The processing technology of fluorescent (mKate2) silk can be applied to developing smart medical bandages for wound healing on the human skin. Credit: Purdue University image/Jung Woo Leem

A silk hybrid material attacks bacteria when illuminated by a green light, thanks to a far-red fluorescent protein researchers transferred to its genetic makeup. The all-natural material would be safer than conventional photocatalytic, or light-activated, means to kill harmful pathogens such as bacteria, which use potentially biohazardous semiconductors and require cancer-causing ultraviolet light for activation...

Neurons (stock illustration). Credit: © whitehoune / Fotolia

Using human stem cells, researchers create 3D model of the brain to study a mutation tied to schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and depression. Researchers are leveraging gene-editing tools and mini-organs grown in the lab to study the effects of DISC1 mutations in cerebral organoids – ‘mini brains’ – cultured from human stem cells.

Major mental illnesses such as schizophrenia, severe depression and bipolar disorder share a common genetic link. Studies of specific families with a history of these types of illnesses have revealed that affected family members share a mutation in the gene DISC1...

When taking the supplement, subjects saw a key measure of vascular health improve by 42 percent.

Older adults who take a novel antioxidant that specifically targets cellular powerhouses, or mitochondria, see age-related vascular changes reverse by the equivalent of 15 to 20 years within 6 weeks, according to new University of Colorado Boulder research. The study, published this week in the American Heart Association journal Hypertension, adds to a growing body of evidence suggesting pharmaceutical-grade nutritional supplements, or nutraceuticals, could play an important role in preventing heart disease-the nation’s No. 1 killer...

An expanding, ring-shaped cloud of atoms shares several striking features with the early universe. (Credit: E. Edwards/JQI)

An expanding cloud of atoms could offer insight into unanswered cosmological questions. Researchers playing with a cloud of ultracold atoms uncovered behavior that bears a striking resemblance to the universe in microcosm. Their work, which forges new connections between atomic physics and the sudden expansion of the early universe, will be published in Physical Review X and highlighted by Physics.8

“From the atomic physics perspective, the experiment is beautifully described by existing theory,” says Stephen Eckel, an atomic physicist at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). “But even more striking is how that theory connects with cosmology.”

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