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    Sugars, ‘gum,’ stardust found in NASA’s asteroid Bennu samples

    December 4, 2025, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    Graphic labeled "Bio-essential sugars ribose and glucose in samples from asteroid Bennu." The left half of the graphic has a background image of Bennu. In front of it are the RNA molecular components on Bennu: guanine, cytosine, ribose, adenine, uracil, and phosphate. Below them, the molecular structure of glucose is accompanied by text: "Ribose and glucose are sugars essential to life on Earth. RNA uses ribose for its structure. Glucose provides cells with energy and is used to make fibers like cellulose. A team of Japanese and US scientists have found ribose and glucose in samples of asteroid Bennu (collected by NASA'S OSIRIS-REx mission), suggesting that these simple sugars were brought to the early Earth by meteorites." The right half of the graphic has a background image of Earth. In front of it is the genetic code for protein synthesis, including ribose, phosphate, and the RNA nucleobases guanine, cytosine adenine, and uracil. Below that, the chemical process of energy production via glycolysis and the chemical structure of cellulose are annotated.
    A team of Japanese and US scientists have discovered the bio-essential sugars ribose and glucose in samples of asteroid Bennu that were collected by NASA’s OSIRIS-REx mission. This finding builds on the earlier discovery of nucleobases (the genetic components of DNA and RNA), phosphate, and amino acids (the building blocks of proteins) in the Bennu samples, showing that the molecular ingredients of life could have been delivered to early Earth by meteorites. Download this graphic from NASA’s Scientific Visualization Studio website: https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/14932
    NASA/Goddard/University of Arizona/Dan Gallagher 

    The asteroid Bennu continues to provide new clues to scientists’ biggest questions about the formation of the early solar system and the origins of life...

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    Finger Wrap uses Sweat to provide Health Monitoring at your Fingertips

    September 5, 2024, Categories  Biology/Biotechnology, Health/Medical

    This finger wrap is powered by the wearer’s fingertip sweat—and also monitors levels of glucose, lactate, vitamin C and levodopa in that same sweat. Credit: Shichao Ding

    A sweat-powered wearable has the potential to make continuous, personalized health monitoring as effortless as wearing a Band-Aid. Engineers at the University of California San Diego have developed an electronic finger wrap that monitors vital chemical levels—such as glucose, vitamins, and even drugs—present in the same fingertip sweat from which it derives its energy.

    The advance was published Sept. 3 in Nature Electronics by the research group of Joseph Wang, a professor in the Aiiso Yufeng Li Family Department of Chemical and Nano Engineering at UC San Diego.

    The device, which wraps snugly around the fin...

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    Multi-tasking Wearable Continuously Monitors Glucose, Alcohol, and Lactate

    May 10, 2022, Categories  Biology/Biotechnology, Health/Medical

    The device can be worn on the upper arm while the wearer goes about their day. Photos by Laboratory for Nanobioelectronics / UC San Diego

    Imagine being able to measure your blood sugar levels, know if you’ve had too much to drink, and track your muscle fatigue during a workout, all in one small device worn on your skin. Engineers at the University of California San Diego have developed a prototype of such a wearable that can continuously monitor several health stats — glucose, alcohol, and lactate levels — simultaneously in real-time.

    The device is about the size of a stack of six quarters. It is applied to the skin through a Velcro-like patch of microneedles, that are each about one-fifth the width of a human hair...

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    A Spoonful of Sugar opens a Path to Longer Lasting Lithium Sulfur Batteries

    September 14, 2021, Categories  Chemistry/Nanotechnology

    Melbourne to Sydney on one charge: the new lithium-sulfur battery technology could store two to five times more energy. The Monash Energy Institute team (L-R): Mahdokht Shaibani, Mainak Majumder, Matthew Hill, Yingyi Huang

    Simply by adding sugar, researchers from the Monash Energy Institute have created a longer-lasting, lighter, more sustainable rival to the lithium-ion batteries that are essential for aviation, electric vehicles and submarines.

    The Monash team, assisted by CSIRO, report in today’s edition of Nature Communications that using a glucose-based additive on the positive electrode they have managed to stabilise lithium-sulfur battery technology, long touted as the basis for the next generation of batteries.

    “In less than a decade, this technology could lead to vehicle...

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