University of Florida

Patients forgetting, bungling or just plain refusing to take their medication is a big problem for health care professionals and patients alike. It can exacerbate medical problems, spurring hospitalizations or expensive medical procedures and undercut clinical trials of new drugs. In seeking a way to confirm that patients have taken their medication a team of researchers have added a tiny microchip and digestible antenna to a standard pill capsule that automatically alerts doctors when the pill has actually been ingested. Read More

Researchers at the University of Florida have found they can use low-power lasers as a cheap and efficient way to light and ignite nanoparticles. The discovery could lead to important advancements in the medical, computing and automotive fields. Read More

In recent years the lotus leaf has been the go-to surface for scientists looking to develop high-tech water repelling surfaces. Now engineering researchers have created what they say is a “nearly perfect hydrophobic interface” by borrowing from another of nature’s wonders - spiders. By reproducing the shape and patterns of the minute hairs that grow on the bodies of spiders, the researchers have created what may be the most water-phobic surface yet... a development that could lead to everything from self-cleaning surfaces to faster boats. Read More

When English chemist John Dalton first wrote about color blindness in 1798, he must have wondered how science would improve the quality of life for people living with the condition. Today, spectacles, contact lenses and revolutionary corrective eye surgery combat the effects of a myriad of vision disorders, yet people with color blindness still live in quiet acceptance of this common genetic disorder. Now researchers have delivered promising results by successfully treating two squirrel moneys with defective color perception using a gene therapy that could also safely eradicate color blindness in humans. Read More