise.html Bio & Medicine Tue, 01 Apr 2025 14:54:38 EDT news662738067 Researchers have created nanoscale robots which could be used to manage bleeds in the brain caused by aneurysms. The development could enable precise, relatively low-risk treatment of brain aneurysms, which cause around 500,000 deaths globally each year. The medical condition—a blood-filled bulge on a brain artery that can rupture and cause fatal bleeds—can also lead to stroke and disability. /news/2024-09-tiny-magnetic-robots-brain.html Bio & Medicine Fri, 06 Sep 2024 09:26:04 EDT news644833561 Medical materials that can be inserted into the human body have been used for decades in the field of regenerative medicine—for example, stents that can help dilate clogged blood vessels and implants that can replace teeth or bones. The prolonged use of these materials can result in serious adverse effects and loss of various functions—for example, inflammatory responses, generation of fibrous tissues around the material, and generation of blood clots that block blood vessels. /news/2021-06-concept-stent-suppresses-adverse-effects.html Cell & Microbiology Fri, 25 Jun 2021 10:34:47 EDT news543836083 As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, universities worldwide have been forced to reduce in-person interactions, altering how we connect and work with one another. The transition to a "virtual world" has been eye-opening, proving to many that research and innovation can continue, even in a remote setting.  /news/2021-06-international-insight-fibrosis-devastating-body.html Cell & Microbiology Thu, 24 Jun 2021 15:36:25 EDT news543767781 From the biggest bridges to the smallest medical implants, sensors are everywhere, and for good reason: The ability to sense and monitor changes before they become problems can be both cost-saving and life-saving. /news/2021-06-self-aware-materials-foundation.html Nanomaterials Tue, 01 Jun 2021 14:57:56 EDT news541778226 Narrowing of the trachea or the main bronchi due to injury or illness can end very badly. If patients get too little air,oxygen, they risk suffocating and often need medical help as quickly as possible. /news/2021-02-d-printed-bioresorbable-airway-stent.html Materials Science Wed, 03 Feb 2021 14:30:24 EST news531585019 Hydrogel-polymer hybrids are widely used across a variety of applications to form biomedical devices and flexible electronics. However, the technologies are presently limited to hydrogel-polymer hybrid laminates containing silicone rubbers. This can greatly limit the functionality and performance of hydrogel-polymer-based devices and machines. In a new study, Qi Ge, and a team of scientists in mechanics, mechatronic systems, flexible electronics, chemistry and advanced design in China, Singapore and Israel demonstrated a simple and versatile multi-material three-dimensional (3-D) printing approach. The method allowed the development of complex hybrid 3-D structures containing highly stretchable and high water content acrylamide—poly(ethylene glycol)diacrylate (PEGDA) abbreviated as AP hydrogels, covalently bonded with diverse ultraviolet (UV) curable polymers. The team printed the hybrid structures on a self-built digital-light processing (DLP)-based multi-material 3-D printer. They facilitated covalent bonding between the AP hydrogel and other polymers through incomplete polymerization initiated by a water-soluble photoinitiator. The team displayed a few applications based on this approach to propose a new way to realize multifunctional soft devices and machines by bonding hydrogel with diverse polymer in 3-D forms. The work is now published on Science Advances. /news/2021-01-d-highly-stretchable-hydrogel-diverse.html Materials Science Wed, 20 Jan 2021 09:30:01 EST news530273111 A variety of medical devices can be inserted into the gastrointestinal tract to treat, diagnose, or monitor GI disorders. Many of these have to be removed by endoscopic surgery once their job is done. However, MIT engineers have now come up with a way to trigger such devices to break down inside the body when they are exposed to light from an ingestible LED. /news/2020-01-ingestible-medical-devices-broken.html Polymers Materials Science Fri, 17 Jan 2020 14:00:01 EST news498457251 A new imaging technique developed by Biwei Yin and interdisciplinary researchers at the Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School in the U.S., provides resolution at the subcellular-level to image the heart's vascular system. As a result, heart researchers can study and diagnose human coronary artery disease with greater precision. Conventionally, cardiologists employ intravascular optical