Breaching the blood-brain barrier safely opens the possibility of new protocols for Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases, various kinds of tumors and even some psychiatric conditions, using drugs, payload-carrying viruses or nanoparticles loaded with DNA to carry out genetic therapy.
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Save the mind by saving the body
Most researchers seeking to cure or prevent Alzheimer ’s disease target ways to prevent or remove plaque that builds up in the brain’s blood vessels. But researchers at the Salk Institute took a different approach: Instead of taking on the disease directly, they decided to cure its chief cause — old age. Treated with an...
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The drug, modeled after cellular compounds that retard aging, could be effective in up to 99 percent of Alzheimer’s cases.
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Tuning up the Internet
As much as people love watching pet videos or sending wedding photos over the Internet, they’re frustrated by slow transmission speeds. Now, Canadian researchers have invented a way to transmit optical information as much as six times faster while using less energy. At Université Laval in Québec, engineers have created an electronic component called a...
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The device, which could be improved to surpass current filters’ speeds by 10 times, brings us closer to three-dimensional Internet video and vastly greater cloud-storage capacity.
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Where pain comes from
A decade ago, science isolated the rare genetic mutation that renders a person able to feel touch but unable to feel pain. But using drugs to replicate the condition as a way to manage chronic pain has proven ineffective. So, scientists at University College London engineered mice that carried the human version of the genetic...
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The pharmaceutical industry has new competition. Cataloging the human genome opens research to bypass synthetic drugs and find ways to manipulate the body’s own mechanisms to heal and manage chronic conditions.
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Faster, cheaper desalination
A faster, cheaper way to transform seawater into fresh water has been developed by a University of Illinois research team. The invention could make fresh water cheaper and more plentiful for coastal nations, such as Saudi Arabia, when droughts are becoming more frequent around the world. In the usual process of removing brine from ocean...
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As groundwater supplies dry up, desalination will grow rapidly as an industry. Breakthroughs like this will reduce costs and lure more cities and nations to build facilities.
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A different kind of water power
There are balloons full of energy under Lake Ontario. Actually, the balloons are full of compressed air and are part of a pilot project by Hydrostor, a Canadian energy firm. The company is testing the concept of storing compressed air in balloons under water, then releasing the air as strong wind to turn generator turbines...