Broccoli sprouts. Credit: © dariaren / Fotolia

Concentrated broccoli sprout extract may help type 2 diabetes patients manage their blood sugar, according to a new study. The findings could offer a much needed alternative to address the condition, which has become a worldwide epidemic. Type 2 diabetes afflicts more than 300 million people globally, and as many as 15% of those patients cannot take the first-line therapy metformin because of kidney damage risks. Seeking a more viable path forward, Annika Axelsson and colleagues used a computational approach to identify compounds that might counter the disease-associated gene expression changes associated with type 2 diabetes.

The researchers constructed a signature for type 2 diabetes based on 50 genes, then used publicly available expressio...

An image of tissue from a human colon uses fluorescent staining to show the presence of the protein alpha-synuclein (red) inside gut endocrine cells (green).
Credit: 2017, JCI Insight

Protein linked to Parkinson’s could spread from gut to nervous system. Recent research on Parkinson’s disease has focused on the gut-brain connection, examining patients’ gut bacteria, and even how severing the vagus nerve connecting the stomach and brain might protect some people from the debilitating disease. Duke University researchers have identified a potential new mechanism in both mice and human endocrine cells that populate the small intestines...

New electrolytes made from liquefied gas enable lithium batteries and electrochemical capacitors to run at extremely cold temperatures. Credit: David Baillot/UC San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering Enginee

UCSD engineers have developed a breakthrough in electrolyte chemistry that enables lithium batteries to run at temperatures as low as -60C with excellent performance—in comparison, today’s lithium-ion batteries stop working at -20 degrees Celsius. The new electrolytes also enable electrochemical capacitors to run as low as -80C—their current low temperature limit is -40 degrees Celsius. While the technology enables extreme low temperature operation, high performance at room temperature is still maintained...

Electron microscope images of visible-NIR light responsible photocatalyst composed with black phosphorous (BP), lanthanum titanate (LA2Ti2O7, LTO), and gold nanoparticles (Au).
Credit: © Zhu M, Cai X, Fujitsuka M, Zhang J, Majima T, Angewandte Chemie: International Edition 56 (2017)

Osaka University researchers create new material based on gold and black phosphorus to produce clean hydrogen fuel using the full spectrum of sunlight. Hydrogen can be generated by splitting H2O, but this uses more energy than the produced hydrogen can give back. Water splitting is often driven by solar power, so-called “solar-to-hydrogen” conversion...