High-speed, 3-D microscope captures stunning videos of fruit fly nerve cells in action - Columbia engineers and neuroscientists have joined forces to create 3-D videos of individual nerve cells moving, stretching and switching on inside fruit fly larvae as they move. Data gleaned from these videos reveals how nerve cells called proprioceptive neurons work together to help the body sense where it is in space. To accomplish this feat, the researchers harnessed SCAPE, a cutting-edge microscope...

Early Europeans hunted hard-to-catch small game - Fleet of foot and lean of meat, rabbits are difficult to hunt and offer little sustenance. Yet research published in Science Advances by Trent University associate professor of Anthropology Dr. Eugene Morin has shown that they were frequently part of the diet of early humans and Neanderthals in the northwestern Mediterranean as far back as 400 hundred thousand years ago.

New optical imaging system could be deployed to find tiny tumors - Many types of cancer could be more easily treated if they were detected at an earlier stage. MIT researchers have now developed an imaging system, named "DOLPHIN," which could enable them to find tiny tumors, as small as a couple of hundred cells, deep within the body.

Chances for life expand when passing stars push binaries together - Planetary systems can be harsh environments in their early history. The young worlds orbit suns in stellar nurseries, clusters of stars where violent encounters are commonplace. None of this makes it easy for life to get going, but now astronomers at the University of Sheffield find one positive of this tumultuous period. A model developed by undergraduate student Bethany Wootton and Royal Society Dorothy Hodgkin Fellow Dr....

Improving molecular imaging using a deep learning approach - Generating comprehensive molecular images of organs and tumors in living organisms can be performed at ultra-fast speed using a new deep learning approach to image reconstruction developed by researchers at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.

When semiconductors stick together, materials go quantum - A team of researchers led by the Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) has developed a simple method that could turn ordinary semiconducting materials into quantum machines—superthin devices marked by extraordinary electronic behavior. Such an advancement could help to revolutionize a number of industries aiming for energy-efficient electronic systems—and provide a platform for exotic new physic...

Special surface manipulation forces dropped liquids to spiral when they rebound - A team of researchers affiliated with several institutions in China has found a way to force liquid drops to spiral as they rebound after landing on a manipulated surface. In their paper published in the journal Nature Communications, the group describes how their method works and possible applications.

Improved regulation needed as pesticides found to affect genes in bees - Scientists are urging for improved regulation on pesticides after finding that they affect genes in bumblebees, according to research led by Queen Mary University of London in collaboration with Imperial College London.

Scientists find method to boost CRISPR efficiency - Scientists have developed a method to boost the efficiency of CRISPR gene editing in Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD), according to a study that could have implications for optimizing gene therapies for other diseases.

New surprises from Jupiter and Saturn - The latest data sent back by the Juno and Cassini spacecraft from giant gas planets Jupiter and Saturn have challenged a lot of current theories about how planets in our solar system form and behave.