Category Biology/Biotechnology

A close-up of part of the fiber optical tweezers developed by a research team at Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI). The two fibers seen here project intersecting beams of laser light to create a three-dimensional optical trap that can hold and move individual cells. Credit: Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI)

A team of researchers at Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) has demonstrated how a device that uses beams of light to grip and manipulate tiny objects, including individual cells, can be miniaturized, opening the door to creating portable devices small enough to be inserted into the bloodstream to trap individual cancer cells and diagnose cancer in its earliest stages.

The technique, known as optical tweezers, uses optical beams of laser light to create an attractive force fi...

Rainy day concept (stock image). Credit: © JenkoAtaman / Fotolia

Search for link between achy joints and rainy weather in a flood of data comes up dry. Rainy weather has long been blamed for achy joints. Unjustly so, according to new research from Harvard Medical School. The analysis, in BMJ, found no relationship between rainfall and joint or back pain.

The notion that certain symptoms and weather go hand in hand has persisted since antiquity. The newly published analysis led by Anupam Jena of Harvard Medical School’s Department of Health Care Policy, used a “big data” approach, linking insurance claims from millions of doctor’s visits with daily rainfall totals from thousands of National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration weather stations.

“No matter how we looked at the data, we di...

Illumination of a book (‘Paradise Lost,’ by John Milton) with the nanobionic light-emitting plants (two 3.5-week-old watercress plants). The book and the light-emitting watercress plants were placed in front of a reflective paper to increase the influence from the light emitting plants to the book pages. Credit: Seon-Yeong Kwak

Illumination from nanobionic plants might one day replace some electrical lighting. By embedding nanoparticles into the leaves of watercress, engineers have induced the plant to give off dim light for nearly 4 hours. They believe engineered plants will one day be bright enough to act as desk lamps or street lights. “The vision is to make a plant that will function as a desk lamp – a lamp that you don’t have to plug in...

Frequency of a diagnosis of glaucoma in individuals who consume coffee, tea and/or soft drinks, British Journal of Ophthalmology (2017). DOI: 10.1136/bjophthalmol-2017-310924

But hot coffee, iced tea, and soft drinks don’t seem to make any difference, say researchers. But drinking decaffeinated and caffeinated coffee, decaffeinated tea, iced tea and soft drinks doesn’t seem to make any difference to glaucoma risk, the findings show. Glaucoma causes fluid pressure to build up inside the eye (intraocular pressure), damaging the optic nerve. It is one of the leading causes of blindness worldwide, and currently affects 57.5 million people, and is expected to increase to 65.5 million by 2020.

Previous research suggests that caffeine can alter intraocular pressure, but no study so far has compar...