A new device developed by a team at Brigham Young University can instantly tell whether someone has kidney disease or not. The scientists are calling it a 'lab on a chip' but it seems more like a teeny medical pinball machine. It has a built-in tube made up of DNA sequences. When a patient’s sample…

Scientists have developed a tiny new device that can monitor the safety and effectiveness of cancer treatment. It measures the amount of methotrexate, a common medication, in the blood. Methotrexate works by blocking an enzyme that causes cancer cells to grow but in large doses it can be toxic, killing off healthy cells as well.…

Scientists have developed a new testing strip that uses synthetic DNA strands (plus a protein from jellyfish) to accurately identify Ebola. As New Scientist reports, Jim Collins from the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard University and his team have made small paper rectangles printed with sequences of DNA and then freeze-dried. When…

Good news, chocolate fans: cocoa can improve our memories. A lot. Scientific American has the scoop, but to summarise: research from Columbia University’s College of Physicians and Surgeons found that compounds in cocoa increase blood flow to the dentate gyrus. This is the part of the brain that allows us to tell different objects apart.…

Researchers from the Netherlands say that gossip (whether good or bad) can be a positive thing. As Psych Central reports, a team from the University of Groningen asked participants in one study to think about a time when they heard gossip about someone else. They were then asked questions about how this affected them. The…

New research suggests that beetroot could be helpful for people with heart disease. A team from Kansas State University led by David Poole, a professor of exercise kinesiology, anatomy, and physiology, has been studying the root vegetable’s benefits for a while. Last year, they published a study showing that the nitrate (a natural form of…