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15 articles from ScienceDaily

Ultrashort-pulse lasers kill bacterial superbugs, spores

Researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have found that multidrug-resistant bacteria and bacterial spores can be killed by ultrashort-pulse lasers. The findings could lead to new ways to sterilize wounds and blood products without damaging human cells.

How moles change into melanoma

Melanoma researchers published a study that gives a new explanation of what causes moles to change into melanoma. These findings pave the way for more research into how to reduce the risk of melanoma, delay development, and detect melanoma early.

Microbes can provide sustainable hydrocarbons for the petrochemical industry

The petrochemical industry turns oil and gas into precursors used to synthesize lubricants and other critical products. Chemists show that bacteria can be metabolically engineered to generate similar precursors, providing a sustainable replacement for fossil fuels and using less energy. The microbes need only glucose. The medium-chain hydrocarbons they produce can be broken down into shorter...

Optoelectrode changes reduce injuries to brain tissue, improve nerve research

Researchers have developed a technique for assembling optoelectrodes that looks to offer the best of silicon-based electrodes and polymer-based electrodes. The scientists demonstrated it is possible to efficiently create a semiflexible light-emitting electrode by removing the stiff silicon material from underneath the tip of the probe. The resulting device can study deep brain tissues with high...

Origami, kirigami inspire mechanical metamaterials designs

Researchers categorize origami- and kirigami-based mechanical metamaterials, artificially engineered materials with unusual mechanical properties, and subdivided them into rigid or deformable categories based on the elastic energy landscape. The researchers want to discover new designs, especially curved origami designs, hybrid origami-kirigami designs, modular designs, and hierarchical designs;...

Can we perceive gender from children's voices?

Researchers report developing a database of speech samples from children ages 5 to 18 to explore two questions: What types of changes occur in children's voices as they become adults, and how do listeners adjust to the enormous variability in acoustic patterns across speakers? When they presented listeners with both syllables and sentences from different speakers, gender identification improved...

Ancient human relative, Australopithecus sediba, 'walked like a human, but climbed like an ape'

The recovery of new lumbar vertebrae from the lower back of a single individual of the human relative, Australopithecus sediba, and portions of other vertebrae of the same female from Malapa, South Africa, together with previously discovered vertebrae, form one of the most complete lower backs ever discovered in the early hominid record and give insight into how this ancient human relative walked...