Repairing spinal injuries is a difficult business. Scientists previously developed a new surgical technique to reconnect sensory neurons to the spinal cord after traumatic spinal injuries. Now, they have gained new insight into how the technique works at a cellular level by recreating it in rats. The technique succeeds because offshoots from the spinal cord grow into the implanted sensory neurons to complete a spinal circuit.

A new study has found that walnuts in the diet change the makeup of bacteria in the gut, which suggests a new way walnuts may contribute to better health.

A study of lead service lines in Flint's damaged drinking water system reveals a Swiss cheese pattern in the pipes' interior crust, with holes where the lead used to be. The findings support the generally accepted understanding that lead leached into the system because that water wasn't treated to prevent corrosion. Researchers say the findings underscore how important uninterrupted anti-corrosion treatment is for the aging water systems that serve millions of American homes.

A brain penetrant drug -- a small-molecule mimetic of BDNF, or brain derived neurotrophic factor -- is able to improve brain performance in Rett syndrome mice -- specifically synaptic plasticity in the hippocampus and object location memory. The hippocampus is involved in learning and memory.

The female sex hormone estrogen plays an important role in the structural stability of bones. To date, however, it had been unclear exactly which cells were involved in the hormone's protective function. Researchers have now shown for the first time that estrogen uses bone lining cells to regulate the expression of the protein RANKL. Estrogen deficiency leads to uncontrolled expression of RANKL, which can trigger pathological changes in the bones.

Researchers have discovered an important part of the mechanism involved in how chromosomes are pulled apart during cell division, so that one complete set goes into each of the new cells.

Two de-identification methods, k-anonymization and adding a 'fuzzy factor,' significantly reduced the risk of re-identification of patients in a dataset of 5 million patient records from a large cervical cancer screening program in Norway.

Choosing between sex or sleep presents a behavioral quandary for many species, including the fruit fly. A multi-institution team has found that, in Drosophila at least, males and females deal with these competing imperatives in fundamentally different ways.

The push to develop treatments for Alzheimer's disease has yielded a greater understanding of the disease, but has failed to generate successful new drugs. To blame are the many undefined subtypes of mild cognitive impairment, a precursor to Alzheimer's disease. But if scientists grouped people with similar types of cognitive impairment, they could more precisely test the impact of investigational drugs.

People who are diagnosed with coronary artery disease and then develop depression face a risk of death that's twice as high as heart patients without depression, according to a major new study.

New research findings could have implications for the treatment of many neurological conditions, including severe traumatic brain injury (TBI).

Serving first does not impact winning in tennis tiebreaks that follow the ABBA sequence. In fact, the sequence should be considered in other sequential contests, such as soccer penalty shootouts or even presidential debates, according to a new report.

Researchers have developed a high-speed cell sorting method of large cells with high-viability using dual on-chip pumps. The microfluidic chip has three-branched microchannels. Target cells are sorted into one of two interest channels by the high-speed flow produced by the on-chip pumps, while non-target cells enter a waste channel without pump actuation. The technique overcomes the limitation of many on-chip cell sorting methods in achieving the sorting of large cells at a high throughput.

A molecule produced by insulating glial cells facilitates the functional wiring of brain cells involved in motor coordination, scientists have discovered.

The golden orb-weaver spider from Tanzania spins such strong webs that Tanzanian fishermen use them for fishing. Their spider silk is more tear-resistant than nylon and four times more elastic than steel, is heat-stable up to 250° C, extremely waterproof and, on top of that, has antibacterial properties. These characteristics also make it attractive from the point of view of biomedical research.