This Common Fungus Found on Human Skin Wipes Out Deadly Superbug Staph Infections

University of Oregon researchers have uncovered a molecule produced by yeast living on human skin that showed potent antimicrobial properties against a pathogen responsible for a half-million hospitalizations annually in the US.It’s a unique approach to tackling the growing problem of antibiotic-resistant bacteria. With the global threat of drug-resistant infections, fungi inhabiting human skin are an untapped resource for identifying new antibiotics, said Caitlin Kowalski, a postdoctoral researcher at the UO who led the study.Described in a paper published last month in Current Biology, the common skin fungus Malassezia gobbles up oil and fats on human skin to produce fatty acids that selectively eliminate Staphylococcus aureus.One out of every three people have Staphylococcus aureus harmlessly dwelling in their nose, but the bacteria are a risk factor for serious infections when given the opportunity: open wounds, abrasions and cuts. They’re the primary cause of skin and soft tissue infections known as staph infections.Staphylococcus aureus is also a hospital superbug notorious for being resistant to current antibiotics, elevating the pressing need for new medicines.There are lots of studies that identify new antibiotic structures, Kowalski said, “but what was fun and interesting about ours is that we identified (a compound) that...

Read More........→June 06, 2025

AI Tool Could Accelerate Discovery of Advanced Superconductors

Credit: iStock.Original story from Emory University, Using artificial intelligence shortens the time needed to identify complex phases in quantum materials.Using artificial intelligence shortens the time to identify complex quantum phases in materials from months to minutes, finds a new study published in Newton. The breakthrough could significantly speed up research into quantum materials, particularly low-dimensional superconductors.The study was led by theorists at Emory University and experimentalists at Yale University. Senior authors include Fang Liu and Yao Wang, assistant professors in Emory’s Department of Chemistry, and Yu He, assistant professor in Yale’s Department of Applied Physics.The team applied machine-learning techniques to detect clear spectral signals that indicate phase transitions in quantum materials — systems where electrons are strongly entangled. These materials are notoriously difficult to model with traditional physics because of their unpredictable fluctuations.“Our method gives a fast and accurate snapshot of a very complex phase transition, at virtually no cost,” says Xu Chen, the study’s first author and an Emory PhD student in chemistry. “We hope this can dramatically speed up discoveries in the field of superconductivity.”One of the challenges in applying machine learning to quantum materials is...

Read More........→May 12, 2025

This Wearable Device Monitors Health by Sensing the Gases Passing Through Your Skin

Credit: John A. Rogers / Northwestern University.Your skin is breathing. This wearable gas sensor can measure it.Northwestern University researchers have developed the first wearable device for measuring gases emitted from and absorbed by the skin.By analyzing these gases, the device offers an entirely new way to assess skin health, including monitoring wounds, detecting skin infections, tracking hydration levels, quantifying exposure to harmful environmental chemicals and more.The new technology comprises a collection of sensors that precisely measure changes in temperature, water vapor, carbon dioxide (CO2) and volatile organic compounds (VOCs), which each give valuable insight into various skin conditions and overall health. These gases flow into a small chamber within the device that hovers above the skin without actually touching it. This no-contact design is particularly useful for gathering information about fragile skin without disturbing delicate tissues.“This device is a natural evolution of our lab’s wearable electronic devices that collect and analyze sweat,” said Northwestern’s John A. Rogers, who co-led the study. “In that case, we were analyzing sweat to learn about the wearer’s overall health. While useful, that method requires pharmacological stimulation of sweat glands or exposure to a hot, humid environment. We...

Read More........→May 05, 2025

World’s Smallest Pacemaker is Made for Newborns, Activated by Light, and Requires No Surgery

World’s smallest pacemaker next to a grain of rice – Credit: John Rogers / Northwestern University press releaseNorthwestern University engineers have developed a pacemaker so small that it can fit inside the tip of a syringe and be non-invasively injected into the body, according to a new study published in Nature.Although it can work with hearts of all sizes, the pacemaker is particularly well-suited to the tiny, fragile hearts of newborn babies with congenital heart defects.A pacemaker is an implantable device that helps maintain an even heart rate, either because the heart’s natural cardiac pacemaker provides an inadequate or irregular heartbeat, or because there is a block in the heart’s electrical conduction system.Smaller than a single grain of rice, the pacemaker is paired with a small, soft, flexible, wireless, wearable device that mounts onto a patient’s chest to control pacing. When the wearable device detects an irregular heartbeat, it automatically shines a light to activate the pacemaker.These short light pulses, which penetrate through the patient’s skin, breastbone, and muscles, control the pacing.Designed for patients who only need temporary pacing, the pacemaker simply dissolves after it’s no longer needed. All the pacemaker’s components are biocompatible, so they naturally dissolve into the body’s biofluids, bypassing...

