Science

Researchers in China have developed a hybrid nanomaterial that captures and chemically degrades lipopolysaccharide (LPS), the potent bacterial endotoxin responsible for the catastrophic immune overreaction in sepsis, using a two-step mechanism that mimics how plants recognize bacterial invaders. The “nano-chimeras,” described in Nature Communications on June 21, combine plant-derived nanovesicles displaying an LPS-binding protein with […]

The compounds that give cannabis its distinctive aroma may offer a path to pain relief without the psychoactive side effects, but the evidence so far comes from mice, not humans. Researchers at the University of Arizona College of Medicine have shown that four terpenes, aromatic compounds found in cannabis and many other plants, produce measurable […]

More than a decade after e-cigarettes entered the global market, a comprehensive review of over 100 studies has concluded that nicotine-based vaping products are likely to cause lung and oral cancer in humans. The review, published in Carcinogenesis by a team of Australian researchers from UNSW Sydney, Flinders University, and the University of Queensland, represents […]

The dominant narrative about aging is one of inevitable decline: bodies break down, minds slow, and the best we can hope for is a graceful fade. A new 12-year Yale study turns that story on its head. Published in Geriatrics, the study of 11,314 adults aged 50 and older found that 45.15% of participants improved […]

A team of physicists at the University of Maryland has developed a microscopy technique that can map both in-plane and out-of-plane optical responses at the nanoscale simultaneously, resolving features as small as 1 nanometer, roughly 25 times smaller than the probe tip itself. The method, reported in Nature Communications, combines infrared laser excitation with torsional […]

As we age, the trillions of microbes living in our gut change. The beneficial bacteria, Bifidobacterium, Faecalibacterium prausnitzii, decline. Pro-inflammatory species rise. The immune cells lining the large intestine begin to malfunction, and the gut wall becomes leaky, feeding a chronic low-grade inflammation called inflammaging that is now recognized as a driver of many age-related […]

A gene that normally protects DNA by repairing damage can become dangerous when cells produce too much of it, and that very danger creates a therapeutic opportunity. Researchers at Penn State College of Medicine have found that EXO1 (Exonuclease 1), a DNA repair enzyme described as “molecular scissors,” is overexpressed in approximately 20,30% of breast, […]

What if a single material could capture energy from sunlight, electricity, and chemical fuels, and hold that charge for months on end? A team at Northwestern University has created exactly that: a liquid that transforms into an electrically conductive black gel when energized, storing electrons in a network of molecular pairs, and returning to liquid […]

A team of Italian researchers has shown that gut bacteria from juvenile mice can reopen a critical window of brain plasticity in adults, raising fundamental questions about how the microbiome shapes neural development. The study, posted as a preprint on bioRxiv, found that adult mice (4 months old) that received fecal microbiota transplants from juvenile […]

Editor’s note: This is an opinion article. The following reflects the author’s assessment of events that threaten the integrity of the scientific enterprise. In late May, the White House Office of Management and Budget published a 411-page proposal that would fundamentally restructure how federal research dollars are spent in the United States. On its face, […]