Rice University

​​​​A beating heart relies on a healthy circuitry of electrical signals to maintain a steady rhythm. Scientists are now reporting a new potential treatment for when things break down, using fine carbon threads as electrical bridges to keep the signals circulating. ​

After studying proteins that are key to metabolism in modern cells, researchers reverse engineered a simplified protein that may have been responsible for kickstarting the process in ancient times. And to prove the idea, they then implanted it into living bacteria and found that it works just fine.

​When someone is missing facial bone due to injury or illness, the current treatment involves transplanting a piece of bone extracted from the leg, leaving a deficit there. Now, however, scientists have succeeded in growing extra bone within sheep's bodies, that's preformed to the shape required.

3D printing organs is going through some teething issues. Now researchers have found a surprisingly simple answer to the complex problem of printing detailed vascular networks, and shown it off with a dramatic model of a breathing lung that passes oxygen into surrounding blood vessels.

Although the many experiments searching for evidence of dark matter have yet to turn up any solid proof yet, they are making other amazing discoveries. The XENON1T experiment has now revealed the longest half-life ever seen in an element, which is far, far longer than the age of the universe.

​For some time now, we've been hearing about implantable scaffolding-like material that helps heal injuries to bones. Scientists have now developed a new type of that material, aimed specifically at difficult-to-treat osteochondral injuries.

Whether they're in airplane wings, bridges or other critical structures, cracks can cause catastrophic failure before they're large enough to be noticed by the human eye. A strain-sensing "skin" applied to such objects could help, though, by lighting up when exposed to laser light.

Researchers at Rice University have developed a new way to activate treatments only in the right places, using an inert virus, magnetic nanoparticles and the gene-editing tool CRISPR-Cas9.

New research out of Rice University describes yet another promising possible solution to the problem of dendrite formation in lithium-based batteries, working a thin film of carbon nanotubes into the design as as way of drowning them out.​

Knowing where harmful airborne pollutants are and in what concentrations would be an invaluable capability, and one that a team of Rice University scientists is making great headway on with their autonomous gas-sensing drones. ​​

Scientists from Rice University, Texas, have identified a parasitic plant that preys on both trees and the wasps that use them as a nursery for their young. The team hope that their discovery could one day aid scientists in controlling agricultural pests, and maybe even help target cancer cells.

To make concrete more environmentally friendly, the industry has been adding by-products from coal-fired power plants, but doing so had its own problems. Now, Rice researchers have developed a new composite binder that requires no cement, and reduce waste from power plants at the same time.