Scientists in Sweden have developed a more reliable way to create insulin-producing cells from human stem cells, bringing new momentum to efforts to treat type 1 diabetes. The research, published in Stem Cell Reports, shows that these lab-grown cells can effectively control blood sugar in tests and even reverse diabetes in mice. Type 1 diabetes…
Reduce your calories. Eat more vegetables. Limit soft drinks and junk foods. For years, even decades, this has been the advice for those wanting a healthy body weight, lower blood pressure and better markers of metabolic health. Most weight-loss advice has focused on either what to eat (and what to avoid), or how much to…
Scientists are developing a new way to tackle two major global problems at once: plastic pollution and the demand for clean energy. By using sunlight, they are finding ways to turn discarded plastic into useful fuels. A recent study led by Adelaide University PhD candidate Xiao Lu examines how solar-powered systems can convert waste plastics…
Researchers at APC Microbiome Ireland, a leading research center at University College Cork, have taken a major step toward understanding how coffee benefits the body. For the first time, scientists have closely examined how coffee interacts with the gut-brain axis, the communication network that links the digestive system and the brain. The findings, published in…
Scientists have uncovered new clues about how crabs developed their distinctive sideways movement. A new study, released as a Reviewed Preprint in eLife, brings together the largest dataset yet on how crabs move. By comparing many species, the researchers traced this unusual walking style back to a shared ancestor that lived roughly 200 million years…
Alzheimer’s disease is often described in numbers, with millions of people affected, cases rising quickly, and costs reaching into the trillions. For families, however, the experience is deeply personal. “It’s a slow bereavement,” says Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Professor Nicholas Tonks, whose mother lived with Alzheimer’s. “You lose the person piece by piece.” A major…
A large study published in The BMJ suggests that aerobic activities such as walking, cycling, and swimming are the most effective exercises for people with knee osteoarthritis. These activities were found to provide the greatest improvements in pain, physical function, walking ability, and overall quality of life. Researchers note that while other types of exercise…
One evening last summer, Dr. David Relman went cold at his laptop as an A.I. chatbot told him how to plan a massacre. A microbiologist and biosecurity expert at Stanford University, Dr. Relman had been hired by an artificial intelligence company to pressure-test its product before it was released to the public. That night in…
Modern cells are highly intricate systems. They contain internal scaffolding, tightly controlled chemical processes, and genetic instructions that guide nearly everything they do. This complexity allows them to survive in diverse environments and compete based on their fitness. In contrast, the earliest cell-like structures were extremely simple. These primitive compartments were essentially tiny bubbles, where…
Over the last century, scientists have mapped several of the body’s sensory systems in microscopic detail, discovering that the cells that process sight, sound and touch are arranged in predictable spatial patterns. It has been much harder to navigate the complex landscape of the nose, with its enormous array of scent receptors. For years, many…
