Category Biology/Biotechnology

This schematic shows the concept behind the team’s plant-inspired microrobot. Credit: Image courtesy of American Physical Society’s Division of Fluid Dynamics

The future of bio-inspired engineering or robotics will greatly benefit from lessons learned from plants eg tiny robots powered exclusively by changes in humidity. To generate motion, plants and some seeds – such as mimosa leaves, Venus flytraps and pine cones – simply harness the supply or deprival of water from plant tissues.

“Some seeds consist of a head that contains all its genetic information, along with a long appendage called an ‘awn’ that is responsible for locomotion – just like an animal’s sperm,” explained Prof Ho-Young Kim...

Jill Farrant, a professor of molecular and cell biology at the University of Cape Town, hopes that unlocking the genetic codes of drought-tolerant plants could help farmers toiling in increasingly hot and dry conditions

As the race to adapt to climate change quickens, a S. African scientist is leading global research into developing crops that mimic the extraordinary survival skills of “resurrection plants”. Jill Farrant, a professor of molecular and cell biology at the University of Cape Town, hopes that unlocking the genetic codes of drought-tolerant plants could help farmers toiling in increasingly hot and dry conditions. With >130 known varieties in the world, resurrection plants are a unique group of flora that can survive extreme water shortages for years.

During a drought, the plant...

Doctors have shown the benefits of a healthy diet and exercise in patients with heart failure. The annual congress of the Mexican Society of Cardiology is being held in Acapulco from 21 to 25 November 2015. Experts from the European Society of Cardiology (ESC) will present a special programme

In Mexico there are 750,000 patients living with heart failure and the problem is growing. It is estimated that 75,000 more patients will get heart failure each year. “Just 25% of men and 38% of women with heart failure in Mexico will be alive after 5 years,” said Dr Arturo Orea...

What does inflammation in the context of depression look like inside the brain? Emory researchers have found that high inflammation is linked to a “failure to communicate” between two parts of the brain: the ventral striatum (VS, vertical cross section) and the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC, horizontal). Credit: Felger et al, Molecular Psychiatry (2015)

Brain imaging shows distinctive aspects of high-inflammation depression. About 1/3 of people with depression have high levels of inflammation markers in their blood. New research indicates persistent inflammation affects the brain in ways that are connected with stubborn symptoms of depression, such as anhedonia, the inability to experience pleasure.

The findings bolster the case that the high-inflammation form of depression is dist...