University of Illinois

​Acyclovir is one of the most commonly-used herpes-treatment drugs. It can also damage the kidneys, however, so the less of it that's used, the better. According to a new study, combining the drug with activated carbon helps make it more effective, so a smaller amount of it is required.

Livestock like sheep and cows are responsible for huge amounts of methane emissions. Now, an international team of researchers has analyzed the gut microbes of different sheep and found clues that may help us curb the problem.

Although it may be hard to believe that there is already an "established" method of doing something such as 3D-printing biological tissue, there does indeed seem to be one. It utilizes microscale scaffolds – which a newly-developed technique does away with the need for.

Alien life is almost certainly out there somewhere, but because it’s most likely microscopic, it won’t be easy to spot. Now, researchers at the University of Illinois have come up with a new and fairly obvious sign of life: pasta-shaped rocks.

Mole-rats are pretty amazing animals, with a remarkable resistance to pain. A new study has uncovered the molecular reasons for the pain insensitivity, which could eventually lead to new pain relief techniques for human use.

NASA is funding a project to develop an aircraft that runs on a cryogenic hydrogen fuel cell system. Under a US$6 million contract, the CHEETA program will investigate the technology needed to produce a practical all-electric design to replace conventional fossil fuel propulsion systems.

In research on mice, a team at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign have found that the injection of a type of cells known to promote blood vessel growth helps accelerate to restoration of muscle mass lost due to inactivity.

In cold places, ice and frost can be more than an annoyance – it can be downright dangerous for cars and planes. Now researchers from the University of Illinois at Chicago have developed a new anti-icing material that can apparently keep ice at bay much longer than existing technologies.

Over the last few years humans have tried to mimic nature with artificial leaves, but they’re never quite up to scratch. Now, researchers have designed a new version that could work under real-world conditions, sucking carbon dioxide out of the air and creating oxygen and synthetic fuels.

A new study examining the options for Mars missions in the five- to 20-ton payload range found that, paradoxically, having heavy spacecraft make hypersonic nosedives into the Martian atmosphere can allow them to be slowed down more efficiently with better control.

A new technique has been used to turn ordinary metals into "metallic wood" with a greatly improved strength-to-weight ratio. By manipulating materials at the atomic scale, scientists claim to have created a sheet of nickel that is as strong as titanium​, but up to five times lighter.

Currently, if people have urinary problems such as incontinence or an overactive bladder, medication and/or electronic nerve-stimulating implants are required. An experimental new implant may work better, however, treating the problem using integrated micro-LEDs.