coherence tomography (OCT) to assess the buildup of coronary plaque, which can narrow arteries to cause coronary artery disease. /news/2019-11-cardiac-imaging-d-cellular-resolution.html Optics & Photonics Mon, 02 Dec 2019 09:30:01 EST news494244172 Researchers at TU Delft's department of Precision and Microsystems Engineering (PME) have designed a dilation method that can be applied to any curved surface. This universal method may have a range of applications, including medical braces for children, expandable furniture or aortic stents. The method was published in Nature Communications on 15 November 2019. /news/2019-11-surfaces.html Materials Science Tue, 19 Nov 2019 06:53:20 EST news493368784 ETH researchers have recently been able to monitor the corrosion of bioresorbable magnesium alloys at the nanoscale over a time scale of a few seconds to many hours. This is an important step towards accurately predicting how fast implants are resorbed by the body to enable the development of tailored materials for temporary implant applications. /news/2019-10-corrosion-bioresorbable-magnesium.html Materials Science Wed, 23 Oct 2019 08:34:43 EDT news491038473 A class of biomaterials called bulk metallic glasses could transform future implanted medical devices and other engineered objects. /news/2019-08-surface-metallic-glass-implants.html Materials Science Wed, 07 Aug 2019 08:13:51 EDT news484384421 MIT engineers have designed tiny robots that can help drug-delivery nanoparticles push their way out of the bloodstream and into a tumor or another disease site. Like crafts in "Fantastic Voyage"—a 1960s science fiction film in which a submarine crew shrinks in size and roams a body to repair damaged cells—the robots swim through the bloodstream, creating a current that drags nanoparticles along with them. /news/2019-04-tiny-robots-powered-magnetic-fields.html Bio & Medicine Fri, 26 Apr 2019 14:00:01 EDT news475505062 Microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) have expansive applications in biotechnology and advanced engineering with growing interest in materials science and engineering due to their potential in emerging systems. Existing techniques have enabled applications in cell mechanobiology, high-precision mass sensing, microfluidics and in energy harvesting. Projected technical implications broadly include constructing precision-sensing MEMS, tissue scaffolds that mimic the principles of mechanobiology, and energy-harvesting applications that can operate on supported broad bandwidths. At present, devices (microsensors and MEMS) are fabricated using manufacturing methods of the semiconductor industry—specifically, two-dimensional (2-D) lithographic etching—with mechanical and electric components in planar configuration. /news/2018-09-d-mesostructures-mechanically-materials.html General Â鶹ŇůÔşics Fri, 28 Sep 2018 09:20:03 EDT news457338626 Reversible shape change is a highly desirable property for many biomedical applications, including mechanical actuators, soft robotics and artificial muscles. Some materials can change size or shape when irradiated with light, triggering mechanical deformation without direct contact offering prospects for remote control. To engineer reversible, shape changing (RSC) structures—active materials that respond to external stimuli such as light, heat or electric fields are used together with other nonactive materials. Although advanced multi-material 3-D printing has enabled the design and fabrication of RSC structures, only specific materials can be printed, restricting broad use. /news/2018-09-d-reversible-materials-light-based-grayscale.html Materials Science Tue, 04 Sep 2018 10:30:01 EDT news455267848 Implantation of a stent-like flow diverter can offer one option for less invasive treatment of brain aneurysms—bulges in blood vessels—but the procedure requires frequent monitoring while the vessels heal. Now, a multi-university research team has demonstrated proof-of-concept for a highly flexible and stretchable sensor that could be integrated with the flow diverter to monitor hemodynamics in a blood vessel without costly diagnostic procedures. /news/2018-08-sensor-brain-aneurysm-treatment.html Nanophysics Thu, 02 Aug 2018 10:23:36 EDT news452424203 New research shows companies cut funding for research and development in response to a tax imposed on medical devices as part of the Affordable Care Act. /news/2018-06-tax-investment-medical-device.html Economics & Business Tue, 05 Jun 2018 12:54:35 EDT news447422066 Researchers at the University of Liverpool have developed a mathematical model that has the potential to improve the performance of