Despite significant medical advances, spinal cord damage remains one of the most difficult physical injuries to treat. Scarring frequently gets in the way of nerve fiber regrowth, while nerve cells usually cannot regenerate on their own. A possible solution? A fleet of stem cell-infused, injectable nanorobots that can help nerve cells regenerate. The tiny bots are detailed in a study recently published in the journal Nature Materials.

To build their new tools, a team at ETH Zurich in Switzerland engineered microscopic machines that combine living neural progenitor cells (NPCs)—specialized stem cells developed for the spine—with customized nanoparticles. These customized nanoparticles feature two layers—one that is sensitive to magnetic fields and another that translates them into electrical signals.

“We place a reservoir in the center where we trap the cells. Then we inject the nanoparticles and wait for the two components to bind,” Salvador Pané i Vidal, a study co-author and ETH Zurich roboticist, said in a statement.

Each nanorobot is about six micrometers wide, making them smaller than a red blood cell. However, the number of robots required to pull off a procedure is immense. Millions of nanobots are needed during animal trials. Even with such a high number, the initial experimental results are promising. In tests involving mice with severed spinal cords, nerve cells stimulated by the microrobots began reconnecting at the injury site within 28 days. By the end of the trial, the mice displayed major improvements in movement, gait, coordination, and exploratory behavior. 

Significantly more research is required before these nanobots are ready for primetime, but the team hopes to one day begin testing similar devices in humans. Before that, they need to determine the most effective magnetic fields and how long to apply them to patients. In the meantime, the overall design could also be applied to help treat regenerative issues in organs and wounds.

“The reproducible and scalable production of microrobots using our lab-on-a-chip system demonstrates that the platform’s application potential extends beyond basic research,” added Pané i Vidal.

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Wildlife experts in Georgia are urging locals to keep on the lookout for any four-foot-long lizards wandering around the Peach State. As its name implies, the Argentine black and white tegu (Salvator merianae) isn’t native to the United States, and it’s quickly becoming a nuisance.

Although the black and white tegu resembles many monitor lizard species, they are actually only distantly related to the reptiles. The speckled omnivores can weigh upwards of 10 pounds, largely thanks to a diet that regularly includes eggs, small animals, fruits, and vegetables. They are also extremely prolific animals, with a single female capable of producing around 35 eggs every year. These typically hatch during the summer between June and July, meaning many in Georgia have a decent chance of spotting a tegu in the near future.

It’s still unclear how the tegus were first introduced into the state, although illegal releases by exotic pet owners are the most likely explanation. Georgia’s Department of Natural Resources (DNR) first responded to reports of the rogue reptiles in 2018, with sightings spreading ever since. Tegus are currently particularly concentrated in southeastern Georgia’s Toombs and Tattnall counties, but experts fear a lack of predators means the lizard population could soon explode without concerted conservation efforts. As non-native “wild” species, trapping and hunting tegus is legal in Georgia throughout the year.

That said, the DNR still cautions hunters against coming into direct contact with the reptiles. Although not particularly aggressive or dangerous, tegus may carry exotic parasites as well as harmful bacteria including salmonella. Experts encourage people to instead contact the DNR if they see one of the lizards, either by emailing gainvasives@dnr.ga.gov or calling (478) 994-1438.

Unfortunately, Georgia isn’t the only state contending with an unwanted tegu problem. According to an ongoing mapping project from the U.S. Geological Survey and Georgia Southern University, residents across Florida, Alabama, South Carolina, and Texas have also reported sightings in recent years.

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A rare meteorite discovered in the Sahara Desert proves that our solar system almost had at least one extra planet. In a study published in the journal Earth and Planetary Science Letters, astronomers say the chunk of space rock known as Northwest Africa (NWA) 12774 once belonged to a protoplanet possibly as large as Mars. That is, until a cosmic crash likely blew it to smithereens. 

The solar system includes eight known planets (sorry, Pluto). Barring interstellar catastrophe, this number will remain the same until the sun finally dies about 5 billion years from now. However, this total planetary count was never a guarantee.The solar system’s earliest era featured multiple embryonic protoplanets that had the potential to grow together into additional cosmic neighbors.

The remnants of these long gone celestial bodies are scarce, but traces still exist. That said, astronomers didn’t expect to find protoplanetary evidence in a meteorite like NWA 12774. Discovered in 2019, NWA 12774 is an angrite—one of the oldest known types of volcanic rock that was formed during the solar system’s era about 4.56 billion years ago. They’re also very rare. Of the roughly 80,000 meteorites discovered on Earth so far, only 68 are angrites.

Unlike rocky planets such as Mars and Earth, angrites do not have a lot of silicon dioxide. Because of this, astronomers have long assumed that angrites always originated in asteroids no larger than about 124 miles wide. NWA 12774 blows this theory apart..

While analyzing the meteorite, researchers at the University of Colorado Boulder detected clinopyroxene, a mineral crystal that exists throughout Earth’s mantle and crust. NWA 12774’s clinopyroxene was also heavy in aluminum, which directly points to formation under massive amounts of pressure underground. The team then calculated the conditions necessary to create an angrite like NWA 12774, and settled on at least 17.5 kilobars of pressure. To put that in perspective, the pressure experienced at the bottom of the roughly 35,875-foot-deep Mariana Trench is barely one kilobar.

Small asteroids simply don’t possess the conditions needed to generate a rock like NWA 12774. What’s more, the angrite’s sharp crystalline edges also indicate that it formed at comparatively shallow depths in its host body. Based on all of these factors, astronomers now believe NWA 12774 once belonged to a young protoplanet with a radius anywhere from 621 to 2,050 miles wide. This means that instead of an asteroid, the angrite may have existed inside something as big as Mars.

“It’s incredible to think there was once a world this large,” Aaron Bell, a UC Boulder earth scientist and study co-author, said in a statement. “We only know it existed because a few fragments of it happened to land on Earth. These meteorites preserved evidence of a completely different pathway through which early planets developed.”

Although it’s unclear how the protoplanet met its demise, some type of crash between early solar system denizens is definitely a possibility. Regardless, the ramifications are huge for astronomers’ understanding of our cosmic neighborhood’s history.

“The materials that formed the angrite parent body are fundamentally different from the ingredients of Earth and Mars,” explained Bell. “It points to a distinct and separate evolutionary path in planetary formation in the early history of our solar system.”

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