ScienceDaily: Latest Science News

Researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have found that multidrug-resistant bacteria and bacterial spores can be killed by ultrashort-pulse lasers. The findings could lead to new ways to sterilize wounds and blood products without damaging human cells.

Melanoma researchers published a study that gives a new explanation of what causes moles to change into melanoma. These findings pave the way for more research into how to reduce the risk of melanoma, delay development, and detect melanoma early.

The petrochemical industry turns oil and gas into precursors used to synthesize lubricants and other critical products. Chemists show that bacteria can be metabolically engineered to generate similar precursors, providing a sustainable replacement for fossil fuels and using less energy. The microbes need only glucose. The medium-chain hydrocarbons they produce can be broken down into shorter chains and polymerized into plastics, or lengthened to make products such as diesel.

Astronomers have discovered an ultrahot Jupiter with shortest orbit of any known gas giant planet.

Aspirin use is associated with a 26% raised risk of heart failure in people with at least one predisposing factor for the condition.

A team of evolutionary biologists and biomedical researchers lay out evolutionary and biomedical evidence showing that humans, who evolved to live many decades after they stopped reproducing, also evolved to be relatively active in their later years. The researchers say that physical activity later in life shifts energy away from processes that can compromise health and toward mechanisms in the body that extend it. They hypothesize that humans evolved to remain physically active as they age -- and in doing so to allocate energy to physiological processes that slow the body's gradual deterioration over the years. This guards against chronic illnesses such as cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes, and even some cancers.

In high enough concentrations, milkweed can kill a horse, or a human. To be able to eat this plant, monarchs evolved a set of unusual cellular mutations. New research shows the animals that prey on monarchs also evolved these same mutations.

Scientists have discovered that ferroelectric bubbles remain intact and retain their electronic and electromechanical (piezoelectric) properties in a freestanding state. The discovery offers promise for novel microelectronics and energy-related applications.

Speech sounds elicit comparable neural responses and stimulate the same region in the brain of humans, macaques and guinea pigs, researchers report. The finding could help pave the way for better understanding and diagnosis of auditory processing deficits.

'Plague sceptics' are wrong to underestimate the devastating impact that bubonic plague had in the 6th to 8th centuries CE, argues a new study based on ancient texts and recent genetic discoveries. The same study suggests that bubonic plague may have reached England before its first recorded case in the Mediterranean via a currently unknown route, possibly involving the Baltic and Scandinavia.

Previous research has found that chemotherapy can trigger muscle loss in people living with cancer, but a new study out of found it may also affect the way the body builds new muscle -- and at lower doses than previously known, having potential implications for treatments and rehab programs.

Researchers have conducted an empirical field study and concluded that single urban trees, such as street trees, function differently than trees grown in clusters featuring significantly greater transpiration rates. This result offers a new understanding of how to manage the landscape in urban settings to reduce the harmful effects of stormwater runoff.

Scientists have used glowing chemicals and other techniques to create a 3D map of the blood vessels and self-renewing 'stem' cells that line and penetrate a mouse skull. The map provides precise locations of blood vessels and stem cells that scientists could eventually use to repair wounds and generate new bone and tissue in the skull.

Researchers have new evidence that could help rapidly boost efforts to scale-up the adoption of clean cooking with liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) in sub-Saharan Africa. The new study suggests that supply-side interventions such as shortening the distance to LPG retail points and improving access to multi-burner LPG stoves could help increase the consumption of the clean cooking fuels, for the benefit of public health, gender equality and environmental protection.

Safe, cheap and sustainable technology for energy storage has been developed. It is based on two major breakthroughs: the manufacture of wood-based electrodes in rolled form, and a new type of water-based electrolyte.

Immune checkpoint inhibitors strengthen the immune response against cancer cells, but the medications are ineffective against certain tumors. Results from a new clinical trial indicate that adding radiation may overcome this resistance to immune checkpoint inhibitors.

An international research team has developed a new imaging technology. In the future this technology could not only improve the resolution of neutron measurements by many times but could also reduce radiation exposure during x-ray imaging.