The reddish-blue mouse neurons in this image have reentered the cell cycle after exposure to amyloid beta oligomers, and thus are primed for death.
Credit: Image by Erin Kodis and George Bloom

About 50% of people who reach the age of 85 will develop Alzheimer’s disease. Most will die within about 5 years of exhibiting the hallmark symptoms of the disease – severe memory loss and a precipitous decline in cognitive function. But the molecular processes that lead to the disease will have begun years earlier.

Currently, there are no known ways to prevent the disease or to stop its progression once it has begun. But research at the University of Virginia offers new understanding of how the disease develops at the molecular level, long before extensive neuronal damage occurs and symptoms show up.

This is the vitamin pill-sized capsule, currently being commercialized by Atmo Biosciences.
Credit: RMIT University

New trials reveal swallowable sensor 3,000 times more accurate than current technology. New trials of a breakthrough swallowable sensor have revealed the device is 3,000 times more accurate than current technology used to diagnose many gut disorders. The findings show the revolutionary gas-sensing capsule developed by researchers at RMIT University in Melbourne, Australia, could surpass breath testing as the benchmark for diagnosing gut disorders, paving the way to solving previously undiagnosed conditions.

The vitamin pill-sized capsule, currently being commercialised by Atmo Biosciences, provides real time detection and measurement of hydrogen, carbon dioxides and oxygen in ...

This is an artist impression of the collision of two stars, like the ones that formed CK Vul. The inset illustrates the inner structure of one red giant before the merger. A thin layer of 26-aluminum (brown) surrounds a helium core. An extended convective envelope (not to scale), which forms the outermost layer of the star, can mix material from inside the star to the surface, but it never reaches deep enough to dredge 26-aluminum up to the surface. Only a collision with another star can disperse 26-aluminum.
Credit: NRAO/AUI/NSF; S. Dagnello

Astronomers have made the first definitive detection of a radioactive molecule in interstellar space: a form, or isotopologue of aluminum monofluoride (26AlF)...

This is the memristor array situated on a circuit board.
Credit: Mohammed Zidan, Nanoelectronics group, University of Michigan.

A new way of arranging advanced computer components called memristors on a chip could enable them to be used for general computing, which could cut energy consumption by a factor of 100. This would improve performance in low power environments such as smartphones or make for more efficient supercomputers, says a University of Michigan researcher. “Historically, the semiconductor industry has improved performance by making devices faster...