Drugs made of mRNA have the potential to transform medicine—if only they could get into cells in one piece. Now, University of Connecticut researchers show in the journal ACS Nano that packaging mRNA like a virus could smuggle it into cells safely, opening up a new way to deliver mRNA into cells to treat diseases such as cancer.

Researchers at the University of Cincinnati discovered that female caribou feed extensively on shed antlers they find while grazing to supplement their diet with important minerals they need to raise calves. This could explain why female caribou, unique among deer, have antlers.

Three new neural network-based tools enable fast, accurate alignment and annotation of images even in very wiggly subjects. The tools might offer a way to automate cell tracking in other imaging datasets, too.

Never-before-seen 3D reconstructions of human liver tissue have been created at a cellular level. The details capture the spatial microstructure of multiple lobes of this multitasking organ. The reconstructions show how cirrhosis rearranges this intricate architecture and thereby alter the organ's biological activities. In addition, 3D liver maps with a high degree of cellular detail are critical to someday realizing the dream of bioprinting new organs for transplantation. 

Orbitronics devices use an electron’s orbital angular momentum to store and process more information, much more efficiently. Typically, generating orbital currents requires magnetic metals that are heavy and expensive. For the first time ever, researchers prove that atomic vibrations can transfer orbital angular momentum directly to electrons in a non-magnetic material, quartz. The method will work on other chiral materials, such as tellurium, selenium and hybrid organic/inorganic perovskites, and is the most streamlined system yet for orbitronics research.

A Rice research lab’s signature keepsake helped perfect a method for growing patterned diamond surfaces that could help decrease operating temperatures in electronics by 23 degrees Celsius.

When a plant's immune system is triggered, its growth is stunted. Colorado State University researchers have discovered how to turn on a hormone that allows plants to keep growing as they defend against disease and pests – a breakthrough that could increase crop production.