Category Health/Medical

Metalens-based design shrinks footprint, making optical traps practical for precision sensing and measurements.

Researchers have created tiny chip-based optical tweezers that can be used to optically levitate nanoparticles in a vacuum. Optical tweezers — which employ a tightly focused laser beam to hold living cells, nanoparticles and other objects — can be used for a variety of precision measurements and sensing applications. However, these optical traps are usually produced with bulky optical components.

“By using an ultrathin metalens, we reduced the diameter of the focusing lens from about...

The breakthrough advance could lead to a novel, drug-free therapeutic that can slow, possibly stop, the growth of cancer cells. A multi-institutional research team has designed nanoparticles that can communicate with and slow the development of cancer cells. The work — detailed in a newly published paper in Advanced Materials — has uncovered a novel framework for the potential development of drug-free cancer therapies.

Led by scientists at the Advanced Science Research Center at the Graduate Center, CUNY (CUNY ASRC), the research team was able to design nanoparticles that are activated to se...

People who are vaccinated against Covid-19 are less likely to die for any reason — including from non-coronavirus causes — than the unvaccinated, according to a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention study released Friday, which researchers framed as more proof of the vaccines’ safety despite stubborn levels of vaccine hesitancy.

KEY FACTS
Partially and fully vaccinated people died from non-coronavirus causes at a lower rate than their unvaccinated peers, according to the study, which looked at millions of patients at seven U.S. health organizations from December to July.

All three vaccines approved by U.S...

Too little and too much sleep linked to cognitive decline. Like so many other good things in life, sleep is best in moderation. A multiyear study of older adults found that both short and long sleepers experienced greater cognitive decline than people who slept a moderate amount, even when the effects of early Alzheimer’s disease were taken into account. The study was led by researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis.

Poor sleep and Alzheimer’s disease are both a...