endovascular aneurysm sealing (EVAS), which is an innovative procedure to treat abdominal aortic aneurysms (AAA). /news/2018-04-mathematicians-response-endovascular-aneurysm.html Mathematics Mon, 09 Apr 2018 07:25:15 EDT news442477505 Since magnesium alloys are degradable, they could provide an alternative to the metals traditionally used as prostheses, connecting parts to heal bones or as stents for cardiovascular problems. A study by the UPV/EHU Faculty of Engineering in Bilbao has made progress on one of the weak points of the new material. Its degradation rate has been adjusted by applying a calcium phosphate coating to the surface via electrodeposition, and the thickness of the layer has been accurately adjusted. /news/2017-06-prostheses-degradation.html Materials Science Thu, 22 Jun 2017 09:18:05 EDT news417341873 Medical implants like stents, catheters and tubing introduce risk for blood clotting and infection - a perpetual problem for many patients. /news/2017-01-blood-repellent-materials-approach-medical-implants.html Materials Science Wed, 18 Jan 2017 16:31:20 EST news403979472 Researchers from the Netherlands and Russia presented a concept of a virtual artery. According to the scientists, a new multiscale computer model of the human artery will combine several sub-models of the cardiovascular system at different complexity levels. The developers believe that such a detailed model can lay a foundation for deeper study of vessel pathologies and become an alternative to animal tests in pharmacology. The study appeared in Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A. /news/2016-12-scientists-simulation-human-artery.html Mathematics Tue, 27 Dec 2016 06:51:48 EST news402043893 Think of a traditional robot and you probably imagine something made from metal and plastic. Such "nuts-and-bolts" robots are made of hard materials. As robots take on more roles beyond the lab, such rigid systems can present safety risks to the people they interact with. For example, if an industrial robot swings into a person, there is the risk of bruises or bone damage. /news/2016-08-biohybrid-robots-built-tissue.html Robotics Wed, 10 Aug 2016 09:05:16 EDT news390038696 A team of researchers at Tohoku University has discovered that the Mg-Sc alloy shows shape memory properties. This finding raises the potential for development and application of lightweight SMAs across a number of industries, including the aerospace industry. /news/2016-07-lightweight-shape-shifting-alloy-potential-variety.html Condensed Matter Mon, 25 Jul 2016 11:17:03 EDT news388664213 University of Utah mathematicians showed it is theoretically possible to design ideal climbing ropes to safely slow falling rock and mountain climbers like brakes decelerate a car. They hope someone develops a material to turn theory into reality. /news/2016-07-theoretical-climbing-rope-falls.html Mathematics Wed, 06 Jul 2016 02:33:49 EDT news386991211 The ability of shape memory alloys, used as materials for medical stents, to revert to their original shape after an increase in temperature is suppressed at nanometer grain sizes due to effects related to the larger proportion of grain boundaries, according to a mathematical model developed by A*STAR researchers. This finding helps explain shape memory loss in and increase our understanding of nanocrystalline shape memory materials, which will lead to improvements in the design of such devices. /news/2016-02-nanocrystalline-memory-alloys-crystalline-grains.html Nanophysics Wed, 24 Feb 2016 08:00:02 EST news375520613 Swarms of microscopic, magnetic, robotic beads could be scrubbing in next to the world's top vascular surgeons—all taking aim at blocked arteries. These microrobots, which look and move like corkscrew-shaped bacteria, are being developed by mechanical engineers at Drexel University as a part of a surgical toolkit being assembled by the Daegu Gyeongbuk Institute of Science and Technology (DGIST) in South Korea. /news/2015-06-microscale-robots-blocked-arteries.html Bio & Medicine Sat, 27 Jun 2015 06:00:01 EDT news354598910 Every year, an estimated half-million Americans undergo surgery to have a stent prop open a coronary artery narrowed by plaque. But sometimes the mesh tubes get clogged. Scientists report in the journal ACS Nano a new kind of multi-tasking stent that could minimize the risks associated with the procedure. It can sense blood flow and temperature, store and transmit the information for analysis and can be absorbed by the body after it finishes its job. /news/2015-05-electronic-stent-feedback-therapythen-dissolve.html Bio & Medicine Wed, 27 May 2015 11:01:49 EDT news351943299