Keep up the beat! A new robotic sheath keeps the heart beating, potentially saving lives of heart failure patients. It’s made out of material that resembles the outer layer of heart tissue and it squeezes and twists simultaneously, like the real muscle, Science reports. In pigs, the device restored heart function to 97%.
Quantum gas goes below absolute zero. Physicists have created an atomic gas with a sub-absolute-zero temperature for the first time, Nature reports. Their technique opens the door to generating negative-Kelvin materials and new quantum devices, including ultra-sensitive gravity wave detectors for "hearing" distant black hole mergers.
A new high for hemp. Cannabis is now put to even more good use in the Netherlands where Dutch researchers are tapping into its properties as an environmentally friendly building material to rival cement or steel. The hemp and flax fibers are combined in a resin that is stuck to a core made of polylactic acid. Hello the world’s first "bio-bridge"!
No more cellphone fires. Taking your phone on board a plane may stop being dangerous as scientists have a new plan for squelching the fires caused by lithium-ion batteries. They created a "smart" sheet of tiny fibers containing flame retardant, which could be inserted between a battery’s electrodes, Science News reports.
WTF? Apparently swearing and honesty are connected. An international team of researchers found that people who frequently curse are less likely to be associated with lying and deception. The key word here is "associated," not whether they are more honest in reality. The team cites the example of President-elect Donald Trump who used swear words in some of his speeches while campaigning in last year's US election and was considered, by some, to be more genuine than his rivals.
