Scientists report that common antibacterial compounds found in those soaps, namely triclosan and triclocarban, may increase the risk of infections, alter the gut microbiome, and spur bacteria to become resistant to prescription antibiotics. Meanwhile, proof of the soaps’ benefits is slim.

“There’s evidence that there is no improvement with using soaps that have these chemicals relative to washing your hands under warm water for 30 seconds with soaps without these chemicals,” he said.

The researchers first collected two waterbears in 1983 from an Antarctican moss sample. They then stored them at minus-20 degrees C (roughly minus-4 degrees Fahrenheit). They defrosted them in 2014.

The researchers' report offers this explanation for the waterbears' survival: "This considerable extension of the known length of long-term survival of tardigrades recorded in our study is interpreted as being associated with the minimum oxidative damage likely to have resulted from storage under stable frozen conditions."

Last week dozens of mathematicians met at the Mathematical Institute at the University of Oxford to discuss Mochizuki’s “inter-universal Teichmuller” (IUT) theory, a 500-page proof that he posted online in August 2012.

There is a growing consensus that Mochizuki has over-engineered his work, contributing to the confusion. “Most of the large theories that he builds are not essential. He could have written things in a much more streamlined way,” says Voloch.

In the mid 1900s, the most popular banana in the world—a sweet, creamy variety called Gros Michel grown in Latin America—all but disappeared from the planet. At the time, it was the only banana in the world that could be exported. But a fungus, known as Panama Disease, which first appeared in Australia in the late 1800s, changed that after jumping continents.

Now, half a century later, a new strain of the disease is threatening the existence of the Cavendish, the banana that replaced the Gros Michel as the world's top banana export, representing 99 percent of the market, along with a number of banana varieties produced and eaten locally around the world.

The Cavendish is less desirable, more susceptible to other diseases, has a tendency to bruise, doesn't ripen easily or last very long before spoiling, and is "lamentably bland," as Mike Peed wrote in a 2011 piece for the New Yorker.

We have long known that NOx, and in particular NO2 – which form part of the discharge from car exhausts – are indirectly harmful.

To put that in context, PM2.5 prematurely killed an estimated 430,000 people in the 28 EU countries in 2012, according to the European Environment Agency.

When diesel is burned in an engine instead of petrol, more NOx is produced overall, and 70 per cent of the NOx produced is NO2, compared with only 10 to 15 per cent when petrol is burned.

Turing Pharmaceuticals of New York raised the price of Daraprim from $13.50 per pill to $750 per pill last month, shortly after purchasing the rights to the drug from Impax Laboratories.

The patents behind the drug -- all granted between 1951 and 1954 -- should be dead. Conveniently for Turing (and other rights holders before it), no company is offering a generic version.

Turing, of course, realizes this price jump -- which puts one month's supply in the new vehicle range ($45-50,000) at minimum -- is going to be tough on those expected to pay for it, but claims to have support in place to help absorb some of the ridiculous increase.

This huge price jump has more to do with the man running Turing, Martin Shkreli. Shkreli doesn't have a background in pharmaceuticals, but he does know how to run a hedge fund. And he's used this expertise to become highly-unpopular very quickly.

The chemistry to make fuel from CO2 isn't especially hard - split water into hydrogen and oxygen through electrolysis, add the hydrogen to CO2 to make carbon monoxide and water, then bung in more hydrogen to build up hydrocarbon chains.

But a lot depends on government policy. The actual price of the fuel can be as low as 30% of what we pay at the pump - the rest of the cost is made up of fuel duty, VAT, and the retailer's profit margin.

But it's the cost of electricity that could make or break e-diesel's commercial viability, because the process requires a lot of energy.

Viagra doesn't just have a stiffening effect on men's anatomy, it also makes the one-celled parasite that causes malaria more rigid.

Using an artificial spleen, the team found that certain drugs such as Viagra, also known as sildenafil, could stiffen these cells by inhibiting an enzyme that would normally make them squishy. The stiff cells are then cleared by the spleen.

First they gave participants the illusion of inhabiting an invisible body, so that people felt an actual physical sensation when an empty space was touched and responded with fear when that empty space was threatened. Now, in research published this week in the journal Current Biology, the researchers have gone on to body-swapping.

To conjure up the sensation that the person in the machine was in the other person's body, the scientists then touched the two bodies at the same time in the exact same places.

Researchers have developed tiny sphere-shaped particles that ferry a payload of bacteria-slaying drugs to the surface of the teeth, where they fight plaque and tooth decay on the spot.

This is the first time such a technique has been shown to be effective in animals, notes pharmaceutical scientist Dong Wang of the University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha, who was not involved with the research. “That's a huge step forward.”

Because the nanoparticles attach to biofilms instead of just to teeth, they could also bombard biofilms on the tongue or elsewhere in the mouth, where they may have damaging effects on beneficial bacteria.