Here’s a nifty if still early-in-development bit of science. This week, scientists at Harvard and elsewhere said they’ve created a novel type of dressing that could rapidly heal all sorts of wounds. The gel-based, heat-activated design was inspired by the Wolverine-like skin we have when we’re in the womb.

It’s well known that our fetal skin can completely regenerate itself when injured, without scarring. This happens, at least partly, because embryonic cells produce protein fibers that quickly and tightly close up and contract the skin surrounding a wound. As adults, our skin cells can still do this to an extent, but nowhere to the same degree.

CANCER patients with previously incurable tumours have been given hope by a life-extending treatment which can double the length of time a person can live cancer-free.

The new worldwide medical trial involving the Beatson Cancer Centre in Glasgow has discovered a high-precision radiation treatment which can extend a patient’s lifespan by more than a year. Patients diagnosed with metastatic tumours – cancer which had spread to other parts of the body – were thought to be incurable, but researchers on the clinical trial have found that aggressive radiation therapy can increase life expectancy.

Hailing the research as a “game-changer”, scientists gave almost 100 cancer patients from Scotland, Canada, the Netherlands and Australia “substantially higher doses of radiation” to areas where their cancerous tumours had spread. Patients receiving the treatment, known as stereotactic ablative radiotherapy, lived 13 months longer on average.