Nori sheets. Credit: © StockphotoVideo / Fotolia

Scientists working with laboratory mice have shown that it’s possible to favor the engraftment of one gut bacterial strain over others by manipulating the mice’s diet. The researchers also have shown it’s possible to control how much a bacterium grows in the intestine by calibrating the amount of a specific carbohydrate in each mouse’s water or food.

Gut bacteria thrive on the food we eat. In turn, they provide essential nutrients that keep us healthy, repel pathogens and even help guide our immune responses...

The stars of IGR J17062–6143, illustrated here, circle each other every 38 minutes, the fastest-known orbit for a binary system containing an accreting millisecond X-ray pulsar. As they revolve, a superdense pulsar pulls gas from a lightweight white dwarf. The two stars are so close they would fit between Earth and the Moon. Credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center

Scientists analyzing the first data from the Neutron star Interior Composition Explorer (NICER) mission have found two stars that revolve around each other every 38 minutes—about the time it takes to stream a TV drama. One of the stars in the system, called IGR J17062–6143 (J17062 for short), is a rapidly spinning, superdense star called a pulsar...

The specific strength of our CNF fibers engineered at multiscale exceeds that of metals, alloys, and glass fibers, enhancing the potential of sustainable lightweight high-performance materials with multiscale self-organization.

When it comes to materials, there is no question as to who wins the strongman competition. Spider silk is known as being the strongest fabric, and steel, ceramics and glass fibers are the best building materials. But now, researchers are reporting in ACS Nano that specially arranged nano-sized cellulose fibers are the strongest material of them all, in a move that might cause some to re-name Superman the “man of cellulose.”

Recently, scientists have been trying to mimic the architecture of natural materials on the nanoscale level with the hopes that it would transla...

Computer-designed customized regenerative heart valve. Credit: Image adapted from figure in publication

Cardiovascular tissue engineering aims to treat heart disease with prostheses that grow and regenerate. Now, researchers have successfully implanted regenerative heart valves, designed with the aid of computer simulations, into sheep for the first time. Tissue engineering, which involves growing replacement parts in the laboratory, forms a key part of this research. The parts can be used to replace defective cells and tissues in the body and restore their normal functioning. The bioengineered replacements have significant advantages over the artificial implants currently in use: They do not cause immune reactions in the patient’s body, and they can grow and regenerate themselves.

An inte...