Electrical stimulation aids in spinal fusion

Spine surgeons in the U.S. perform more than 400,000 spinal fusions each year as a way to ease back pain and prevent vertebrae in the spine from wiggling around and doing more damage. However, reports estimate that on average some 30% of these surgeries fail to weld these vertebrae into a single bone, causing continued back pain.

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Babies understand counting years earlier than believed

Babies who are years away from being able to say 'one,' 'two,' and 'three' actually already have a sense of what counting means, researchers have discovered. The findings reveal that very early on, years earlier than previously believed, babies who hear counting realize that it's about quantity.

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Catalysis that neutralizes air-polluting NOx from power plant emissions

New research describes the mechanism behind catalysis that neutralizes air-polluting NOx from power plant emissions. Researchers used a High Field (HF) Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) spectrometer in conjunction with reaction studies to test three theories around titania-supported vanadium oxide. They found that tungsten oxide changes the structure of vanadium oxide from a less active form to a highly active form.

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Rare diseases: Over 300 million patients affected worldwide

Rare diseases represent a global problem. Until now, the lack of data made it difficult to estimate their prevalence. The Orphanet database, which contains the largest amount of epidemiological data on these diseases taken from the scientific literature, has made it possible to obtain a global estimate.

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Magnets sustainably separate mixtures of rare earth metals

A new study describes a novel approach for purifying rare earth metals, crucial components of technology that require environmentally-damaging mining procedures. By relying on the metal's magnetic fields during the crystallization process, researchers were able to efficiently and selectively separate mixtures of rare earth metals.

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Newly discovered protein is the permit to the powerhouse of cells

Researchers report the discovery of a protein, P17/PERMIT, that is key to recycling aging and damaged mitochondria. Defective mitochondria are characteristic of a number of age-related diseases, including cancer and Alzheimer's. The MUSC team showed P17/PERMIT transports the machinery that produces ceramide, a molecule that signals old mitochondria for destruction, to the mitochondria. There, it can mass-produce ceramide at the location needed for mitochondrial regulation.

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