Tech
Wavelike, collective oscillations of electrons known as "plasmons" are very important for determining the optical and electronic properties of metals.
In atomically thin 2D materials, plasmons have an energy that is more useful for applications, including sensors and communication devices, than plasmons found in bulk metals. But determining how long plasmons live and whether their energy and other properties can be controlled at the nanoscale (billionths of a meter) has eluded many.
Plants can produce energy-rich biomass with the help of light, water and carbon dioxide. This is why they are at the beginning of the food chains. But the carnivorous plants have turned the tables and hunt animals. Insects are their main food source.
Over the past 20 years, our knowledge of hereditary diseases has taken a quantum leap, and several hereditary gene variants have been found that may predispose to the development of cancer. We have known for a long time that mutations in human BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes may lead to the development of cancer, especially in the ovaries and breast. But researchers around the world also know that there are still a great number of variants in our hereditary systems that may lead to life-threatening diseases such as breast cancer.
There is an ongoing demand in biological research to accelerate the development of fluorescent probes based on the photo-induced electron transfer (PET) mechanism. By modulating PET formations, these probes significantly change fluorescence intensities, allowing a convenient route to monitor analytes or environmental changes with high sensitivity, vivid visibility and excellent spatiotemporal resolution.
However, the quantitative design of fluorescence probes based on the PET mechanism continues to be a challenging task as dye chemistry is still largely based on trial-and-error.
Over the past several decades, the United States medical system has increasingly prioritized patient autonomy. However, new research from University of Chicago Booth School of Business Professors Emma Levine and Celia Gaertig, and Northwestern Ph.D. candidate Samantha Kassirer, suggests that in times of uncertainty, people want expert guidance when making choices about their medical care.
NASA and NOAA satellites have been providing forecasters with satellite data that showed the strength and extent of Typhoon Vongfong as it made landfall in the Philippines and continued to track through the country. Warnings were in effect throughout several areas of the Philippines on May 14.
Minimizing food waste is top of mind right now during the COVID-19 global pandemic, with the public concerned about the potential ramifications for our food supply chain. But even before COVID-19, given concerns about a rapidly growing population and hunger around the world, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) issued a global call for zero tolerance on food waste.
Arctic sea ice helps keep Earth cool, as its bright surface reflects the Sun's energy back into space. Each year scientists use multiple satellites and data sets to track how much of the Arctic Ocean is covered in sea ice, but its thickness is harder to gauge. Initial results from NASA's new Ice Cloud and land Elevation Satellite-2 (ICESat-2) suggest that the sea ice has thinned by as much as 20% since the end of the first ICESat mission (2003-2009), contrary to existing studies that find sea ice thickness has remained relatively constant in the last decade.
Substances used to replace ozone-depleting chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) may be just as problematic as their predecessors, a new study shows.
In 1987, Canada implemented the Montreal Protocol, a global agreement to protect Earth's ozone layer by ceasing the use of substances like CFCs. Unfortunately, the CFC-replacement substances used to replace them are proving problematic as well, with accumulating levels of their degradation products recently found in the Canadian Arctic.
Three hundred-year-old administrative documents from the Roman government, granting residents permission to repair damage to their buildings, can help modern-day seismologists calculate intensities for a notable sequence of earthquakes that struck central Italy in 1703.
Details gleaned from these "Lettere Patenti" offer a unique glimpse at the geographical spread and types of building damage caused by the 1703 earthquakes, according to the report in Seismological Research Letters by Andrea Tertulliani of the Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia and colleagues.
Death from sudden cardiac arrest makes headlines when it strikes athletes. But it also causes the most deaths by natural causes in the U.S. estimated at 325,000 per year.
Another step forward for renewable energies: The production of green hydrogen could be even more efficient in the future. By applying an unusual process step, chemists at Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg (MLU) have found a way to treat inexpensive electrode materials and considerably improve their properties during electrolysis. The group published their research results in the journal "ACS Catalysis".
JUPITER, Fla.--MAY 14, 2020--Like subway com
muters on a crowded train, cells generally prefer not to be packed in too tightly. In fact, they have set up mechanisms to avoid this, a phenomenon called "contact inhibition." A hallmark of cancer cells is that they lack this contact inhibition, and instead become pushy, facilitating their spread.
[Newark, New Jersey, May 14, 2020] Duality Technologies, a leading provider of Privacy-Enhancing Technologies (PETs), announced today the publication of an article in PNAS (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America), on Secure large-scale genome-wide association studies using homomorphic encryption
Oyster farming as currently practiced along the Delaware Bayshore does not significantly impact four shorebirds, including the federally threatened red knot, which migrates thousands of miles from Chile annually, according to a Rutgers-led study.