A new computational-model designed by researchers at UCL based on data from the Champalimaud Centre for the Unknown reveals that serotonin, one of the most widespread chemicals in the brain, can speed up learning.

Study provides insight into the role of serotonin in neural plasticity. A new computational-model designed by researchers at UCL based on data from the Champalimaud Centre for the Unknown reveals that serotonin, one of the most widespread chemicals in the brain, can speed up learning.

Serotonin is thought to mediate communications between neural cells and play an essential role in functional, and dysfunctional, cognition...

A low-cost sensor made from semiconducting plastic could be used to diagnose or monitor a wide range of health conditions, such as surgical complications or neurodegenerative diseases. Credit: KAUST

An international team of researchers have developed a low-cost sensor made from semiconducting plastic that can be used to diagnose or monitor a wide range of health conditions, such as surgical complications or neurodegenerative diseases. The sensor can measure the amount of critical metabolites, such as lactate or glucose, that are present in sweat, tears, saliva or blood, and, when incorporated into a diagnostic device, could allow health conditions to be monitored quickly, cheaply and accurately...

Summary of gaseous, surface, and temporal biosignatures.

Some of the leading experts in the field, including a UC Riverside team of researchers, have written a major series of review papers on the past, present, and future of the search for life on other planets. Published in Astrobiology, the papers represent two years of work by the Nexus for Exoplanet Systems Science (NExSS), a NASA-coordinated research network dedicated to the study of planetary habitability, and by NASA’s Astrobiology Institute.

Scientists have identified more than 3,500 exoplanets and many more will be discovered in the coming decades. Some of these are rocky, Earth-sized planets that are in the habitable zones of their stars, i.e. it’s neither too hot nor too cold for liquid water – and possibly life – to exist...

Oral delivery method could dramatically transform the way in which diabetics keep their blood sugar levels in check. Credit: Harvard SEAS

Technique could replace daily injections for diabetics. For millions of people living with type 1 diabetes, a painful needle prick once or twice daily is currently the only option for delivering the insulin that their bodies cannot produce on their own. Now, researchers at the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) have developed an oral delivery method that could dramatically transform the way in which diabetics keep their blood sugar levels in check.

Not only does oral delivery of insulin promise to improve the quality of life for up to 40 million people with type 1 diabetes worldwide, it could also mitigate many of t...