New Application of Old Material: Chinese Traditional Ink for Photothermal Therapy of Metastatic Lymph Nodes. ACS Omega, 2017; 2 (8): 5170 DOI: 10.1021/acsomega.7b00993

For hundreds of years, Chinese calligraphers have used a plant-based ink to create beautiful messages and art. Now, one group reports in ACS Omega that this ink could noninvasively and effectively treat cancer cells that metastasize, to lymph nodes. Photothermal therapy (PTT) is an emerging noninvasive treatment option in which nanomaterials are injected and accumulate in cancer cells. A laser heats up the nanomaterials, and this heat kills the cells. Many of these nanomaterials are expensive, difficult-to-make and toxic...

This is a snapshot of a computer simulation of two (relatively small) planets colliding with each other. The colours show how the rock of the impacting body (dark grey, in centre of impact area) accretes to the target body (rock; light grey), while some of the rock in the impact area is molten (yellow to white) or vaporized (red). Credit: Philip J. Carter

Analysing a mixture of earth samples and meteorites, scientists from the University of Bristol have shed new light on the sequence of events that led to the creation of the planets Earth and Mars. Planets grow by a process of accretion, in which they collisionally combine with their neighbours. This is often a chaotic process and material gets lost as well as gained...

This is an image illustrating the late-stage building blocks of planetary formation (planetessimals and proto-planets) and the extensive volatile degassing that took place.
Credit: Ashley Norris, Oxford University

Oxford University scientists have shed new light on how Earth was first formed. Based on observations of newly-forming stars, scientists know that the solar system began as a disc of dust and gas surrounding the centrally-growing sun. The gas condensed to solids which accumulated into larger rocky bodies like asteroids and mini-planets. Over a period of 100 million years these mini-planets collided with one another and gradually accumulated into the planets we see today, including Earth.

Although it is widely understood that Earth was formed gradually, from much smaller bodies, ma...

ELV-N32 and ELV-N34 diminish NVU disruption and reduce brain infarction after ischemic stroke.

A new class of molecules in the brain that synchronize cell-to-cell communication and neuroinflammation/ immune activity in response to injury or diseases has been found. Elovanoids (ELVs) are bioactive chemical messengers made from omega-3 very long chain polyunsaturated fatty acids (VLC-PUFAs,n-3). They are released on demand when cells are damaged or stressed.

“Although we knew about messengers from omega-3 fatty acids such as neuroprotectin D1 (22 carbons) before, the novelty of the present discovery is that elovanoids are made of 32 to 34 carbon atoms in length,” notes Nicolas Bazan, MD, PhD, Boyd Professor and Director of the Neuroscience Center of Excellence at LSU Health New Orleans...