Tech
A customizable smart window harnesses and manipulates solar power to save energy and cut costs.
Windows play multiple crucial roles in our homes. They illuminate, insulate and ventilate our spaces while providing views of — and protection from — the outdoors. Smart windows, or windows that use solar cell technology to convert sunlight into electricity, present the additional opportunity to leverage windows as energy sources.
A new method developed at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL) uses DNA sequencing to efficiently map long-range connections between different regions of the brain. The approach dramatically reduces the cost of mapping brain-wide connections compared to traditional microscopy-based methods.
Therapies for treating glioblastoma brain cancer can be delivered with greater precision and existing drugs can be used in new ways. These are the conclusions from a study from Uppsala University investigating a large number of cell samples from patients with brain tumours. The researchers have characterised how changes in glioblastoma cells influence the effect of different drugs. Their findings are published in the journal Cell Reports.
HOUSTON - (July 14, 2020) - Where things get sticky happens to be where interesting science happens in a Rice University lab working to improve battery technology.
Using techniques similar to those they employed to develop laser-induced graphene, Rice chemist James Tour and his colleagues turned adhesive tape into a silicon oxide film that replaces troublesome anodes in lithium metal batteries.
Maunakea, Hawaii - Astronomers have discovered the second-most distant confirmed short gamma-ray burst (SGRB) ever studied using two Maunakea Observatories in Hawaii - W. M. Keck Observatory and the international Gemini Observatory, a Program of NSF's NOIRLab.
Electrons can interfere in the same manner as water, acoustical or light waves do. When exploited in solid-state materials, such effects promise novel functionality for electronic devices, in which elements such as interferometers, lenses or collimators could be integrated for controlling electrons at the scale of mirco- and nanometres. However, so far such effects have been demonstrated mainly in one-dimensional devices, for example in nanotubes, or under specific conditions in two-dimensional graphene devices.
We humans may not always see eye to eye on politics, religion, sports and other matters of debate. But at least we can agree on the location and size of objects in our physical surroundings. Or can we?
Not according to new research from the University of California, Berkeley, recently published in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences journal, that shows that our ability to pinpoint the exact location and size of things varies from one person to the next, and even within our own individual field of vision.
Virginia Tech researchers have proven that a single gene can convert female Aedes aegypti mosquitoes into fertile male mosquitoes and identified a gene needed for male mosquito flight.
Male mosquitoes do not bite and are unable to transmit pathogens to humans. Female mosquitoes, on the other hand, are able to bite.
Female Aedes aegypti mosquitoes require blood to produce eggs, making them the prime carriers of the pathogens that cause Zika and dengue fever in humans.
How should one design porous carbon materials for advanced Li-S batteries cathodes? What electrolytes are extensively studied for high-safety Li-S batteries? In a paper published in NANO, a group of researchers from Qingdao, China have reviewed the recent progresses in sulfur/carbon cathode materials and high safety electrolytes towards advanced Li-S batteries.
When a bicycle gets wet in the rain, the frame and chain become corroded or rusty which shorten the life of the bike. Oil needs to be regularly applied to prevent this from happening. Battery cells are devices that create electrical energy through moving electrons by triggering oxidation and reduction reactions separately. But they also corrode when exposed to oxygen. Can these cells also be greased to prevent rusting?
CHICAGO -- A mobile platform for lung cancer screening with low-dose computed tomography (CT) can be developed with limited financial risk and take powerful screening tests directly to patients, including underserved rural areas where rates of new lung cancer cases tend to be higher, according to study published today in The Annals of Thoracic Surgery.
Climate breakdown caused by the emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2) into the atmosphere is a major existential problem faced by humanity right now. The most acceptable solution would be complete termination of the use of fossil fuels or at least fast reduction of their use by all countries, in line with the Paris agreement. This will ensure the planetary warming is limited by 2 C. The emissions reductions, however, are slow and most of the countries are unlikely to reach the goals of reduction.
PITTSBURGH--Kitchen robots are a popular vision of the future, but if a robot of today tries to grasp a kitchen staple such as a clear measuring cup or a shiny knife, it likely won't be able to. Transparent and reflective objects are the things of robot nightmares.
CORVALLIS, Ore. - Caspian terns feeding on young fish have a significant impact on runs of steelhead in the Columbia River, research by Oregon State University suggests.
Through detailed analysis of steelhead survival and Caspian tern predation rates, the researchers found that the birds are not only preying on fish that would perish for some other reason, but are adding to the annual death toll by eating steelhead smolts that would have survived without tern pressure.
The collaborators are Kazan Federal University, Vereschagin Institute of High Pressure Physics (Russian Academy of Sciences), Queen Mary University of London, Imperial College London, Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, Wuhan University of Technology, and Sichuan University.