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'Game on for Pokémon Go,' says The BMJ pundit

Game on for Pokémon Go, The BMJ's weekly GP columnist says today in a light-hearted look.

As she and her children hunt Pikachu monsters in their native Glasgow, Dr Margaret McCartney describes the streets as having become a "reclaimed playground in which to have interconnected fun."

"Increased physical activity is a tantalising side effect," she hopes.

A deluge of recent media headlines prompted McCartney to consider whether playing the game might be good or bad for you -- despite a lack of science to help.

Simulating complex catalysts key to making cheap, powerful fuel cells

MADISON, Wis. -- Using a unique combination of advanced computational methods, University of Wisconsin-Madison chemical engineers have demystified some of the complex catalytic chemistry in fuel cells -- an advance that brings cost-effective fuel cells closer to reality.

"Understanding reaction mechanisms is the first step toward eventually replacing expensive platinum in fuel cells with a cheaper material," says Manos Mavrikakis, a UW-Madison professor of chemical and biological engineering.

Financial worries linked to mental health issues among university students

Experiencing financial difficulties and worrying about debt at university increases the risk of mental health conditions such as depression and alcohol dependency, according to new research from the University of Southampton and Solent NHS Trust.

The research, published online in the Community Mental Health Journal, found that symptoms of anxiety and alcohol dependence worsened over time for those who were struggling to pay the bills. Those who were more stressed about their debt had worsening levels of stress, anxiety and depression.

Scientists count microscopic particles without microscope

Scientists from Russia and Australia have put forward a simple new way of counting microscopic particles in optical materials by means of a laser. A light beam passing through such a material splits and forms a characteristic pattern consisting of numerous bright spots on a projection screen. The researchers found that the number of these spots corresponds exactly to the number of scattering microscopic particles in the optical material.

Report: People buy most of their junk food at the supermarket

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. -- An analysis of a nationally representative sample of U.S. adults reveals that access to healthy foods in a supermarket does not hinder Americans' consumption of empty calories. In fact, the study found, U.S. adults buy the bulk of their sugar-sweetened beverages and nutrient-poor discretionary foods at supermarkets and grocery stores.

The new findings challenge the "food desert" hypothesis, which posits that a lack of access to supermarkets and grocery stores in some communities worsens the obesity crisis by restricting people's access to healthy foods.

Highly curative hep C treatment safe and effective for drug users

1. Research supports removing drug use as a restriction for receiving highly curative hep C treatment

Hep C patients being treated for opioid addiction achieved high rates of sustained virologic response after 12 weeks of therapy with elbasvir-grazoprevir compared to those taking placebo for 12 weeks before beginning the drug treatment. The patients in the elbasvir-grazoprevir group saw a reduced viral load, regardless of ongoing drug use. The results of a randomized, controlled trial are published in Annals of Internal Medicine.

K computer and high-tech weather radar come together to predict sudden torrential rains

Today, supercomputer-based weather predictions are typically done with simulations that use grids spaced at least one kilometer apart, and incorporate new observational data every hour. However, due to the roughness of the calculations, these simulations cannot accurately predict the threat of torrential rains, which can develop within minutes when cumulonimbus clouds suddenly develop.

Liquid light switch could enable more powerful electronics

Researchers have built a miniature electro-optical switch which can change the spin -- or angular momentum -- of a liquid form of light by applying electric fields to a semiconductor device a millionth of a metre in size. Their results, reported in the journal Nature Materials, demonstrate how to bridge the gap between light and electricity, which could enable the development of ever faster and smaller electronics.

Making a solar energy conversion breakthrough with help from a ferroelectrics pioneer

Designers of solar cells may soon be setting their sights higher, as a discovery by a team of researchers has revealed a class of materials that could be better at converting sunlight into energy than those currently being used in solar arrays. Their research shows how a material can be used to extract power from a small portion of the sunlight spectrum with a conversion efficiency that is above its theoretical maximum -- a value called the Shockley-Queisser limit.

Lithium-ion batteries: Capacity might be increased by 6 times

The team was able to show through neutron measurements made at the Institut Laue-Langevin in Grenoble, France, that lithium ions do not penetrate deeply into the silicon. During the charge cycle, a 20-nm anode layer develops containing an extremely high proportion of lithium. This means extremely thin layers of silicon would be sufficient to achieve the maximal load of lithium.

Prototype chip could help make quantum computing practical

Quantum computers are largely hypothetical devices that could perform some calculations much more rapidly than conventional computers can. Instead of the bits of classical computation, which can represent 0 or 1, quantum computers consist of quantum bits, or qubits, which can, in some sense, represent 0 and 1 simultaneously.

Accounting for ozone

The first peer-reviewed study to directly quantify how emissions from oil and gas activities influence summertime ozone pollution in the Colorado Front Range confirms that chemical vapors from oil and gas activities are a significant contributor to the region's chronic ozone problem.

Newly discovered 'blue whirl' fire tornado burns cleaner for reduced emissions

COLLEGE PARK, Md. -- Fire tornados, or 'fire whirls,' pose a powerful and essentially uncontrollable threat to life, property, and the surrounding environment in large urban and wildland fires. But now, a team of researchers in the University of Maryland's A. James Clark School of Engineering say their discovery of a type of fire tornado they call a 'blue whirl' could lead to beneficial new approaches for reducing carbon emissions and improving oil spill cleanup.

Melting ice sheet could release frozen Cold War-era waste

WASHINGTON, DC -- Climate change could remobilize abandoned hazardous waste thought to be buried forever beneath the Greenland Ice Sheet, new research finds.

Camp Century, a U.S. military base built within the Greenland Ice Sheet in 1959, doubled as a top-secret site for testing the feasibility of deploying nuclear missiles from the Arctic during the Cold War. When the camp was decommissioned in 1967, its infrastructure and waste were abandoned under the assumption they would be entombed forever by perpetual snowfall.

Psychologist reveals science behind a fulfilling single life

DENVER - Dating shows, dating apps - they all strive to make sure none of us end up uncoupled forever. But it turns out many single people embrace their single lives, and are likely to experience more psychological growth and development than married people, according to a psychologist who presented at the American Psychological Association's 124th Annual Convention.