Science of the Future
How connecting our brain to a computer could restore lost sight or hearing
Matt Angle’s claim might have sounded eccentric before: for years, he insisted that the key to solving one of neuroscience’s ...
Modern Frankenstein: Are we on the pathway to human head transplants?
The mysterious work of Dr. Sergio Canavero is the stuff of grade-B horror movies. He claims he’s successfully attached a living ...
Innovative ‘cell guillotine’ could revolutionize wound healing
For the last 100 years, slicing a single cell into two equal parts has proven to be a process that's tedious, ...
Transgenic spider silk: About superheroes, medical devices and space elevators
Maybe you'd like to be bullet proof like Superman or shoot silk from your body to fling between buildings like ...
Virtual reality: Avatars help amputees control their prosthetics
People who have had amputations can control a virtual avatar using their imagination alone, thanks to a system that uses ...
Eyeborg: Man has video camera inserted to replace damaged eye
Rob Spence, a documentary filmmaker from Canada, has a prosthetic eye that doubles as a video camera. Spence, who is ...
Creating ‘leaks’ in blood vessels could aid in drug delivery
The endothelial cells that line blood vessels are packed tightly to keep blood inside and flowing, but scientists have discovered ...
Deep-space travel, colonization may rely on genetically engineered life forms
Space exploration fires the imagination but presents many practical challenges—among them, how humans or organisms chosen to accompany us can ...
Epigenetics Around the Web: Q&A on hype of epigenetics and health link on Reddit Science ‘Ask Me Anything’
Epigenetics Literacy Project's Nicholas Staropoli took to Reddit Science to answer questions and debunk myths about the budding, yet controversial, ...
Medication time-released ‘talking’ nanoparticles could target cancer
Two nanoparticles have communicated with one another to perform a task for the first time, paving the way for more ...
Read ELP’s Nicholas Staropoli Reddit Science ‘Ask Me Anything’ on Epigenetics: Hype and Health
Editor’s Note: On Friday, June 2nd from 1pm–3pm EDT, ELP director Nicholas Staropoli hosted a Reddit-science Ask-Me-Anything (AMA) about the hype surrounding ...
Controlling gene expression with light may lead to disease treatments
Researchers in UC Santa Barbara’s departments of Chemistry and Biochemistry, and of Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology have gotten a step ...
Video: Micro-bubbles and stem cell gene therapy heal bone fractures in pigs
It takes more than a cast and a little time to heal many broken bones....Now, researchers have combined ultrasound, stem ...
How to stop art forgery? Inject paintings with synthetic DNA
Over the past several years, institutions in both the US and the UK have been trying to figure out how ...
Homo Sapiens 2.0: National Geographic TV series explores what life on earth will look like in 1 million years
In the year 1 million, Earth's continents will look roughly the same as they do now and the sun will ...
Open source science or intellectual property: Should we allow patenting of synbio organisms?
[S]ynthetic biology...incorporates disparate disciplines like engineering, computer science, biotechnology, and molecular biology...[i]nstead of using engineering’s discrete modules of code, transistors, ...
3-D bionic humans? Printed pressure sensors open door to artificial limbs that feel
Wearable technology may soon be at your fingertips -- literally. Researchers have developed a pressure sensor that can be 3-D ...
Is the US military in danger of using synthetic biology to ‘weaponize the environment’?
In recent years... the military—mostly under the umbrella of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency—has created a new suite of ...
How nanoparticles may help counteract antibiotic drug resistance
By 2050 more people may die from microbial infection than cancer, according to current estimates. The increasing mortal threat from ...
‘Brain in a dish’ gives scientists ‘unprecedented’ ability to study neurodevelopment disorders
Small cultures of human neuronal cells developing in a dish are not quite “brains in a petri dish” as they are ...
Eric Lander and Eric Schmidt: Science’s Miracle Machine — government investment in basic research — in danger
[Editor's note: Eric S. Lander is president and founding director of the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard University. Eric E ...
Electroceuticals? Nerve-activated devices may revolutionize arthritis and autoimmune disease treatments
Six times a day, Katrin pauses whatever she's doing, removes a small magnet from her pocket and touches it to ...
Do we have a human right to the privacy of our brain activity?
Do we have a human right to the privacy of our brain activity? Is “cognitive liberty” the foundation of all ...
Star Trek-like transporter might solve brain disease mysteries, understand religious belief
Scientists have modeled a Star Trek-like transporter illusion to learn about how the human brain shapes our sense of spatial ...
Neurosurgeon Sergio Canavero’s ‘brainless’ proposed ‘head transplant’ project
When Italian neurosurgeon Sergio Canavero recently announced his plans to conduct a human head transplant, that is, to put an ...
Why so many biotechnology start-ups, like Theranos, fail
Two years after the $9 billion start-up “unicorn” Theranos crumbled, Silicon Valley still appears to be struggling to learn its ...
Talking Biotech: What’s blocking GMO crop adoption in Africa?
Sociologist Matthew Harsh: Poor communication between Kenyan scientists, policymakers, farmers and anti-biotech activists slows GMO adoption ...