All posts tagged: injuries

Injectable nanorobots may help heal spinal injuries

Injectable nanorobots may help heal spinal injuries

Published by Jenni Sidey

Get the Popular Science daily newsletterđź’ˇ Breakthroughs, discoveries, and DIY tips sent six days a week. By signing up, you confirm you are 16+, will receive newsletters and promotional content and agree to our Terms of Use and acknowledge the data practices in our Privacy Policy. You may unsubscribe at any time. Despite significant medical advances, spinal cord damage remains one of the most difficult physical injuries to treat. Scarring frequently gets in the way of nerve fiber regrowth, while nerve cells usually cannot regenerate on their own. A possible solution? A fleet of stem cell-infused, injectable nanorobots that can help nerve cells regenerate. The tiny bots are detailed in a study recently published in the journal Nature Materials. To build their new tools, a team at ETH Zurich in Switzerland engineered microscopic machines that combine living neural progenitor cells (NPCs)—specialized stem cells developed for the spine—with customized nanoparticles. These customized nanoparticles feature two layers—one that is sensitive to magnetic fields and another that translates them into electrical signals. “We place a reservoir in the …

Your period may make sport injuries more severe

Your period may make sport injuries more severe

Published by Miika Tikkanen

The idea that we should make lifestyle adjustments depending on where we are in our menstrual cycle is gaining traction online, as well as in scientific circles. Now, researchers have found that athletes who obtain a sports injury while on their period seem to take longer to recover from it than at other times in their cycle. #cyclesyncing is tagged in thousands of social media posts that promote altering diet and physical activity levels around the different stages of the menstrual cycle, to adjust for the hormonal changes that occur. The evidence supporting such dietary changes is weak, and while exercise-related studies on this subject are more robust, their results have also been mixed. Nevertheless, rugby union teams in the US and England already adjust training around their team members’ cycles. To try to better understand this, Eva Ferrer and her colleagues at Hospital Sant Joan de DĂ©u in Barcelona followed 33 professional football players from the FC Barcelona women’s team across four seasons between 2019 and 2023. As part of their normal training regimen, …