Plastic is ubiquitous in the modern world, and it's notorious for taking a long time to completely break down in the environment - if it ever does. But even without breaking down completely, plastic can shed tiny particles - called nanoplastics because of their extremely small size - that scientists are just now starting [...]
It looks pretty sinister, but it might actually be incredibly helpful When reactor number four in Chernobyl exploded, it triggered the worst nuclear disaster in history, one which the surrounding area still has not yet recovered from. After the disaster at the Ukrainian nuclear power plant, scientists working in the ruined remains of reactor four discovered a strange [...]
Months after recovering from COVID-19, many people continue to feel unwell. They speak of exhaustion that doesn’t fade, difficulty breathing, or an unsettling mental haze. What’s becoming increasingly clear is that recovery from the virus doesn’t always end when the infection clears. For countless survivors, Long COVID continues to affect both body and mind, [...]
A new peptide-based nanotube treatment sneaks chemo into drug-resistant cancer cells, providing a unique workaround to one of oncology’s toughest hurdles. CiQUS researchers have developed a novel molecular strategy that allows a chemotherapy drug to enter the nucleus of tumor cells and exert its therapeutic impact, even in drug-resistant cancers. Their findings were published in ACS [...]
An NIH-supported initiative seeks to unravel how the nervous system tracks and regulates the body’s internal organs. How does your brain recognize when it’s time to take a breath, when your blood pressure has fallen, or when your body is fighting an infection? The key lies in interoception, a little-known process through which the [...]
Researchers at the European XFEL and DESY are investigating unusual forms of ice that can exist at room temperature when subjected to extreme pressure. Ice comes in many forms, even when made of nothing but water molecules. Scientists have now identified more than 20 unique solid structures, or “phases,” of ice, each with its own molecular [...]
The 2025 Nobel Prize in chemistry was awarded to Richard Robson, Susumu Kitagawa and Omar Yaghi on Oct. 8, 2025, for the development of metal-organic frameworks, or MOFs, which are tunable crystal structures with extremely high porosity. These are a class of materials that have truly changed the way scientists design and think about matter, [...]
A new review reveals how plant- and microbe-derived nanoparticles can power next-gen water disinfection, delivering cleaner, safer water without the environmental cost of traditional treatments. A recent review published in Nanomaterials highlights the potential of green-synthesized nanomaterials (GSNMs) in advancing safer and more sustainable water disinfection methods. The article explores how these materials are produced, how they act against [...]
Damage to the brainstem - the brain's 'control center' - is behind long-lasting physical and psychiatric effects of severe Covid-19 infection, a study suggests. Using ultra-high-resolution scanners that can see the living brain in fine detail, researchers from the Universities of Cambridge and Oxford were able to observe the damaging effects Covid-19 can have [...]
Researchers at National Jewish Health have shown that subtle increases in lung scarring, detected by an artificial intelligence-based tool on CT scans taken one year apart, are associated with disease progression and survival in patients with fibrotic interstitial lung disease. The findings, recently published in the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, suggest that [...]
