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Octopus-inspired smart skin uses 4D printing to encrypt data, change shape on demand

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Penn State researchers developed a programmable hydrogel skin that morphs shape and encrypts information on demand. Originally written by  Neetika Walter for Interesting Engineering, on February 05, 2026 The team encoded the Mona Lisa into the smart skin using their halftone-based printing method . Researchers at Penn State have developed a new fabrication method that allows a programmable “smart synthetic skin” to change its appearance, texture, and shape while also hiding or revealing information on demand . The material is made from hydrogel , a water-rich, gel-like substance, and is produced using a technique the team describes as 4D printing . Unlike traditional synthetic materials with fixed properties, the smart skin can dynamically respond to external stimuli such as heat, solvents, or mechanical stress. The approach allows a single sheet of material to perform multiple functions at once , including adaptive camouflage , information encryption and decry...
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Doctors keep patient alive using ‘artificial lungs’ for two days

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Novel artificial lungs could help keep people whose lungs no longer function alive long enough to get an organ transplant Originally written by  Jackie Flynn Mogensen  edited by  Claire Cameron for Scientific American on January 29, 2026 New lungs ( left ) that were transplanted into a patient after he was kept alive with artificial lungs are seen next to his old lungs ( right ). Northwestern Medicine In 2023 thoracic surgeon Ankit Bharat was working at Northwestern Memorial Hospital when he was drafted to help a 33-year-old influenza patient who was on the verge of death . Bharat recalls that the man had developed a secondary infection from one of the “most dreaded bugs” in the hospital,  Pseudomonas ,  and had been put on a ventilator . The patient’s lungs were filling with fluid and pus, his kidneys were failing, and his heart was “barely” working, Bharat says. “He was actively dying.” Then the patient’s heart stopped. “We got him back—but it was ...
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The brain’s response to a heart attack may worsen recovery

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Targeting specific cells in the vagus nerve reduced heart damage in mice Originally written by Alessio Cozzolino for  ScienceNews on January 27, 2026 Nerve pathways linking the heart and brain play a key role in inflammation and the body’s response to cardiac injury . In mice , blocking signals along these nerves and reducing inflammation in connected neurons improved heart function and healing. SectoR_2010/iStock/Getty Images Plus After a heart attack , the heart “talks” to the brain. And that conversation may make recovery worse. Shutting down nerve cells that send messages from injured heart cells to the brain boosted the heart’s ability to pump and decreased scarring, experiments in mice show. Targeting inflammation in a part of the nervous system where those “damage” messages wind up also improved heart function and tissue repair, scientists report January 27 in Cell . Read more
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A Breath of Air Could Help Diagnose Gut Microbiome Disruptions

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Volatile organic compounds in the breath reflect gut microbiome changes, offering a quick and non-invasive way to detect biomarkers of diseases like asthma in children. Originally written by Stephanie DeMarco, PhD, for The Nutshell section of The Scientist, on January 22, 2026 I n the depths of the human colon, gut microbes help keep the body healthy by aiding digestion and producing vital metabolites . Disruptions to this bustling microbial community are associated with diseases including asthma and serious infections in  preterm infants . However, quickly identifying the gut microbiome changes that can lead to these conditions in a hospital is not feasible with current methods . “One of the key barriers to integrating our knowledge of the microbiome into clinical care is the time it takes to analyze the data on the microbiome ,” said  Ariel Hernandez-Leyva , an MD/PhD student in gut microbiome researcher  Andrew Kau ’s group at Washington University School of...
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Stress-reduction molecule has potential to treat aging and metabolic disorders

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Originally published by University of Queensland on January 22, 2026 edited by Lisa Lock , reviewed by Robert Egan University of Queensland researchers say the discovery of a new stress reduction role for a naturally occurring molecule in the body could lead to new drugs and treatment for metabolic disorders and aging .     Proposed model of miR-71 cell-autonomous and cell-non-autonomous dampening of mitochondrial stress responses. Credit: Nature Communications ( 2025 ). DOI: 10.1038/s41467-025-67198-2 Professor Steven Zuryn, a molecular geneticist from UQ's Queensland Brain Institute , was part of a team that found that very small RNA molecules , called microRNAs , bind to genes and prevent them from being over-activated . MicroRNAs were discovered in C. elegans about 30 years ago and have since been shown to be important in human health and disease . This initial discovery led to the 2024 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine . Read more l   ...
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How light suppresses virulence in an antibiotic-resistant pathogen

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Originally written by Matt Wood, University of Chicago , on January 20, 2026   and published in phys.org edited by Stephanie Baum , reviewed by Robert Egan Light is a universal stimulus that influences all living things. Cycles of light and dark help set the biological clocks for organisms ranging from single-celled bacteria to human beings. Some bacteria use photosynthesis to convert sunlight into energy just like plants, but other bacteria sense light for less well-known functions.   Pseudomonas aeruginosa is an antibiotic-resistant bacterium that is known to cause difficult to treat infections in hospitalized patients. Credit: Centers for Disease Control In 2019, Sampriti Mukherjee, Ph.D., and her team at the University of Chicago discovered that far-red light, part of the light spectrum near the infrared range, prevents the formation of biofilms by the human pathogen Pseudomonas aeruginosa . Biofilms form when communities of bacteria cluster together and att...
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Scientists transform enigmatic cell structures into devices for recording RNA activity

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Originally written by Krystal Kasal , Phys.org , on January 16, 2026 edited by Gaby Clark , reviewed by Robert Egan Ribosomes, pictured here, synthesize proteins by translating messenger RNA (mRNA) into amino acid chains. Credit: Christoph Burgstedt/Science Photo Library Scientists can peer into cells to get a limited view of their activity using microscopes and other tools. However, cells and the molecular events within them are dynamic , and developmental processes, disease progression and certain molecular cues are still difficult to discern . Ideally, scientists could leverage a system to obtain an unbiased record of a genome's functional output , showing how cells respond to different conditions over time to gain useful insights. Now, it seems a group of researchers may have found a way to do just that . A new study, published in Science , describes a technique to utilize mysterious cellular structures, called "vault particles" to gather up mRNA by encapsulat...
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