Researchers at the University of Konstanz have demonstrated at a molecular level how bacteria in the human gut influence the entire body. Among other things, they can lower blood sugar levels and reduce fatty liver disease. The work is published in the journal EMBO Molecular Medicine.

For several years, a wide range of over-the-counter products designed to have a positive effect on the gut microbiome have been available. They promise greater bacterial diversity in the digestive tract and, as a result, better overall health. For the same purpose, doctors prescribe medications aimed at restoring gut microbial balance, for instance, following antibiotic treatment.

But why does the gut microbiota have such a prof...

Scientists from Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, have designed a device that harvests sunlight to generate clean hydrogen from seawater and simultaneously degrades hydrazine, a highly toxic contaminant from industrial wastewater.

Inspired by leaves, the device directly captures sunlight and converts it into electricity to drive the reaction without the need for external power sources. The innovation is published in Nature Communications.

Two-in-one green solution
To produce green hydrogen from water, an electric current is passed through water between two electrodes, splitting the water molecules into hydrogen and oxygen—a process known as electrolysis.

In electrolysis, ...

Of all the discoveries from the James Webb Space Telescope, the multitude of Little Red Dots it has observed is among the most enigmatic. Now, simulations using the Japanese Supercomputer ATERUI III have explained the nature of the Little Red Dots without requiring any exotic assumptions. The simulations show that the Little Red Dots are black holes growing at a rate that would be impossible today because of conditions in the early universe.

In the study, published in the journal Nature, a research team led by Sunmyon Chon at the Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics used the ATERUI I...

MIT researchers have created a computing platform that could be used to develop intelligent and adaptive next-generation electronics that can perform multiple functions, like computing and memory, within one extremely compact, energy-efficient device.

Such a platform opens opportunities for low-power edge computing applications, interactive medical and environmental monitoring systems, and smart robots.

The researchers accomplished this by leveraging the unique mechanical response of soft polymers at the nanoscale. A mechanical response is how a structure changes when a force is applied to it.

T...