University of Michigan

For people such as the elderly, injured or physically challenged, getting enough exercise can be difficult. Help may be on its way, however, as new research indicates that an existing protein provides some of the key benefits of exercise.

Fossilized shells have now revealed that Earth’s systems were already stressed before the asteroid impact that killed the dinosaurs, as volcanic eruptions may have heated the oceans and raised mercury levels to dangerous heights.

The ancestors of today's whales originally walked on four legs. New research suggests that previously-discovered fossils represent a point at which the creatures were moving from swimming with those legs to swimming with their tails.

Researchers from the University of Michigan have developed cancer traps that can be implanted just below the skin. In mouse tests, these traps caught biomarkers that can tell doctors if cancer is present, if it’s spreading or if it’s preparing to.

Scientists at the University of Michigan have demonstrated an octocopter equipped with a nail gun and a knack for fixing asphalt shingles to a mock rooftop.

​When a spinal cord injury occurs, sometimes it's the body's own immune system that causes the subsequent paralysis. In the not-too-distant future, however, it's possible that an injection of nanoparticles at the injury site may be able to rein in the well-meaning but destructive immune cells.

Electronic devices are made possible thanks to rare-Earth metals, but these are rare and relatively expensive. Now, scientists have found a way to combine common elements into electronically-useful compounds, which could find their way into tunable lighting and solar panels.

A compelling study has revealed how a mammalian brain can produce an incredibly powerful hallucinogen called DMT. The research shows the psychedelic is endogenously produced in a number of brain regions, including the visual cortex, and spikes in concentrations following an induced cardiac arrest.

​Essentially cheap, battery-less, sticker-type devices, RFID tags transmit a signal when temporarily powered up by the electromagnetic signal from a reader device. Now, thanks to experimental new technology, they could be used to bring "smart" functionality to plain ol' analog objects.

CRISPR-Cas9 acts like a pair of molecular scissors and enables precise cut-and-paste DNA edits. But now, researchers have developed a new genetic tool that, they say, acts more like a motorized DNA “shredder.”

A team of astronomers has managed to find the origin of an enormous star that is currently barreling out of the Milky Way having escaped from one of our galaxy’s spiral arms. The discovery challenges the theory that such stars come from the galactic center.

Scientists have used computer models to show that our planet has a moderate climate and isn't an ocean world because there was a massive star in the vicinity of the primordial solar system that evaporated some of the water that otherwise would have been delivered to Earth as it formed.