Read More........→April 09, 2025

In 2025, let’s make it game on – not game over – for our precious natural world

Darcy Watchorn, Deakin University and Marissa Parrott, The University of MelbourneIt’s just past midnight in the cool, ancient forests of Tasmania. We’ve spent a long day and night surveying endangered Tasmanian devils. All around, small animals scurry through bushes. A devil calls in the darkness. Microbats swoop and swirl as a spotted-tailed quoll slips through the shadows. Working here is spine-tingling and electric. Weeks later, we’re in a moonlit forest in Victoria. It was logged a few years earlier and burnt by bushfire a few decades before that. The old trees are gone. So too are the quolls, bats and moths that once dwelled in their hollows. Invasive blackberry chokes what remains. The silence is deafening, and devastating. In our work as field biologists, we often desperately wish we saw a place before it was cleared, logged, burnt or overtaken by invasive species. Other times, we hold back tears as we read about the latest environmental catastrophe, overwhelmed by anger and frustration. Perhaps you know this feeling of grief? The new year is a chance to reflect on the past and consider future possibilities. Perhaps we’ll sign up to the gym, spend more time with family, or – perish the thought – finally get to the dentist. But let us also set a New Year’s resolution for nature. Let’s make a personal pledge to care...

Read More........→January 17, 2025

How light can shift your mood and mental health

Jacob Crouse, University of Sydney; Emiliana Tonini, University of Sydney, and Ian Hickie, University of SydneyThis is the next article in our ‘Light and health’ series, where we look at how light affects our physical and mental health in sometimes surprising ways. Read other articles in the series. It’s spring and you’ve probably noticed a change in when the Sun rises and sets. But have you also noticed a change in your mood? We’ve known for a while that light plays a role in our wellbeing. Many of us tend to feel more positive when spring returns. But for others, big changes in light, such as at the start of spring, can be tough. And for many, bright light at night can be a problem. Here’s what’s going on. An ancient rhythm of light and mood In an earlier article in our series, we learned that light shining on the back of the eye sends “timing signals” to the brain and the master clock of the circadian system. This clock coordinates our daily (circadian) rhythms. “Clock genes” also regulate circadian rhythms. These genes control the timing of when many other genes turn on and off during the 24-hour, light-dark cycle. But how is this all linked with our mood and mental health? Circadian rhythms can be disrupted. This can happen if there are problems with how the body clock develops or functions, or if someone is routinely...

Read More........→December 11, 2024

How Covid virus defeats body’s immune response

New Delhi, (IANS): Japanese researchers have discovered that SARS-CoV-2, the virus responsible for Covid-19, carries an enzyme that can act against a cell’s innate defence mechanism against viruses.This can answer why Covid-19 is more infectious than the previous SARS and MERS-causing viruses, said the researchers from Kobe University.The team focussed their study on the role of a molecular tag called “ISG15” in Covid virus that prevents nucleocapsid proteins from attaching to each other -- a key process to enable viruses to assemble.In addition, the “enzyme can remove the tags from its nucleocapsid, recovering its ability to assemble new viruses and thus overcoming the innate immune response,” explained virologist Shoji Ikuo from the varsity, in a paper in the Journal of Virology.While SARS and MERS viruses also carry an enzyme that can remove the ISG15 tag, Shoji’s team found that their versions are less efficient.“The results suggest that the novel coronavirus is simply better at evading this aspect of the innate immune system’s defense mechanism, which explains why it is so infectious,” Shoji said.The innate immune system is the first line of defense against pathogens which limits viral entry, replication, and assembly. It also detects and removes infected cells.Unlike SARS and MERS viruses, Covid rapidly spread to almost all...

Read More........→November 03, 2024

Einstein and anime: Hong Kong university tests AI professors

HONG KONG - Using virtual reality headsets, students at a Hong Kong university travel to a pavilion above the clouds to watch an AI-generated Albert Einstein explain game theory.The students are part of a course at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST) that is testing the use of "AI lecturers" as the artificial intelligence revolution hits campuses around the world.The mass availability of tools such as ChatGPT has sparked optimism about new leaps in productivity and teaching, but also fears over cheating, plagiarism and the replacement of human instructors.Professor Pan Hui, the project lead for HKUST's AI project, is not worried about being replaced by the tech and believes it can actually help ease what he described as a global shortage of teachers."AI teachers can bring in diversity, bring in an interesting aspect, and even immersive storytelling," Hui told AFP.In his "Social Media for Creatives" course, AI-generated instructors teach 30 post-graduate students about immersive technologies and the impact of digital platforms.AFP | Peter PARKSThese instructors are generated after presentation slides are fed into a programme. The looks, voices and gestures of the avatars can be customised, and they can be displayed on a screen or VR headsets.This is mixed with in-person teaching by Hui, who says the system...

