Tech
Age-related hearing loss has more to do with the death of hair cells than the cellular battery powering them wearing out, according to new research in JNeurosci. That means wearing ear protection may prevent some age-related hearing loss.
In a new study of human ear tissues, hearing scientists have demonstrated that age-related hearing loss, also called presbycusis, is mainly caused by damage to hair cells, the sensory cells in the inner ear that transform sound-induced vibrations into the electrical signals that are relayed to the brain by the auditory nerve. Their research challenges the prevailing view of the last 60 years that age-related hearing loss is mainly driven by damage to the stria vascularis, the cellular "battery" that powers the hair cell's mechanical-to-electrical signal conversion.
Researchers from the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology Graduate University (OIST) have created next-generation solar modules with high efficiency and good stability. Made using a type of material called perovskites, these solar modules can maintain a high performance for over 2000 hours. Their findings, reported 20th July 2020 in leading journal, Nature Energy, have brightened prospects of commercialization.
Scientists in Australia and the United States have been able to 'upconvert' low energy light into high energy light, which can be captured by solar cells, in a new way, with oxygen the surprise secret ingredient. The results are published in Nature Photonics today.
While the approach's efficiencies are relatively low and more work is needed to achieve commercialisation, the research is an exciting development, according to senior author Professor Tim Schmidt from the ARC Centre of Excellence in Exciton Science and UNSW Sydney.
LOGAN, UTAH, USA - Scientists have long debated the idea that global climate changes have forced river erosion rates to increase over the past five million years. New field data gleaned from a multi-institution, collaborative study of North America's rugged Yukon River basin, near storied Klondike goldfields, reveal profound increases in river erosion during abrupt global intensification of climate fluctuations about 2.6 and one million years ago.
A key uncertainty in climate projections is the amount of carbon emitted by thawing permafrost in the Arctic. Plant roots in soil stimulate microbial decomposition, a mechanism called the priming effect. An international research team co-lead by Frida Keuper from INRAE and Umeå University and Birgit Wild from Stockholm University shows that the priming effect alone can cause emission of 40 billion tonnes carbon from permafrost by 2100. The study was published today in Nature Geoscience.
CAMBRIDGE, MA -- Using specialized nanoparticles, MIT engineers have developed a way to monitor pneumonia or other lung diseases by analyzing the breath exhaled by the patient.
In a study of mice, the researchers showed that they could use this system to monitor bacterial pneumonia, as well as a genetic disorder of the lungs called alpha-1 antitrypsin deficiency.
A study published today found national governments repeatedly resisted the placement of 41 UNESCO World Heritage sites--including the Great Barrier Reef--on the World Heritage in Danger list. This resistance is despite the sites being just as threatened, or more threatened, than those already on the in Danger list.
The study was co-authored by a team of scientists from Australia, the UK and the US.
In the pursuit of a rechargeable battery that can power electric vehicles (EVs) for hundreds of miles on a single charge, scientists have endeavored to replace the graphite anodes currently used in EV batteries with lithium metal anodes.
But while lithium metal extends an EV's driving range by 30-50%, it also shortens the battery's useful life due to lithium dendrites, tiny treelike defects that form on the lithium anode over the course of many charge and discharge cycles. What's worse, dendrites short-circuit the cells in the battery if they make contact with the cathode.
Homo Neanderthaliensis did not become extinct because of changes in climate. At least, this did not happen to the several Neanderthals groups that lived in the western Mediterranean 42,000 years ago. A research group of the University of Bologna came to this conclusion after a detailed paleoclimatic reconstruction of the last ice age through the analysis of stalagmites sampled from some caves in Apulia, Italy.
When exactly is a rhino offspring born? How long does the birth actually take? Does parturition proceed normally? Answers to these and similar questions are difficult for experts in zoological gardens, since baseline knowledge of the reproduction cycle of all rhinoceros species, especially its final stage, the parturition, is scarce.
What happens inside a battery at the microscopic level during charging and discharging processes? A team of scientists led by Prof. Dr. Gunther Wittstock of the University of Oldenburg's Chemistry Department recently presented a new technique for live observation of processes that until now have been largely unobservable in the scientific journal ChemElectroChem.
Researchers at the University of Sussex have developed a system which can accurately predict a period of drought in East Africa up to ten weeks ahead.
Satellite imagery is already used in Kenya to monitor the state of pastures and determine the health of the vegetation using a metric known as the Vegetation Condition Index. These are conveyed to the decision makers in arid and semi-arid regions of Kenya through drought early warning systems.
Aerosols are important components of the atmosphere and have an adverse impact on atmospheric visibility and human health, which also affect the climate via direct radiative forcing and the interaction with clouds and precipitation. In recent years, regional aerosol pollution incidents have occurred frequently in China, so enhancing early warning capability of air pollution is of great significance and has always been a concern of researchers.
Geophysicists at Ludwig-Maximilians Universitaet (LMU) in Munich have measured Earth's spin and axis orientation with a novel ring laser, and provided the most precise determination of these parameters yet achieved by a ground-based instrument without the need for stellar range finding.