University of Maryland School of Medicine researchers developed a technique in laboratory animals to consistently and reproducibly open the blood-brain barrier. This barrier serves as a barricade securing the brain from the external world blocking out certain environmental toxins, but also prevents drug therapies from reaching their intended targets. The new technique is based on […]

With consumer prices rising at the fastest pace in almost four decades, older adults face the risk of having their retirement income and savings eaten away by inflation. Richard L. Kaplan is the Guy Raymond Jones Chair in Law at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and an internationally recognized expert on U.S. tax policy and retirement issues. […]

Like most vaccines, RNA vaccines have to be injected, which can be an obstacle for people who fear needles. Now, a team of MIT researchers has developed a way to deliver RNA in a capsule that can be swallowed, which they hope could help make people more receptive to them. In addition to making vaccines […]

A new technique for scalable production of twisted van der Waals heterostructures has been used to produce twisted stacks with far more layers than previously possible. The applications are as yet unclear, but it could allow engineers to make use of the many fascinating phenomena discovered in twisted multilayer heterostructures such as superconductivity. Following theoretical […]

Most farm managers in Europe are nearing retirement. There is a need to revitalise rural areas in Europe and crate opportunities for younger people. Social scientists are scrutinising the problem of rural decline, highlighting success stories and policy actions and tracking paths back to a more prosperous countryside.  Farming is an ancient profession. But a […]

[embedded content] Northwestern University engineers have developed a new smart sensor platform for face masks that they are calling a “Fitbit for the face.” Dubbed “FaceBit,” the lightweight, quarter-sized sensor uses a tiny magnet to attach to any N95, cloth or surgical face mask. Not only can it sense the user’s real-time respiration rate, heart […]

Researchers have explored the cellular changes that occur in human mammary tissue in lactating and non-lactating women, offering insight into the relationship between pregnancy, lactation, and breast cancer. The study was led by researchers from the Wellcome-MRC Cambridge Stem Cell Institute (CSCI) and the Department of Pharmacology at the University of Cambridge. Breast tissue is […]

To get through a long winter without food, hibernating animals — like the 13-lined ground squirrel — can slow their metabolism by as much as 99 percent, but they still need important nutrients like proteins to maintain muscles while they hibernate. A new study from the University of Wisconsin–Madison shows that hibernating ground squirrels get […]

I think the Internet has finally broken the HISTSCI_HULK; he’s lying in the corner sobbing bitterly and mumbling wrong, wrong, wrong… like a broken record. What could have felled the mighty beast?  29 January was the anniversary of the birth (1611) and death (1687) of the Danzig astronomer Johannes Hevelius and numerous people, including myself, […]

At the top of the worldyou sparkle with seclusion,sheathed in winter’s bladefrom the grubby tracksof those tainted,foul machines.But something hiddenlurks beneath,your flawless lustregently glazedby films of filthand tradeand greed.Invisible dust thatfalls like a blizzardacross the purityof your pristine skin,marking you for everby the ruined natureof our see-through sin. The Sonnblick Observatory at the top of […]