‘breathprints’ of multiple diseases

Nanoarray sniffs out and distinguishes ‘breathprints’ of multiple diseases

December 23, 2016

An international team of 63 scientists in 14 clinical departments have identified a unique “breathprint” for 17 diseases with 86% accuracy and have designed a noninvasive, inexpensive, and miniaturized portable device that screens breath samples to classify and diagnose several types of diseases, they report in an open-access paper in the journal ACS Nano. As far … more…

Method discovered to remove damaging amyloid plaques found in Alzheimer’s disease

December 23, 2016

German scientists have discovered a strategy for removing amyloid plaques — newly forming clumps in a brain with Alzheimer’s disease that are created by misfolded proteins that clump together and damage nerve cells. The scientists from the German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases (DZNE) in Munich and the Ludwig Maximilians University (LMU) Munich took aged microglia cells … more…

Sick and Dying in Small-town America

Unnatural Causes | Sick and Dying in Small-town America

Heavy drinking has been normalized for women, and it’s killing them in record numbers

Experts say alcohol ads and social media postings represent a profound cultural shift: Women in America are drinking far more, and far more frequently, than their mothers or grandmothers did.

By Kimberly Kindy and Dan Keating  •  Read more »

A robotic hand with a human’s delicate sense of touch

A robotic hand with a human’s delicate sense of touch

December 16, 2016

Could one day restore sensitive touch for both hand amputees and robots Cornell University engineers have invented a new kind of robotic hand with a human’s delicate sense of touch. Scenario: you lost part of your arm in a car accident. That artificial arm and hand you got from the hospital lets you feel and pick up things — even type on a keyboard. But not with … more…