Sherbrooke University

Daily finger-prick blood tests are an uncomfortable fact of life for diabetics, but they may not always have to be. Scientists from Canada and the US have developed a prototype home-use device that measures blood glucose levels via saliva samples.

Scientists working to expand the potential landing zones for drones have demonstrated a novel approach, which could enable drones to touch down on one of the more common surfaces in the urban environments – sloping roofs.

Scientists have shown how to activate energy-burning brown fat in mice, which helps shed weight and improves health. Results have been hard to replicate in humans, but a new study has found that we might be targeting the wrong receptor in our bodies.

Evidence is mounting that the building blocks of life were assembled in space and then delivered to Earth after new experiments managed to produce a key amino acid under simulated space conditions. This means we humans, and all other life on the planet, might have actually been aliens all along.​

We have seen fixed-wing drones pull off some impressive maneuvers, with versions that dive like a seabird, land like a perching bird and even using shape-shifting wings to soar through the air like one. But landing on and taking off from vertical surfaces?

Fixed-wing drones have their shortcomings, namely the space needed for take off, but a team of Canadian scientists has come up with a potential solution. The drone can land and take off again on water with the potential to stop and charge itself with solar power in between flights.

Dragan Tutić felt that using wave power to turn seawater into the drinkable variety on the spot had been largely unexplored. Having now developed a prototype, he hopes to deploy his wave-powered desalinator to where water scarcity threatens the survival of coastal communities.