This is a size comparison between 3-D printed prosthesis implant and a penny. Credit: Radiological Society of North America

Researchers using CT scans and 3D printing have created accurate, custom-designed prosthetic replacements for damaged parts of the middle ear, according to a study being presented today at the annual meeting of the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA). The technique has the potential to improve a surgical procedure that often fails because of incorrectly sized prosthetic implants, researchers said. Hearing works partly through the transmission of vibrations from the ear drum to the cochlea, the sensory organ of hearing, via 3 tiny bones in the middle ear known as ossicles...

Via a cannula introduced into the infarction area, the cells loaded with magnetic nanoparticles are injected into the damaged heart muscle tissue of the mouse. Credit: Copyrighted Photo: Dr. Annika Ottersbach/Uni Bonn

Researchers show in mice that transplanted muscle cells display improved engraftment in a magnetic field How can damaged cardiac tissue following a heart attack best be treated with replacement muscle cells? A team under the supervision of the University of Bonn is now presenting an innovative method on mice: Muscle replacement cells, which are to take over the function of the damaged tissue, are loaded with magnetic nanoparticles...

3D printing with a new kind of ink which is containing living bacteria. (Illustration: science animated by Bara Krautz)

A group of ETH researchers has now introduced a new 3D printing platform that works using living matter. The researchers developed a bacteria-containing ink that makes it possible to print mini biochemical factories with certain properties, depending on which species of bacteria the scientists put in the ink. They used Pseudomonas putida and Acetobacter xylinum in their work. The former can break down the toxic chemical phenol, which is produced on a grand scale in the chemical industry, while the latter secretes high-purity nanocellulose. This bacterial cellulose relieves pain, retains moisture and is stable, opening up potential applications in the treatment of burns...

1. Left: The surface of Rosetta’s comet. As the comet approaches the Sun, frozen gases evaporate from below the surface, dragging tiny particles of dust along with them. Right: These dust grains can be captured and examined using the COSIMA instrument. Targets such as this one measuring only a few centimeters act as dust collectors. They retain dust particles of up to 100 microns in size. 2. Left: Overview of the chemical elements that make up Rosetta’s comet. Right: Average mass distribution of organic and mineral substances in Rosetta’s comet.

The dust that comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko emits into space consists to about one half of organic molecules. The dust belongs to the most pristine and carbon-rich material known in our solar system and has hardly changed since its birth...