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Photodynamic therapy, or using light to inactivate viruses, bacteria, and other microbes, has garnered promising results in recent decades for treating respiratory tract infections and some types of cancer. In Applied Physics Reviews, researchers review the existing approaches and propose adding antibodies to enhance PDT efficacy. They provide a model to help expedite overall PDT development as a rapid response to emergent viral pandemic threats.

A year and a half into the pandemic, waves of successive outbreaks and the dire need for new medical solutions, especially testing, continue to exist. In the Journal of Vacuum Science & Technology B, researchers report a rapid and sensitive testing method for COVID-19 biomarkers that amplifies the binding signal for a target biomarker and provides detection within one second.

Not all embryo transfers succeed, which gives rise to the practice of freezing extra embryos from an IVF cycle for future transfers. This allows those with at-risk fertility, due to age or treatments such as chemotherapy, to delay their transfer. In the journal Biomicrofluidics, researchers introduce a standalone microfluidics system to automate the process of embryo vitrification of replacing water with cryoprotectants, which exposes embryos to a slow and constantly increasing concentration of cryoprotectants.

A research group at the University of Córdoba studied the molecular properties of the holm oak (Quercus ilex) in search of trees that are more resistant to drought and root rot.

Estimating freshwater storage capability (FSC) is a challenge due to few observation opportunities and methods to measure and quantify FSC. A new study shows that on average, global land surfaces can retain over one quarter of monthly precipitation based on the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment observation.

A University of Surrey project has revealed innovative methods that could dramatically improve the performance of future electrical vehicles (e-vehicles).

A new study may have uncovered why wall lizards have become the most successful reptile in the Mediterranean region. The results reveal how drastic changes in sea levels and climate 6 million years ago affected species formation in the area. The researchers believe they can now explain why the lizards became so diverse and widespread, something that has puzzled biologists since the 19th century. The study is published in Nature Communications.

A research team from the National University of Singapore (NUS) and Japan's Tohoku University (TU) has developed a technology that uses tiny smart devices known as spin-torque oscillators to harvest and convert wireless radio frequencies into energy to power small electronics.

Recently, Prof. WANG Junfeng from the High Magnetic Field Laboratory of the Hefei Institutes of Physical Science (HFIPS), together with international scholars, developed a novel circular permutated light-oxygen-voltage 2 (LOV2) to expand the repertoire of genetically encoded photoswitches, which will accelerate the design of novel optogenetic devices. The result was published in Nature Chemical Biology.

Combining natural salt marsh habitats with conventional dikes may provide a more sustainable alternative for fully engineered flood protection. Researchers of the University of Groningen and the Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research studied how salt marsh management can be optimized for coastal defence purposes. They found that grazing by both cattle and small herbivores such as geese and hare and artificial mowing can reduce salt marsh erosion, therefore contributing to nature-based coastal defence.

In the near future dyes in electric motors might indicate when cable insulation is becoming brittle and the motor needs replacing. Scientists at Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg (MLU), together with ELANTAS, a division of the specialty chemicals group ALTANA, have developed a new process that enables the dyes to be directly integrated into the insulation. By changing colour, they reveal how much the insulating resin layer around the copper wires in the motor has degraded.

A new software tool developed by Earlham Institute researchers will help bioinformaticians improve the quality and accuracy of their biological data, and avoid mis-assemblies. The fast, lightweight, user-friendly tool visualises genome assemblies and gene alignments from the latest next generation sequencing technologies.

As a strategy for activating nitrogen under ambient conditions, electrochemical reduction of nitrogen to ammonia has shown great potential. To realize efficient electrochemical nitrogen fixation, scientists have been trying to design a reasonable electrocatalyst with the optimal nitrogen adsorption and activation capability.

In the quest for more sustainable agriculture, engineered crops that tackle photorespiration, a highly energy-consuming process, hold enormous potential. Researchers from the EU-funded Gain4Crops project have now succeeded in engineering a solution that connects photorespiration and C4 metabolism, two of the main targets in plant metabolism. This first proof of concept opens the door to strategic crops with improved productivity and reduced consumption of resources.

Scientists in Korea have found a new way to control the alignment state of magnetic atoms in an antiferromagnetic material, showing promise for the development of tiny sensors and memory devices. Researchers at the Daegu Gyeongbuk Institute of Science and Technology (DGIST) describe their new approach featuring a controllable exchange bias effect, which enables the asymmetric magnetic actions of devices comprised of complex combination structure of different types of magnetic materials, in the journal Acta Materialia.

In an international cooperation with partners from industry and research, physicists from the University of Vienna, together with Thorlabs, the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), and the University of Kansas, have now succeeded for the first time in demonstrating high-performance laser mirrors in the sensing-relevant mid-infrared wavelength range that absorb less than ten out of a million photons.

Collaboration between two NCCR MARVEL labs has identified a new type of defect as the most common source of disorder in on-surface synthesized graphene nanoribbons (GNRs). The researchers identified the atomic structure of these "bite" defects and investigated their effect on quantum electronic transport in two different types of GNR. They also established guidelines for minimizing the detrimental impact of these defects and proposed defective zigzag-edged nanoribbons as suitable platforms for certain applications in spintronics.

China's Large High Altitude Air Shower Observatory (LHAASO)--one of the country's key national science and technology infrastructure facilities--has found a dozen ultra-high-energy (UHE) cosmic accelerators within the Milky Way. It has also detected photons with energies exceeding 1 peta-electron-volt (quadrillion electron-volts or PeV), including one at 1.4 PeV. The latter is the highest energy photon ever observed.

Urban megaprojects tend to be the antithesis of good urban planning. They have a negative impact on local water systems, deprive local communities of water-related human rights, and their funders and sponsors have little accountability for their impact.

Fossils of land animals from South America have been found in the Antilles, but how did these animals get there? According to scientists from the CNRS, l'Université des Antilles, l'Université de Montpellier and d'Université Côte d'Azur, land emerged in this region and then disappeared beneath the waves for millions of years, explaining how some species were able to migrate to the Antilles. This study will be published in June 2021 issue in Earth-Science Reviews.