NASA’s Cassini spacecraft is shown diving through the gap between Saturn and its rings in this artist’s depiction. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

As Cassini spacecraft prepares to shoot the narrow gap between Saturn and its rings for the second time in its Grand Finale, Cassini engineers are delighted, while ring scientists are puzzled, that the region appears to be relatively dust-free. This assessment is based on data Cassini collected during its first dive through the region on April 26. With this information in hand, the Cassini team will now move forward with its preferred plan of science observations. “The region between the rings and Saturn is ‘the big empty,’ apparently,” said Cassini Project Manager Earl Maize of NASA’s JPL in Pasadena, California...

The “Smart Scar-Care” pad designed by Professor Cecilia Li-Tsang in the Department of Rehabilitation Sciences, PolyU, serves the dual functions of reinforcing pressure and occlusion. It can treat hypertrophic scars from burns, surgeries and trauma. Credit: Image courtesy of The Hong Kong Polytechnic University

An innovative pad with dual functions of reinforcing pressure and occlusion has been designed by researchers to treat hypertrophic scars from burns, surgeries and trauma. It showed good performance in reducing pigmentation and vascularity, improving elasticity and preventing dehydration in a clinical trial. It is more durable and user-friendly compared with the traditional pad (polyethylene foam) as reported by the patients...

Photographs of hydrogel dressing in the original form (a) and with the addition of chitosan (132 kg mol−1, 0.5% (w/v)) dissolved in LA (b).

A new dressing, a type of compression held in place by a bandage, uses an antibacterial substance formed from the shells of crustaceans like shrimps. Antimicrobial resistance is becoming a worldwide health threat. A recent report by the Review on Antimicrobial Resistance warns that antimicrobial resistance could kill 10 million people each year by 2050, dwarfing even the number of estimated deaths from cancer. Because of this, preventing infection has never been more important.

The protective dressing was developed by Dr. Radoslaw Wach and his colleagues from Lodz University of Technology in Poland...

(a) Crystal structure of H+ conductive coordination polymer and doped pyranine molecule, which releases/captures H+ by light irradiation. (b) Observed H+ conductivity switching property by on/off light irradiation. Credit: Image courtesy of Institute for Integrated Cell-Material Sciences at Kyoto University

Researchers at iCeMS, Japan have demonstrated on/off switching behaviour in a coordination polymer crystal. Coordination polymer crystals are inorganic and organic hybrid materials. They are known for their structural and functional diversity and their ability to conduct protons. Proton conduction is a form of electrical conduction in which hydrogen ions (H+) carry the charge instead of electrons...