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The principle behind whispering galleries — where words spoken softly beneath a domed ceiling or in a vault can be clearly heard on the opposite side of the chamber — has been used to achieve what could prove to be a significant breakthrough in the miniaturization of lasers. Ultrasmall lasers, i.e., nanoscale, promise a wide variety of intriguing applications, including superfast communications and data handling (photonics), and optical microchips for instant and detailed chemical analyses.

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In an effort to improve rice varieties, a Purdue University researcher was part of a team that traced the evolutionary history of domesticated rice by using a process that focuses on one gene. Agronomy Professor Scott A. Jackson said studying the gene allows researchers to better understand how it evolved over time through natural selection and human interaction. Understanding the variations could allow scientists to place genes from wild rice species into domesticated rice to create varieties with more favorable characteristics.

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A major breakthrough by structural biologists at Oklahoma State University may be the first step towards a pharmaceutical medication for smallpox and the emerging human monkeypox.

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The C1XS X-ray camera, jointly developed by the UK’s STFC Rutherford Appleton Laboratory and the Indian Space Research Organization, has successfully detected its first X-ray signature from the moon. This is the first step in its mission to reveal the origin and evolution of our moon by mapping its surface composition.

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Airway epithelial cells initiate an immune response to inhaled bacteria by signaling for white blood cells to move from the bloodstream into the lungs and airway to fight potential infection. Researchers at Columbia University Medical Center have demonstrated that this signaling cascade includes the activation of epithelial proteases, a type of enzyme capable of opening the junctions between the cells in the airway mucosa, to enable the white blood cells to get through to the site of the infection.

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Infrared light visualizes nanoscale strain fields.

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Fainting is the most common in-flight medical emergency. Research recently published in BioMed Central’s open access journal Critical Care details the number, type and frequency of medical emergencies on board two airlines.

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Chalk crystallizes differently from the way we once thought it did. This discovery will allow the development of new scale inhibitors and other materials, and has also consequences for climate change.

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The drug tPA (tissue-type plasminogen activator) can break up the blood clots that cause strokes and heart attacks, but it can also loosen the blood-brain barrier and generate inflammation in the brain. In mice, genetically removing LRP1, a receptor for tPA, from brain cells called microglia can soften tPA’s harmful effects. Blocking LRP1 could make tPA safer.

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