'Organ On A Chip' Recreates the Female Menstrual Cycle

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The EVATAR system. Each cube represents a different organ, and the blue fluid stands in for blood. (Credit: Northwestern University) A collection of human cell-lined boxes successfully reproduced the female menstrual cycle, marking another step forward for so-called “organs-on-a-chip.” Researchers at Northwestern Medicine have re-created the organs of the female reproductive system in an artificial environment and linked them together. By pumping a blood-like medium through their s ...read more

Get Lost in Mega-Tunnels Dug by South American Megafauna

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Looking into a large paleoburrow in Brazil. (Courtesy: Heinrich Frank) It was in 2010 that Amilcar Adamy first investigated rumors of an impressive cave in southern Brazil. A geologist with the Brazilian Geological Survey (known by its Portuguese acronym, CPRM) Adamy was at the time working on a general survey of the Amazonian state of Rondonia. After asking around, he eventually found his way to a gaping hole on a wooded slope a few miles north of the Bolivian border. Unable to contact the la ...read more

Caterpillars Recruit Friends with Anal Scraping

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Newly hatched caterpillars look helpless: they’re teensy, soft and juicy, with no parent around for protection. But certain young insects, the masked birch caterpillars, are more capable than they seem. They gather in groups to keep themselves safe. To form those groups, they use a previously undiscovered language of buzzes, vibrations, head banging and butt scraping. The species, Drepana arcuata, passes through five caterpillar life stages (called instars) on its way to becomi ...read more