Short-form videos like those viewed on Tiktok are being used more frequently to share health information. Ciera Kirkpatrick, an assistant professor of advertising and public relations at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, studied the effectiveness of videos demonstrating the speculum, a medical instrument used to obtain cervical cell samples for a pap smear. She found videos that emphasize knowledge and the importance of obtaining the routine cancer screen are more effictive than those that offer advice about avoiding pain or discomfort. 

When visiting the dentist, you might remember being poked and prodded by a thin metal instrument to check your teeth and gums. This technique, called periodontal probing, is used to look for signs of gum disease. Now, researchers publishing in ACS Sensors report a toothbrush-shaped ultrasound transducer that can provide a less invasive screening for gum disease. In proof-of-concept demonstrations on animal tissues, the device produced measurements similar to those of a manual probe.

Food scientists at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign found the optimal conditions for fermenting five types of legume pulses, which not only extended the shelf lives of the raw foods but increased their antioxidant and antidiabetic properties. The research holds potential for improving the functional properties of health-promoting foods and the sustainability of plant-based diets to address global problems with food insecurity.

Physicists used a new technique to simultaneously visualize how six major organelles within a cell change as the cell grows. The work has implications for how cells regulate metabolism and growth, which is important in both health and disease.