Biomedical engineering assistant professor Hyun Jung Kim with the gut-on-a-chip. Cockrell School of Engineering, The University of Texas at Austin

Once the gut barrier has been damaged, probiotics can be harmful just like any other bacteria. The first study investigating the mechanism of how a disease develops using human organ-on-a-chip technology has been successfully completed by engineers at The University of Texas at Austin.

Researchers from the Cockrell School of Engineering were able to shed light on a part of the human body – the digestive system – where many questions remain unanswered. Using their “gut inflammation-on-a-chip” microphysiological system, the research team confirmed that intestinal barrier disruption is the onset initiator of gut inflammation.

The study also include...

An Illustration of a compact, multi-planet system. Researchers have found that such systems are more likely to form around stars with lower amounts of heavy elements than our own Sun.
Credit: Michael S. Helfenbein/Yale University

Researchers at Yale and the Flatiron Institute have discovered that compact, multiple-planet systems are more likely to form around stars that have lower amounts of heavy elements than our own Sun. This runs counter to a good deal of current research, which has focused on stars with higher metallicity.

The research team looked at 700 stars and their surrounding planets for the study, which appears in The Astrophysical Journal Letters. The researchers considered any element heavier than helium – including iron, silicon, magnesium, and carbon – as a heavy metal...

Assistant Professor Xiaoke Chen, right, discusses the functions of the paraventricular thalamus with researcher Greg Nachtrab, one of his co-authors on a new paper.
Credit: L.A. Cicero/Stanford University

In order to learn about the world, an animal needs to do more than just pay attention to its surroundings. It also needs to learn which sights, sounds and sensations in its environment are the most important and monitor how the importance of those details change over time. Yet how humans and other animals track those details has remained a mystery.

Now, Stanford biologists think they’ve figured out how animals sort through the details...

Andreas Malikopoulos tests technologies for connected and automated vehicles on a smaller scale at the University of Delaware’s Scaled Smart City (UDSSC) testbed.
Credit: University of Delaware/ Owen Fitter

Pair of studies outline innovations that will improve coordination of traffic patterns and save fuel. New driverless car technologies could lead to a world without traffic lights and speeding tickets. Researchers also hope the innovations will bring about the development of driverless cars that use 19 to 22% less fuel.

Imagine a daily commute that’s orderly instead of chaotic. Connected and automated vehicles could provide that relief by adjusting to driving conditions with little to no input from drivers...