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Published in phys.org by  University of Waterloo on February 24, 2026 edited by  Sadie Harley , reviewed by  Robert Egan Under a low magnification of 1.9X, this image depicts a close-up view of a Petri dish culture plate that contained a medium of egg yolk agar, which was inoculated with Clostridium sporogenes bacteria. These organisms gave rise to these colonies after a 48 hour incubation period. Zones of opacity were noted beneath these colonies. Credit: CDC, Public Domain A research team led by the University of Waterloo is developing a novel tool to treat cancer by engineering hungry bacteria to literally eat tumors from the inside out . "Bacteria spores enter the tumor, finding an environment where there are lots of nutrients and no oxygen , which this organism prefers, and so it starts eating those nutrients and growing in size," said Dr. Marc Aucoin, a chemical engineering professor at Waterloo. "So, we are now colonizing that central space , and the bacter...

Organoids developed from human stem cells modeled spinal cord injuries, providing a powerful in vitro tool to evaluate regenerative therapies for CNS injuries. Original written by Sneha Khedkar and published on The Nutshell section of The Scientist on Feb 13, 2026 Despite being the most common cause of permanent disability, there are few effective treatments for spinal cord injuries. A new organoid model now offers a platform to test regenerative therapies, potentially accelerating the development of new therapies.  Image credit:© iStock.com, Charday Penn Injuries in the central nervous system (CNS) —such as those in the spinal cord—trigger glial scar formation, which inhibits nerve regeneration from healthy neurons surrounding the damage. This results in impaired motor, sensory, or autonomic functions . Despite such spinal cord injuries being the l eading cause of death and permanent disability and affecting up to 500,000 people globally each year , effective therapies ...

Originally published by Penn State in SciTech Daily on February 9, 2026 Scientists studying asteroid Bennu have discovered that key amino acids may have formed in icy, radiation-rich environments rather than warm water . The findings suggest life’s basic ingredients can arise in far more extreme corners of space than previously thought. (A view of eight sample trays containing the final material from asteroid Bennu.) Credit: NASA/Erika Blumenfeld & Joseph Aebersold Tiny grains of dust from asteroid Bennu are reshaping how scientists think life’s ingredients formed in space. Scientists previously identified amino acids, the essential components of life, inside 4.6-billion-year-old rocks collected from the asteroid Bennu. These samples were brought back to Earth in 2023 by NASA’s OSIRIS-REx mission. While the discovery confirmed that life’s basic ingredients exist beyond Earth, how those molecules formed in space remained unclear. New research led by scie...

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...

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 ...