Researchers have developed an artificial skin that can stretch, sense pressure, and emit light, demonstrating a level of multi-functionality seen in the skin of cephalopods like octopuses. The artificial skin, which outperforms some previous models in terms of stretchiness, could be used on soft electronics and robots that change their shape and color display. The development that made the skin's creation possible is a hyperelastic, light-emitting capacitor (HLEC), which Chris Larson and colleagues designed using two ionic, hydrogel electrodes embedded in a matrix of silicone. The HLEC device is many times more elastic than existing stretchable light emitters based on organic semiconductors.

An analysis of more than 14 million reviews on RateMyProfessors.com, a site where students write anonymous reviews of their professors, found that words like "brilliant" and "genius" are most often used to describe male professors, and in academic disciplines in which there are fewer women and African-Americans.

The findings are reported in PLOS ONE, a pay-to-publish journal which has been criticized recently for a lack of peer review and, ironically, being biased against female authors.

In areas that undergo rapid urbanization in low-income countries the safe management of wastewater and fecal sludge is vital to ensure the health of the growing population. In particular, contact with human and animal fecal waste is a risk factor for parasitic infections such as hookworms and intestinal protozoa. PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases reports a cross-sectional survey done by researchers from the Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute and colleagues from Uganda who examined the prevalence and risk factors for intestinal parasitic infection in the growing suburbs of Kampala, the capital of this East African country.

Cannabis use among people experiencing a first episode of psychotic illness is linked to a 50 per cent heightened risk of hospital admission--including compulsory detention (sectioning)--as well as longer inpatient stay, reveals the largest study of its kind, published in the online journal BMJ Open.

Cannabis use was also linked to higher numbers of prescriptions for different antipsychotic drugs, the findings show, suggesting that it may contribute to treatment failure, say the researchers.

Cannabis use has been linked to an increased risk of psychotic episodes before, particularly if used during the teen years, but it is not clear if it has any impact on relapse risk in those with long term psychosis.

Drinking a lot of coffee every day--more than 900 ml (30 fluid ounces) or around six cups--is linked to a reduced risk of multiple sclerosis (MS), finds research published online in the Journal of Neurology Neurosurgery & Psychiatry.

Caffeine, a central nervous system stimulant, has neuroprotective properties and can suppress the production of chemicals involved in the inflammatory response, which may explain the association found, suggest the researchers.

While it remains to be seen whether coffee drinking could ward off the development of MS, cautions a linked editorial, the findings add to the growing body of evidence indicating that coffee may be good for our health, it suggests.

Mars is Earth like in some ways, but in other ways it's very different with its global dust storms every two years, its thick sheets of dry ice at its ice caps in winter. Any fresh water is close to its very low boiling point in the near vacuum. And the eccentric orbit also has a big impact on its seasons. So how do its seasons work exactly and what effect does this have on its climate?

GAINESVILLE, Fla. -- Using someone else's medication is the most common form of prescription stimulant misuse among adolescents, according to a University of Florida Health study, which found that 88 percent of teens who used the drugs non-medically in the past 30 days said they had obtained the medications from someone else.

Chimpanzees often use tools to extract or consume food. Which tools they choose for which purpose, however, can differ depending on the region where they live. Researchers of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany, have thus initiated the 'Pan African Programme: The Cultured Chimpanzee' and, since 2010, have collected data on chimpanzee behavior, demography and resource availability across Africa following a standardized protocol. This is how the researchers encountered a thus far unknown behavior: In West Africa chimpanzees throw stones at trees resulting in conspicuous accumulations at these sites. Why exactly the animals do this the researchers do not yet know, yet the behavior appears to have some cultural elements.

A protein modified to increase the amount of time it circulates in the bloodstream appears to reverse liver fibrosis and cirrhosis in rats, according to results of a study led by Johns Hopkins researchers.

The investigators say the findings, reported ahead of print in the March 3 early view edition of Hepatology, advance the search for a potential cure for the thousands of patients worldwide living with these incurable diseases. At present, there is little effective treatment and no cure other than liver transplantation, which carries its own risks and often fails.

The surgical approach to total hip replacement (THR)--either from the front of the body or the side/back (anterior versus posterior)--has no impact on outcomes six months after surgery, according to research presented today at the 2016 Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons (AAOS).