Hops, those little cone-shaped buds that give beer its bitter flavor, pack a surprisingly healthful punch. They are widely studied for their ability to halt bacterial growth and disease. Now, researchers report that they are close to synthesising the healthful hops compounds in the lab. This advance could one day help scientists create medicines from these compounds without having to extract them from plants.

As electronics grow ever more intricate, so must the tools required to fix them. Anticipating this challenge, scientists turned to the body's immune system for inspiration and have now built self-propelled nanomotors that can seek out and repair tiny scratches to electronic systems. They could one day lead to flexible batteries, electrodes, solar cells and other gadgets that heal themselves.

Remember those colorful "grow capsules" that blossom into animal-shaped sponges in water? Using a similar idea, scientists have developed biodegradable polymer grafts that, when surgically placed in damaged vertebrae, should grow to be just the right size and shape to fix the spinal column. The researchers present their work at the 251st National Meeting & Exposition of the American Chemical Society (ACS).

Farm-grown fish are an important source of food with significant and worldwide societal and economic benefits, but the fish that come from these recirculating systems can have unpleasant tastes and odors. To clean contaminated water for farmed fish, drinking and other uses, scientists are now turning to an unlikely source—the mucilage or inner "guts" of cacti. The researchers present their work at the 251st National Meeting & Exposition...

Sperm that don’t swim well rank high among the main causes of infertility. To give these cells a boost, women trying to conceive can turn to artificial insemination or other assisted reproduction techniques, but success can be elusive. In an attempt to improve these odds, scientists have developed motorised 'spermbots' that can deliver poor swimmers — that are otherwise healthy — to an egg. Their report appears in ACS’ jou...

Body sensors, which were once restricted to doctors’ offices, have come a long way. They now allow any wearer to easily track heart rate, steps and sleep cycles around the clock. Soon, they could become even more versatile - with the help of chewing gum. Scientists report in the journal ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces a unique sensing device made of gum and carbon nanotubes that can move with your most bendable parts and track your b...

Sunlight can be brutal. It wears down even the strongest structures, including rooftops and naval ships, and heats up metal slides and bleachers until they’re too hot to use. To fend off damage and heat from the sun’s harsh rays, scientists have developed a new, environmentally friendly paint out of glass that bounces sunlight off metal surfaces, keeping them cool and durable.

A way to improve automotive fuel efficiencies has been reported in ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces. A team led by Professors Ian A. Kinloch and Robert Freer of the University of Manchester has developed a material that could convert engine heat that is otherwise wasted into electrical energy. 

To address the need for a sustainable energy source for flexible electronics, a semi-transparent, bendable solar cell that is made entirely out of plastic is being developed by scientists. The cell, reported in ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces, is being developed by a team led by Professor Yinhua Zhou of the Huazhong University of Science and Technology.

To move the world toward sustainability, scientists are continuing to explore ways to use the power of sunlight to make fuels and generate electricity. Now scientists have developed a way in which to use light to drive battery power safely. The battery, reported in the Journal of Physical Chemistry C, uses light and titanium nitride for the anode.

Someday, treating patients with nanorobots could become standard practice to deliver medicine specifically to parts of the body affected by disease. However, merely injecting drug-loaded nanoparticles might not always be enough to get them where they need to go. In the ACS journal, Nano Letters, scientists are reporting the development of new nanoswimmers that can move easily through body fluids to their targets.