Many older adults struggle to digest and absorb enough protein to maintain muscle strength and overall health. As appetite changes and nutritional needs increase with age, traditional supplements often fail to deliver protein in a form the body can use efficiently. A research team at Aberystwyth University in Wales is addressing this challenge by developing new protein powders and evaluating them with an artificial stomach system designed to mimic human digestion. The artificial stomach is the central tool in the project. It uses a bioreactor that recreates the temperature, acidity, and fluid movement found in the stomach and intestines. Simulated…

People often encounter environmental hazards without realizing it. Toxic gases, chemical contaminants, and heavy metals can be present long before they become visible or produce symptoms. Detecting these threats early is essential, but most sensing technologies rely on screens, alarms, or phone notifications that can be missed in noisy or fast‑moving environments. Researchers at North Carolina State University have developed a wearable patch that addresses this problem by turning environmental sensing into a tactile experience. The patch is about the size of a driver’s license and adheres to the skin. It contains a modular array of sensors, a microcontroller, a…

Hearing problems often go undetected until they become more serious, in part because current diagnostic tools can struggle to measure the faint signals produced by a healthy inner ear. Researchers at Binghamton University are developing a new ear‑canal probe that aims to improve early diagnosis by measuring these signals more accurately. Their work is inspired by how spiders sense sound through the motion of their webs, a biological strategy that detects air movement rather than pressure. This insight is helping engineers rethink how medical microphones should work. The inner ear produces extremely quiet sounds called otoacoustic emissions. These emissions disappear…

Severe spinal cord injuries often leave people without any ability to move or feel below the level of damage, and current treatments offer limited recovery. Researchers at the Feinstein Institutes for Medical Research have developed a double neural bypass system that is showing how advanced brain–computer interfaces and targeted electrical stimulation can help restore both movement and sensation in a person with complete tetraplegia. The technology combines implanted microelectrode arrays in the brain with artificial intelligence and precisely targeted stimulation of the spinal cord and the somatosensory cortex. The system reads the participant’s intention to move from the motor cortex…

Many wearable health sensors are uncomfortable, noticeable or distracting, especially when placed on the face. These devices can make people self‑conscious and even change the very signals they are meant to measure. Researchers at the University of Tokyo have developed ultrathin, stretchable skin sensors that solve this problem by becoming effectively invisible when worn. Their goal is to allow people to monitor important biological signals naturally, without feeling watched or altered by the presence of a device. The new sensors are built on an elastic film only about 200 nanometers thick, paired with transparent conductive nanowires. This combination allows the…

Wound infections often begin quietly, with bacteria entering a fresh injury and forming a protective biofilm within hours. Once this biofilm develops, infections become much harder to treat and can slow healing significantly. Researchers at the University of Bath have created a new plant‑based wound dressing designed to intervene during this early window, delivering antibiotics directly to the wound before the biofilm can take hold. Their goal is to provide a sustainable, effective alternative to petroleum‑based dressings while improving infection control. The dressing is made from two layers of plant‑derived polymers that differ only slightly in chemical structure. When these…

Liver fibrosis is a silent condition in which the liver gradually hardens like a callus, often without obvious symptoms until serious damage has already occurred. Today, doctors usually rely on liver biopsies or expensive imaging tests to detect fibrosis, procedures that can be painful, risky and difficult to repeat frequently. A research team at Sungkyunkwan University in Korea, has developed an ultrasensitive electrochemical biosensor that can detect early-stage liver fibrosis using only a small amount of blood. Their goal is to make it possible to identify liver problems early without the need for tissue biopsy. The team focused on a…

Astronauts have long faced a major challenge when dealing with injuries or illness in orbit because ultrasound has been the only practical imaging tool available. Ultrasound can be helpful, but it requires extensive training and depends on a sound‑transmitting medium, which is difficult to manage in a constantly moving spacecraft. For decades, experts believed that obtaining diagnostic‑quality X‑rays in space was impossible. A recent commercial spaceflight has now overturned that assumption by capturing the first diagnostic X‑rays during an orbital mission, marking a major step forward for astronaut health. The breakthrough happened aboard SpaceX’s Fram2 mission, a 3.5‑day polar orbital…

Finding the right contact lenses can be a slow and frustrating process for people whose eyes do not match standard lens shapes. Many patients with irregular corneas need rigid lenses that must be fitted over several appointments, and even then the results are not always comfortable. Researchers at the University of Waterloo have developed a new 3D‑printing platform that could make this process much easier by creating personalized contact lenses in about twenty minutes. Their work shows how custom lenses could be designed, printed and dispensed during a single visit to the optometrist. The team’s approach combines custom lens‑design software,…

Many medicines require careful dosing, yet doctors often rely on occasional blood tests that provide only brief snapshots of drug levels. This approach can make it difficult to understand how a medicine moves through the body over time. Researchers at King Abdullah University of Science and Technology in Saudi Arabia have developed a lightweight wearable patch that could change this by measuring drug concentrations beneath the skin continuously and sending the information to a smartphone. Their work suggests that future wearable devices may help track therapies inside the body just as easily as they track heart rate or sleep. The…