Scientists examine new ways to manipulate the microorganisms within us.

Earlier this summer, scientists reported the success of an unusual medical transplant; a woman with a life-threatening Clostridium difficile infection was treated, and apparently cured, with an injection of some of her healthy husband's gut bacteria.

Microbes may have eaten away at BP's oil in deep water; now the marshland needs help.

Microbes may become the heroes of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill by gobbling up oil more rapidly than anyone expected. Now some experts suggest we ought to artificially stimulate such microbes in stricken marshland areas to aid their cleanup.

Researchers describe progress on technology for storing energy in the form of hydrogen fuel.

Anyone relying entirely on solar power or wind for electricity--say, in a remote location cut off from the grid--could use a cheap way to store power for use at night or when the wind isn't blowing. Today at the American Chemical Society meeting in Boston, researchers announced progress on one option: using electricity from solar panels or other sources to split water, producing hydrogen fuel that can be used to produce electricity anytime by means of a fuel cell or generator.

A prototype silk biosensor could someday alert doctors to signs of disease.

Silk and gold, usually a pairing for the runways of Milan, are now the main ingredients for a new kind of implantable biosensor. Researchers at Tufts University have crafted a small antenna from liquid silk and micropatterned gold. The antenna is designed to spot specific proteins and chemicals in the body, and alert doctors wirelessly to signs of disease. Scientists say the implant could someday help patients with diabetes track their glucose levels without having to test themselves daily.

With a global population pressing against food supplies and vast areas of the ocean swept clean of fish, tiny AquaBounty Technologies Inc. of Waltham, Mass., says it can help feed the world.

The firm has developed genetically engineered salmon that reach market weight in half the usual time. What's more, it hopes to avoid the pollution, disease and other problems associated with saltwater fish farms by having its salmon raised in inland facilities.

The atom-thick material may be ideal for a new sequencing technique.

Layers of graphene that are only as thick as an atom could help make human DNA sequencing faster and cheaper. Harvard University and MIT researchers have shown that sheets of graphene could be a big improvement over membranes that are currently used for nanopore sequencing--a technique that promises to speed up and simplify the sequencing of long strands of DNA.

Founder of A123 Systems starts a new company to commercialize the technology.

A new startup company will attempt to solve the biggest roadblock facing electric vehicles today--the cost of their batteries.

The new company, called 24M, has been spun out of the advanced battery company A123 Systems. It will develop a novel type of battery based on research conducted by Yet-Ming Chiang, a professor of materials science at MIT and founder of A123 Systems. He says the battery design has the potential to cut those costs by 85 percent.

Nanowire transistors could make better connections between the body and electronic devices.

Researchers at Harvard University have made biocompatible, nanometer-scaled transistors that can be used to take highly precise electrical and chemical readings inside cells. The bioprobes are much more sensitive than the passive electrodes that have been used to make intracellular measurements in the past.

A startup's polymer sticker increases power output by 10 percent, and can be applied to panels that are already installed.

The power output of solar panels can be boosted by 10 percent just by applying a big transparent sticker to the front. Developed by a small startup called Genie Lens Technologies, the sticker is a polymer film embossed with microstructures that bend incoming sunlight. The result: the active materials in the panels absorb more light, and convert more of it into electricity.

Combining ultrasound with magnetic particles could help advance treatments.

The brain and its adjacent blood vessels are separated by a protective barrier--it keeps viruses and other infections out but also limits entry of most medications, making tumors and other diseases of the brain particularly difficult to treat. But researchers in Taiwan have found a way to transport more anticancer therapeutics to the brain than previously possible through a novel combination of ultrasound and magnetic particles.