Read More........→October 29, 2024

Targeted Sound Waves Treat Pain and Depression in as Little as One 40-minute Session

credit – University of UtahA crown-like device has been relieving patients of pain and depression in clinical trials, and has the authors excited.Called the Diadem, named for a crown-like adornment worn by sovereigns across time, it sends therapeutic sound waves to targeted regions of the brain with millimeter precision.These sorts of non-pharma treatments can raise eyebrows with some, as for the last generation, the prescription of SSRIs for depression has been widespread and nearly universal among American clinicians.But the paper’s lead author Tom Riis, a postdoctoral researcher in the Department of Biomedical Engineering at the University of Utah, reports rave reviews among his team.“We’ve been blown away by the positive results so far,” Rise told New Atlas. “After just a single 40-minute stimulation session, patients are showing immediate, clinically substantial improvements in symptoms.”“While it should be kept in mind that not every participant saw drastic improvement, in the ones that did the change could be quite remarkable,” he added. “For several, you could just see it in their eyes—coming out of the session, their mood and behavior were a total 180 from when they had walked in. They were noticeably at ease, less burdened, more present.”The paper on the device was conducted during phase 2 clinical trials, and the authors,...

Read More........→September 21, 2024

Crystals hold a secret history of volcanoes – and clues about future eruptions

An eruption at Mt Stromboli in Italy. J Caulfield Teresa Ubide, The University of QueenslandImagine you had a crystal ball that revealed when a volcano would next erupt. For the hundreds of millions of people around the world who live near active volcanoes, it would be an extremely useful device. As it turns out, certain crystals really can help us forecast volcanic eruptions. These crystals are produced in molten rock as it travels from deep inside Earth to the surface. With increasingly sophisticated scientific methods, we can extract a secret history of volcanoes from these crystals – the why, where and when of past eruptions. These historical records can help us interpret if signs of volcano unrest, such as earthquakes tracking the movement of magma towards the surface, may lead to an eruption. So, as I explain in a new column in Nature Geoscience, we are getting closer to having crystal balls (for volcanoes, at least). Volcano crystal balls Magma, the super-hot molten rock which feeds volcanic eruptions, is generated many tens of kilometres below the surface in Earth’s mantle. On its journey up to the surface, magma may get stalled in different reservoirs along the way, and travel to its eventual eruption along a complex pathway. As the magma rises it also cools down, producing tiny crystals that can be brought to...

Read More........→September 19, 2024

New Carbon Fiber Batteries Could Form the Actual Framework of Cars and Airplanes

Artist impression of vehicle partly constructed with batteries made of carbon fibre composite stiff as aluminum – Chalmers University of Technology in Sweden / Henrik Sandsjö / SWNSCars and planes could soon be built from the world’s strongest batteries, thanks to a ground-breaking innovation from Chalmers University of Technology in Sweden.Researchers detailed the advance of so-called massless energy storage—and a structural battery that could cut the weight of a laptop by 50%, make mobile phones as thin as a credit card, or increase the driving range of an EV by up to 70 percent on a single charge.Structural batteries are materials that, in addition to storing energy, can carry loads. Stiff, strong carbon fibers could store electrical energy chemically and, in this way, the battery material can become part of the actual construction material of a product.And, when cars, planes, ships, or computers are built from a material that functions as both a battery and a load-bearing structure, the weight and energy consumption are radically reduced.“We have succeeded in creating a battery made of carbon fibre composite that is as stiff as aluminum and energy-dense enough to be used commercially,” says Chalmers researcher Richa Chaudhary, the first author of a paper recently published in Advanced Materials. “Just like a human skeleton,...

Read More........→September 17, 2024

Why do dogs have different coats? Experts explain – and give grooming tips for different types

Susan Hazel, University of Adelaide and Mia Cobb, The University of MelbourneDog hair comes in many varieties, from shaggy to short, curly to straight. If you live with a dog, you live with their hair – on your couch, in your clothes, it’s everywhere! Beyond colour, have you ever wondered what’s behind the differences in coat type? We actually know quite a lot about why dogs have different coats, and it comes down to their genes. What are the main coat types in dogs? The three main features of dog coats are how long the hairs are, whether they are curly or straight, and whether they have extra flourishes. The flourishes are called “furnishings”, and can include a hairy moustache and shaggy eyebrows. Combinations of these three features result in seven different coat types in dogs: short, wire, wire and curly, long, long with furnishings, curly, and curly with furnishings. We know from a study of more than 1,000 dogs with varying coats that differences in only three genes are responsible for this variety. The gene responsible for long hair (called FGF5) is recessive, meaning dogs must have two copies of the mutated gene to have long hair. In humans, the same gene has been identified in families with excessively long eyelashes. Curly coats in dogs are related to a gene called KRT71, which affects keratin, a protein involved...

Read More........→September 12, 2024