Mice receiving a gene for a telomere-building enzyme have had their lifespan extended by 41%. Treatment with another gene, this time for follistatin (FST), extended their lives by 36%. Both treatments significantly boosted glucose tolerance, physical performance and stalled body mass decline and fur loss. The life extension came as a surprise to the researchers. […]

A chemical nose developed by researchers in Japan can identify certain health conditions by analysing the microbiome of stool samples. The gut microbiome is known to reflect several health conditions and general wellbeing, so tools to monitor its composition present an opportunity for routine observation and rapid diagnosis. However, microbiomes are complex systems, which overwhelm […]

For the first time, scientists have detected highly reactive hydrotrioxide compounds under atmospheric conditions. The finding raises questions about what roles trioxides play in the Earth’s atmosphere and what health and climate effects they might have. Hydrotrioxide compounds feature a row of three oxygen atoms bonded to one another. This makes them even more reactive […]

Three different crystalline forms, or polymorphs, of a compound have been reversibly transformed from one to another via mechanical grinding for the first time. The team behind the work suggest the number of attainable polymorphs could be limitless in principle, demonstrating that ball mills could offer a greener, faster and cheaper way to make products […]

For many people 2-furanmethanethiol may smell like their favourite coffee, but for others it’s as disgusting as burning rubbish. The compound is one of the 15 that chemists have identified as triggering parosmia, a condition that makes certain things smell burnt, rotten, fecal or otherwise unpleasant. The condition used to be rare but has become […]

As I have sketched in recent episodes of this series, the adoption of materia medica into the curriculum for medical studies at the Renaissance universities, led fairly rapidly to an empirical turn in the study of simples (i.e., medical herbs) and over time the study of plants in general. Initially, this consisted largely of going out into […]