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Rewiring the brain: How blocking adenosine boosts stroke healing
Each year, millions of people experience an ischaemic stroke, a condition where a blood clot blocks the flow of oxygen and nutrients to part of the brain. Even when doctors act quickly to remove the clot, many survivors struggle with long-term challenges like difficulty moving, remembering, or managing emotions. While treatments like clot-dissolving drugs or […]

From 18- to 20-electron ferrocene derivatives
For more than a century, a well-known 18-electron rule has guided the field of organometallic chemistry. Now, researchers at Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology (OIST), in collaboration with scientists from Germany, Russia, and Japan, have successfully synthesized a novel organometallic compound that challenges this longstanding principle. They have created a stable 20-electron derivative of […]

Mitigating health risks through targeted microbial interventions
Biotechnology • Chemical engineering • Food processing • Microbiology • Molecular biology
Biogenic amines (BAs) are nitrogenous compounds formed primarily by microbial decarboxylation of amino acids. In food products, they can accumulate to levels that pose health risks, including histamine poisoning and hypertensive crises due to tyramine ingestion . Fermented foods, particularly cheeses, are significant sources of BAs due to their complex microbial consortia and the metabolic […]

Pet cafés and public health, new insights on bacterial resistance
Animal cafés are places where customers can enjoy food and drinks while interacting with animals such as cats, rabbits, or dogs. These cafés have become popular in many Asian cities, especially where apartments are small and the cost of living is high, making it difficult for young adults to own pets. In Europe, animal cafés […]

Graphene’s magic twist: fast and slow electrons
Graphene, a single layer of carbon atoms arranged in a honeycomb pattern, is renowned for its ability to conduct electricity with ease. When two graphene sheets are stacked and twisted at a “magic angle” of about one degree, something remarkable happens: the electrons slow down dramatically, creating “flat bands” where they interact strongly. A new […]

Bees recognition of complex visual patterns could transform AI
A new discovery of how bees use their flight movements to facilitate remarkably accurate learning and recognition of complex visual patterns could mark a major change in how next-generation AI is developed, according to a University of Sheffield study. By building a computational model—or a digital version of a bee’s brain—researchers have discovered how the […]

Bending Ohm’s Law: How symmetry-broken crystals rewrite the rules of electronics
When Georg Ohm wired up pieces of copper in 1827, he struck a rule so robust that it still underpins every phone and supercomputer on Earth: double the current, double the voltage. Simple, linear, universal—or so we thought. Over the past decade physicists have discovered that this bedrock principle crumbles the moment a crystal loses […]

Marine litter threats the Bay of Biscay
In 2023, over 310 million tons of plastics were produced globally, and this volume is projected to reach 710 million tons by 2040 . This extensive use, at the domestic, tourism, industrial, and fishing levels, combined with inadequate waste management, has led to the rapid accumulation of plastics in our environment, making them a widespread […]

How a salt layer shapes electron behaviour in a single molecule
When scientists place a single molecule on a surface and move electrons in or out one at a time, quantum mechanics comes to life in vivid detail. A team of researchers used a specialized microscope to study a copper-phthalocyanine (CuPc) molecule resting on a thin layer of salt. They discovered that the salt, far from […]