Painless administration of a vaccine by tiny microneedles on a skin patch. Interestingly, this mechanism of antigen exposure promotes a better immune response compared to the traditional bolus injections that make our arm’s go limp for an afternoon.
New discovery reveals the lubricating layer formed on implanted prosthetic joints with metal-on-metal contacts is a thin layer of carbon. Reminds me of graphite lubricant used on pinewood derby cars.
Sanofi Pasteur’s Fluzone Intradermal Flu Vaccine Approved in U.S.
Common techniques for identifying and measuring DNA or RNA require purification, labeling, or other cumbersome preparations. But a new method pumps samples through a tiny capillary tube and needs no such pretreatment
Fluorescent Nanoparticles Fresh From The Microwave
To make the particles, Mao, with Shukun Xu and colleagues in China, mixed acetates of the rare earth elements yttrium, ytterbium, and erbium; NH4F; and NaCl in the microwave at 160 °C for one hour. The resulting nanoparticles, he says, are comparable in quality to those made under more stringent conditions. The researchers then attached the nanoparticles to antibodies and used the resulting complexes to label cells in a petri dish. How they will fare in vivo remains to be seen, Mao says.
GPS Shoes for Tracking Down Alzheimer’s Patients
A graphene oxide-based assay could provide chemists with an inexpensive means to detect protein-protein interactions
A new type of device that responds to a liquid’s surface tension can be used to reveal hidden messages or to distinguish among different classes of liquids
Need to track your blood oxygen levels? There may soon be an app for that.
Gut coils with help from its elastic neighbor
Mathematicians and biologists at Harvard explain why vertebrate intestines are so predictably loopy
Cambridge, Mass. - August 10, 2011 - Between conception and birth, the human gut grows more than two meters long, looping and coiling within the tiny abdomen. Within a given species, the developing vertebrate gut always loops into the same formation—however, until now, it has not been clear why.
Using a combination of experimental observations, biological and biophysical manipulations, theory, and computation, researchers at Harvard have shown that a “simple” balance of forces determines the form of the gut.
The finding may shed light on how the gut has been able to evolve to accommodate changes in diet.
The interdisciplinary research, published in the August 4th issue of Nature, demonstrates that differences in growth rates between the gut tube and the neighboring mesenteric tissue force the tube to coil, regardless of the space constraints….
Nanorings Synthesized Simply
Balloon catheters outfitted with a stretchable electronic sensor can provide new and better data about the heart during clinical procedures
