Saarland University

Vaccines work by exposing the body to an infectious agent in order to prime the immune system to respond quickly when it encounters the pathogen again. Some vaccines, such as the diphtheria vaccine, consist of a synthetic version of a protein or other molecule normally made by the pathogen, while others, such as the polio

In remote areas of the world or in regions with limited resources, everyday items like electrical outlets and batteries are luxuries. Health care workers in these areas often lack electricity to power diagnostic devices, and commercial batteries may be unavailable or too expensive. New power sources are needed that are low-cost and portable. Today, researchers

This “share-the-spoils” button has been discovered   Suppose scientists discovered a clump of neurons in the brain that, when stimulated, turned people into egalitarians. This would be good news for Democratic strategists and speechwriters, who could now get to work framing arguments about wealth and taxation in ways that might activate the relevant section of

His big idea: develop a technology that goes on a “seek and destroy” mission for cancerous tumors. Christian Parigger, associate professor of physics at the University of Tennessee Space Institute in Tullahoma, wants to advance the fight against cancer. His invention uses a femtosecond laser, which means it pulses at speeds of one-quadrillionth of a

Toshiba has upped the ante in TV technology by unveiling its flagship model, the Cell Regza 55X1. This new 55-inch LED unit has the TV junkie in mind with many features not seen before, including the ability to record up to eight channels at once, a 3TB hard drive (record and store up to 26

3D printers using the established “kiosk” model that’s been so successful for digital photo printing   3D printing is starting to surf a wave that could take it from a specialist manufacturing process to household product. The price of machines is coming down and the array of objects that can be created is going up,

We’ve looked before at Innespace’s gentler, dolphin-shaped submersibles, but while the original Seabreacher J looks like great fun, this new X version really tickles my petrolhead glands. The key differences are a bigger engine, putting out 260 supercharged horsepower against the J model’s perfectly adequate 155 – and a new body shape that replaces the

Could produce the same amount of grain using less water, fertilizer and nutrients   Aside from arable land, most farm crops require significant amounts of water, fertilizer, nutrients and pesticides to grow. While specialized breeding is often used to help produce plants that require less of these inputs, Purdue University researcher Burkhard Schulz has found

Synthetic biology: Strange medicine SET a thief to catch a thief is an old proverb. In the 1920s, shortly after the discovery of viruses, it was put to good use by doctors. They found they could treat certain infections with bacteriophages—viruses that attack bacterial cells but not mammalian ones. Phage therapy, as this practice is known,

University of Sydney researchers have used infrared spectroscopy to spotlight changes in tiny cell fragments called microvesicles to probe their role in a model of the body’s immunological response to bacterial infection. While more research is needed to confirm the findings published today in the FASEB Journal, the use of FTIR spectroscopy could herald a