Highlights
•Enterochromaffin (EC) cells are excitable and express voltage-gated ion channels
•EC cells use sensory receptors to detect irritants, metabolites, and catecholamines
•EC cell activation leads to voltage-gated Ca2+ channel-dependent serotonin release
•EC cells modulate sensory nerves via serotonin receptors and synaptic connections

Cells that alert nervous system to intestinal trouble could provide new target for gastrointestinal treatments. Specialized cells in the gut sense potentially noxious chemicals and trigger electrical impulses in nearby nerve fibers, according to a new study led by UC San Francisco scientists. “These cells are sensors, like a window looking into the contents of the gut,” said James Bayrer, MD, PhD, an assistant professor of pediatrics at UCSF.

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Versatile Barometer Biosensor Based on Au@Pt Core/Shell Nanoparticle Probe

When it comes to testing for cancer, environmental pollution and food contaminants, traditional sensors can help. The challenges are that they often are bulky, expensive, non-intuitive and complicated. Now, one team reports in ACS Sensors that portable pressure-based detectors coupled with smartphone software could provide a simpler, more affordable alternative while still maintaining sensitivity.

Current disease and contamination sensors require expensive readout equipment or trained personnel. Yuehe Lin, Yong Tang and colleagues propose a new detection system based on pressure changes...

CWRU chemists developed a space-saving method to store digital data optically, using four-symbol, or quaternary code. The four symbols are the absence of color and three colors — fluorescent green, ultramarine and cyan — produced when dyes contained in a common polymer are exposed to heat, ultraviolet light or both. Credit: Emily Pentzer

Chemists at Case Western Reserve University have found a way to possibly store digital data in half the space current systems require. From supercomputers to smartphones, the amount of data people generate and collect continues to grow exponentially, and the need to store all that information grows with it. To reduce storage space, engineers have traditionally used existing technology but made it smaller...

This artist’s concept shows what the young, dead, disk galaxy MACS2129-1, right, would look like when compared with the Milky Way galaxy, left. Although three times as massive as the Milky Way, it is only half the size. MACS2129-1 is also spinning more than twice as fast as the Milky Way. Note that regions of Milky Way are blue from bursts of star formation, while the young, dead galaxy is yellow, signifying an older star population and no new star birth. Credit: NASA, ESA, and Z. Levy (STScI)

By combining the power of a “natural lens” in space with the capability of Hubble Space Telescope, astronomers made a surprising discovery – the first example of a compact yet massive, fast-spinning, disk-shaped galaxy that stopped making stars only a few billion years after the big bang...