Category Biology/Biotechnology

These images, taken with an electron microscope, show the patterned nanotubes that would operate as electron emitters in a new instrument now being developed for analyzing extraterrestrial samples. The right image is a close-up of one of the bumps. Credit: NASA

An ultra-dark coating comprised of nearly invisible shag rug-like strands made of pure carbon is proving to be highly versatile for all types of spaceflight applications. In the most recent application of the carbon-nanotube coating, optical engineer John Hagopian, a contractor at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, and Goddard scientist Lucy Lim are growing an array of miniscule, button-shaped bumps of multi-walled nanotubes on a silicon wafer...

Zebrafish-Based Discovery of Antiseizure Compounds from the Red Sea: Pseurotin A2 and Azaspirofuran A

New treatments for epilepsy are sorely needed because current medications don’t work for many people with the disease. To find new leads, researchers have now turned to the sea – a source that has been largely untapped for prospective drugs. 2 metabolites produced by a fungus from the Red Sea look promising. “Epilepsy” covers a spectrum of brain disorders with symptoms ranging from mildly odd sensations to seizures, loss of consciousness and death. Worldwide, the condition affects 50 million people, according to the World Health Organization. Current treatments work in only about 70% of those who try them.

Marcel Jaspars, Peter A. M...

In this visualization, as the supersonic solar wind (yellow haze) flows around the Earth’s magnetic field (blue wavy lines), it forms a highly turbulent boundary layer called the ‘magnetosheath’ (yellow swirling area). A new research paper describes observations of small-scale magnetic reconnection within the magnetosheath, revealing important clues about heating in the sun’s outer layers and elsewhere in the universe. Credit: NASA/GSFC

Explorations in Earth’s space environment by NASA’s Magnetospheric Multiscale spacecraft have discovered a surprising new magnetic event in turbulent plasma. Magnetic reconnection is one of the most important processes in the space – filled with charged particles known as plasma – around Earth...

Immunofluorescence of ?-catenin protein (red) and cell nuclei (blue) in the human hair follicle bulb, the command center for maintaining hair growth. Credit: Dr. Nathan John Hawkshaw

A new drug could ease the distress of men and women who suffer from baldness, according to researchers from The University of Manchester’s Centre for Dermatology Research. It shows that a drug originally designed as a treatment for osteoporosis has a dramatic stimulatory effect on human hair follicles donated by patients undergoing hair transplantation surgery.

Currently only two drugs – minoxidil and finasteride – are available for treatment of male-pattern balding (androgenetic alopecia). However, both agents have moderate side effects and often produce disappointing hair regrowth results...