Researchers at Harvard University have created thin sheets of elastic film studded with rat heart muscle and zapped them with electricity, allowing them to contract, bend and move. The findings could point the way to sophisticated new “soft robots”, effective replacement organs, and better prosthetic devices, said biomedical engineer Kit Parker.
Parker said the electricity coaxes [...]
A team of Harvard bioengineers and brain scientists have studied the way the brain rapidly and precisely encodes natural visual events that occur on a slower timescale.The researchers say that their study has taken them one step further towards unravelling the cryptic code used by the neurons of the brain to represent the natural visual [...]
Researchers at UT Southwestern Medical Center have discovered a gene, adipose, that controls a person’s tendency to pile fat. The researchers believe that the discovery might lead to develop new ways to counter obesity and diabetes.
“From worms to mammals, this gene controls fat formation,” said Dr. Jonathan Graff, associate professor of developmental biology and internal [...]
A new study has revealed that the epicentre of sex-specific behaviour in many species may be a small sensory organ found in the noses of all terrestrial vertebrates except higher primates.The researchers believe that earlier assumption, that these differences arise in the brain, may be unfounded.
“These results are flabbergasting. Nobody had imagined that a simple [...]
Researchers have found that knocking out a single cardiac gene in mice increased its lifespan.The mutant mouse lacks a single protein, type 5 adenylyl cyclase (AC5), that makes it less prone to the effects of hormone adrenaline, and more resistant to some forms of stress.
The study was conducted by a team of researchers including Stephen [...]