Researchers studying new way to Heal Diabetic Wounds by Activating ‘Hidden’ Mechanism in the Body

Researchers at Indiana University School of Medicine are looking for ways to heal wounds by using a healing protein that is active in fetuses, but largely inactive in adults and absent in diabetic adults.

“We already know from previous studies at other institutions that if a fetus is wounded, it can regenerate the tissue, or repair it to be like new,” said Chandan K. Sen, PhD, associate vice president of military and applied research, the J. Stanley Battersby chair and distinguished professor of surgery and director of the Indiana Center for Regenerative Medicine and Engineering at Indiana University School of Medicine. “But after birth, such regenerative wound healing ability is lost. Healing in adults is relatively inefficient often associated with undesirable scar formation.”

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Research Team develops Aqueous Rechargeable Batteries based on Zinc Anodes

Water for drinking? Nope, water for batteries
Schematic diagram of an aqueous zinc battery stabilized by a protective polymer layer. Credit: POSTECH

Can we survive three minutes without air or three days without water? How about without batteries? Imagine not having a battery for three hours.

Lightweight, high-capacity lithium-ion batteries are widely used in mobile phones, laptops, and other necessities in today’s world. However, the organic electrolytes in conventional lithium-ion batteries are highly flammable, leading to fatal fires or explosions. As lithium-ion batteries are widely used in our lives, such accidents can cause direct damage to users, which has led to a demand for a safer battery system.

Professor Soojin Park and Gyujin Song (Post-doc fellow) in the Department of Chemistry and Ph.D...

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How Planets can be an Anti-Aging Formula for Stars

The team examined systems containing a star orbited by a hot Jupiter, accompanied by a star without such a planet.

Planets can force their host stars to act younger than their age, according to a new study of multiple systems using NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory. This may be the best evidence to date that some planets apparently slow down the aging process for their host stars.

While the anti-aging property of “hot Jupiters” (that is, gas giant exoplanets that orbit a star at Mercury’s distance or closer) has been seen before, this result is the first time it has been systematically documented, providing the strongest test yet of this exotic phenomenon.

“In medicine, you need a lot of patients enrolled in a study to know if the effects are real or some sort of outlier,” said Ni...

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How Magnetism could help explain the Earth-Moon System’s Formation

How magnetism could help explain Earth's formation
Credit: NASA/JPL

There are several theories about how Earth and its moon were formed, most involving a giant impact. Now scientists at the University of Leeds and the University of Chicago have analyzed the dynamics of fluids and electrically conducting fluids and concluded that Earth must have been magnetized either before the impact or as a result of it.

They claim this could help to narrow down the theories of the Earth-moon formation and inform future research into what really happened. Their work is published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Professor David Hughes, an applied mathematician in the School of Mathematics at the University of Leeds, said, “Our new idea is to point out that our theoretical understanding of the Earth’s magnetic field today can a...

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