With sheer determination, researchers can make tough materials that bend without breaking

Shear band formation is not typically a good sign in a material — the bands often appear before a material fractures or fails. But materials science and engineering researchers at the University of Wisconsin–Madison have found that shear bands aren’t always a negative; under the right conditions, they can improve the ductility, or the plasticity, of a material.

How Does Intermittent Hypoxia Amplify the Functional Benefits of Task-specific Rehabilitation after Spinal Cord Injury?

Spinal cord injury impairs motor function, leading to chronic disability. Traditional exercise-based (task-specific) training alone is insufficient to restore motor function. An emerging rehabilitation strategy is to precondition the nervous system by breathing repeated episodes of low oxygen, a treatment…

Hot time in the city: Urban lizards evolve heat tolerance

Faced with a gritty landscape of metal fences, concrete walls and asphalt pavement, city lizards in Puerto Rico rapidly and repeatedly evolved better tolerance for heat than their forest counterparts, according to new research from Washington University in St. Louis and the University of California, Los Angeles.Studies that delve into how animals adapt in urban environments are still relatively rare.