Scientists reboot 50 years of plant advice to solve one of nature's biggest challenges

Scientists from the University of Portsmouth and Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, have come up with a formula to help plant breeders and farmers around the world grow crops in a more sustainable way.

Two studies show how older breast cancer patients can be treated more effectively

Women with breast cancer who are aged older than 70 years are sometimes not offered surgery, chemotherapy or radiotherapy because doctors believe their patients will not be able to tolerate these treatments and will derive little benefit from them. These decisions may contribute to worse breast cancer survival rates for older women than for younger ones, although many older women will not benefit from more aggressive treatments and so may avoid harm from over-treatment.

Wasp egg-laying organ inspires new tool to reduce trauma in minimally invasive surgery

A new tissue-transport device which was inspired by the egg-laying organs of parasitic wasps could greatly advance the field of minimally invasive surgery (MIS), according to a new study in Frontiers in Bioengineering and Biotechnology. The prototype, developed by researchers at Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands, could allow MIS techniques to be used in previously hard-to-reach areas of the body and vastly reduce the trauma from surgery, and therefore recovery time, of patients.