BOSTON — A new bioprinting method developed at the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard University and the Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) creates intricately patterned 3D tissue constructs with multiple types of cells and tiny blood vessels. The work represents a major step toward a longstanding goal of tissue engineers: creating human tissue constructs realistic enough to test drug safety and effectiveness.

The method also represents an early but important step toward building fully functional replacements for injured or diseased tissue that can be designed from CAT scan data using computer-aided design (CAD), printed in 3D at the push of a button, and used by surgeons to repair or replace damaged tissue.

New research from psychologists at the universities of Kent and Limerick has found that music that is felt to be 'beautiful but sad' can help people feel better when they're feeling blue.

The research investigated the effects of what the researchers described as Self-Identified Sad Music (SISM) on people's moods, paying particular attention to their reasons for choosing a particular piece of music when they were experiencing sadness - and the effect it had on them.

With its narrow connection to the North Sea, strong currents, a large number of river estuaries and a bottom profile marked by ridges, basins and troughs, the Baltic represents an inland sea with highly different water qualities. The fact that these morphological and hydrographic conditions can also influence the fate of fish stocks has now been shown by a team of fisheries biologists from GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel and the National Institute of Aquatic Resources (DTU Aqua) at the Technical University of Denmark.

Most of the public doesn't know this, but some people are allergic to metal. 10 percent of the Germany public is allergic to nickel, according to background information in a new paper.

But medical implants use nickel. Nickel-titanium alloys are increasingly used as material for cardiovascular implants in minimal invasive surgery and, once implanted, these alloys can release small amounts of nickel due to corrosion. Is that dangerous? 

Congenital heart disease is the most common form of birth defect, affecting one out of every 125 babies, according to the National Institutes of Health.

Researchers from the University of Missouri recently found success using chemical compound 
PHPS1
to treat laboratory mice with one form of congenital heart disease, hypertrophic cardiomyopathy — a weakening of the heart caused by abnormally thick muscle.

By suppressing a faulty protein, the researchers reduced the thickness of the mice's heart muscles and improved their cardiac functioning.

Bisphenol A (BPA) has been used for decades in a wide variety of consumer products, like metal food and beverage containers, thermal paper store receipts, and dental composites.

Though the FDA has found BPA safe after numerous studies, because it can exhibit hormone-like properties the public has grown concerned about conflicting claims. There have been studies that have found exposure of rodent fetuses, infants, children or adults can cause cause abnormalities, including cancer, as well as reproductive, immune and brain-behavior problems. 

Researchers at the University of Missouri are now saying that daily exposure to very low concentrations of BPA by pregnant females can cause fetal abnormalities in primates.