When a patient has a stubborn infection, sometimes doctors are at a loss to know what type of infection it is and how to treat it. Making cultures of the bacteria to unveil their identity can take hours, sometimes too long for sick patients. In the meantime, doctors often throw a wide spectrum of antibiotics [...]
Scientists Create Plastic Solar Cell
April 27, 2012 By 3 Comments
Scientists have discovered a method using polymers that could allow improved solar cells to be manufactured more cheaply and with more flexibility. Manufacturers already print or roll material onto surfaces to produce an electronically functional device, writes Jennifer Hicks in Forbes. This process is used to make organic solar cells and organic light-emitting diodes that [...]
Polymer Alternative to DNA Created
April 26, 2012 By Leave a Comment
British scientists have developed polymer alternatives to DNA and RNA — the molecular architecture of life on Earth — that could lead to improvements in medicine and nanotechnology. DNA forms the template that contains all the information necessary to create an organism, writes Eryn Brown for Los Angeles Times via BostonHerald.com. RNA takes that information [...]
Laser Device Performs Delicate Surgery
April 25, 2012 By Leave a Comment
When surgeons use metal scalpels to cut away harmful tissue, there is a risk of cutting healthy tissue. This risk is especially acute for operations on critical organs, such as brains and intestines. Now there is a laser “scalpel” that targets diseased or damaged tissue while leaving healthy tissue intact. A team of researchers from [...]
Mussel-Inspired Adhesive Has Many Useful Properties
April 24, 2012 By Leave a Comment
Inspired by mussels’ ability to adhere to many surfaces underwater, German researchers have developed a group of adhesives that are waterproof, can bind themselves together, react with surfaces, degrade with light, and are biocompatible. The materials have applications in medicine, reports Azom.com. They could be used for removable hydrogel pads that help regenerate skin or [...]
Polymers Hold Key to More Fuel-Efficient Cars
April 23, 2012 By Leave a Comment
Certain kinds of polymers may be useful in the near future to help reduce the weight of cars and therefore improve fuel efficiency. Carbon fiber, or carbon-fiber reinforced polymer, is exceptionally strong and light, reports John Rosevear of The Motley Fool, but it also is expensive. Yet automobile manufacturers see the material as key to [...]
Floating Plastics Help Create Alternative Fuel
April 20, 2012 By 1 Comment
NASA is developing a technology that uses large arrays of plastic tubes that float in seawater and contain algae that can be converted into fuel. The floating algae cultivation system, called Offshore Membrane Enclosure for Growing Algae (OMEGA), is designed to grow freshwater algae in municipal wastewater using photobioreactors, or flexible plastic tubes. NASA has [...]
Binding Polymers Create New Properties for Paper
April 19, 2012 By Leave a Comment
Italian scientists have invented a process by which nanoparticles form a polymer that binds with paper fibers to create new forms of paper that can either be waterproof, magnetic, or antibacterial. The new paper, reports Jennifer Hicks in Forbes, is still paper — one can write on it, fold it, and print with it — [...]
Study: Metal Stents Pose No Health Risks
April 18, 2012 By Leave a Comment
A study of coronary patients with sensitivity to metal and who have received metal stents found that those patients did not experience any adverse health risk nor any allergic reaction to these medical devices, report the authors of the research at the Mayo Clinic. The study is the first to compare clinical reactions in patients [...]
Study Links Phthalates to Diabetes
April 17, 2012 By 2 Comments
High blood levels of phthalates — chemicals that are commonly used to soften plastics — may double the risk of type 2 diabetes in older adults, Swedish researchers are reporting. While the research is disputed, the research could add pressure to conduct more tests to determine what are the chemicals’ comprehensive effects on human health, [...]
