Thanks to in-utero blood transfusion technology, what was once a fatal diagnosis in the womb can now result in live births. However, this medical advancement created a new challenge: a growing population of children born with that diagnosis—the severe, inherited blood disorder alpha thalassemia—which requires lifelong specialized care.

Researchers led by Rice University’s Yong Lin Kong have developed a soft but strong metamaterial that can be controlled remotely to rapidly transform its size and shape.

Scientists at the University of Liverpool, working with international collaborators, have discovered Novltex, a groundbreaking new class of antibiotics with potent activity against some of the world’s most dangerous multidrug-resistant (MDR) bacteria.