Vienna Medical University

As some readers may already know, in-ear stimulation of the vagus nerve can help relieve pain in other parts of the body. Thanks to new research by Austrian scientists, such treatments could soon be more effective than ever.

When a vein or artery gets seriously blocked, a common course of action involves replacing it with part of another blood vessel harvested from elsewhere in the patient's body. Scientists have now developed an alternative – polymer fabric vessels that transform into biological ones, once implanted.