Clarity on staying healthy and happy arrives every day, from all corners of the globe. The Plunge brings you the information you always wanted: current, clear-cut answers from the world's leading scientists and creators.

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A bra for detecting breast cancer

Breast tumors developing between mammograms account for 20 to 30 percent of all cases, and are often more aggressive. Canan Dagdeviren's team at MIT's Media Lab has created a bra to take on the problem. Through honey-comb shaped patches, the bra provides deep scanning, multi-angle imaging for real-time tracking of changes in tissue. The bra was tested on a 71-year-old woman with a history of cysts. The device detected early stage tumors as small as 0.3 centimeters in diameter with similar resolution to traditional ultrasound machines. For now, the device needs to be plugged into a traditional scanner for viewing images, but they're working on a handheld device. (Science Advances - 35 mins)

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Trying to prevent heart disease? Stop moving

Any exercise is good, but some are better. According to an analysis of 270 trials covering 15k individuals, isometric exercise training - exercises engaging muscles without movement such as planks and wall-sits - does more for our hearts than other forms of exercise. The analysis found these exercises to be best for treatment and prevention of arterial hypertension. Isometric (98%), dynamic resistance (46%), aerobic (40%), and HIIT (39%) training were all shown to improve blood pressure when lasting 2 or more weeks. Current recommendations don't account for new forms of exercise like HIIT and isometric training and researchers are pushing for an update. (British Journal of Sports Medicine - 20 mins)

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3D Printed Hearts are Coming

Harvard researchers have created a material to potentially build hearts. The innovation, fiber-infused gel (FIG) ink, gives the printed materials the ability to align and beat in coordination, similar to what already happens in the heart. The difficulty is in the alignment of the cells that transmit electrical signals, cardiomyocytes. These must work in coordination with the heart muscle. The team creates the microfiber materials in a similar fashion to cotton candy spinning. The fibers are then added to a hydrogel ink and, by controlling the printing direction, the new heart muscle cells are aligned appropriately. After applying an electrical stimulation to the printed structures, contractions of the new muscle tissue were properly aligned. It's a crucial step toward the creation of 3D printed hearts. (EurekaAlert - 3 mins)

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Body Atlases

Last month, cell 'atlases' of three of the body's organs were published in Nature: the placenta, intestines, and kidneys. This work is part of a larger project by the Human BioMolecular Atlas Program to identify and group all cells in the human body. As part of the work on the intestines, researchers analyzed cells from deceased donors and identified their spatial coordinates. The result pinpointed the various cell types located in different parts of the intestine, from epithelial cells to immune cells, which form into neighborhoods to conduct specific functions. The neighborhoods are grouped into communities, working together to perform certain tasks for the organ. The project is especially complex thanks to the different methods used by various labs when analyzing different organs, but the goal is to bring the entire body into view. The project is seeking to build atlases for 30 organs and is currently halfway complete. (El Pais - 6 mins)

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