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Disorders of the small intestine are often difficult to diagnose and treat. More than 20 feet long, an inch in diameter, and located deep within the body, this organ is harder to access than other...
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Dozens of surgical procedures require doctors to connect two pieces of tissue together in a delicate stitching process. It happens in triple heart bypass, C-sections, and surgeries to repair hernias...
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From its beginning in 2015, the premise of MIT’s Aging Brain Initiative (ABI) has been that neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s are complex, “system-wide” breakdowns that will require...
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Swimming can take a lot of muscle. But as MIT engineers have found, even a single layer of muscle cells can power through water if designed right.
In a paper appearing today in the journal Advanced...
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One of the main reasons that ovarian cancer is among the deadliest forms of cancer is timing: When doctors catch it early, the five-year survival rate can be north of 90 percent. But when doctors...
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Using materials safe for human consumption, MIT researchers have created tiny batteries that could be used to power ingestible electronic devices. Such batteries could make the devices safer for...
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As we age, some of the cells in our body enter a state of senescence, in which they stop dividing but do not die. Those senescent cells can contribute to age-related disorders such as cancer, tissue...
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The following press release was issued Sept. 1 by the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard.
In recent years, scientists have built methods to measure a cell’s transcriptome, or all the RNA produced by...
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Tuberculosis (TB) is a leading cause of infectious disease deaths, claiming over 1 million lives every year. It spreads through the air when an infected person coughs, sneezes, or exhales, and drug-...
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The scales of a pine cone open in low humidity to scatter seeds, but close in damp conditions to protect seeds from moisture. An artificial material with the same behavior could be useful in...
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Epithelial cells are the tiny shields that line and protect our body. In a developing embryo, epithelial cells grow, divide, and move into positions to form the outer layers of our skin and the...
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Tissue engineers are finding ways to grow living organs and tissues from cells, with the aim of replacing diseased and damaged counterparts in the body. Scientists have successfully grown artificial...
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Loons, gulls, puffins, and petrels are some of the 100 species of birds that can both fly and swim. These diving birds can plunge in water to swim after prey, and leap back into the air to fly away...
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Hydrogels are squishy, bio-friendly materials that are made mostly of water and a bit of polymer. The Jell-O-like substance is available in the form of medical patches, sprays, and glues, and can be...
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In a hospital or at home, temperatures are usually taken using an oral or forehead thermometer, but these do not always accurately reflect the core body temperature. Measuring core temperature from...
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There are few treatment options available for people with disorders of the esophagus. Delivering drugs directly to this part of the body is difficult, so patients are usually treated with systemic...
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MIT engineers have developed a noninvasive pacemaker that stimulates the heart using ultrasound. The design could one day provide a surgery-free alternative to traditional cardiac implants.
The new...
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MIT researchers discovered a paradoxical phenomenon in optical physics that could enable a new bioimaging method that’s faster and higher-resolution than existing technology.
They discovered that,...
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As quantum computers advance, they are expected to be able to break tried-and-true security schemes that currently keep most sensitive data secure from attackers. Scientists and policymakers are...
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The next time you find yourself lulled by the patter of rain outside your window, think how that same sprinkle might sound if you were a tiny seed planted directly below a free-falling droplet. Would...