Tech
Mechanical forces play a vital role at all levels in biological systems. The contraction and relaxation of muscle cells is undoubtedly the best known example of this, but mechanosensitive proteins are actually found in virtually all cells. For example, the shear stress exerted by blood flow on the cells that line blood vessels is sensed by mechanoreceptors, which trigger signaling pathways that control vessel diameter.
Solar cells convert light into energy, but they can be inefficient and vulnerable to the environment, degrading with, ironically, too much light or other factors, including moisture and low temperature. An international research team has developed a new type of solar cell that can both withstand environmental hazards and is 26.7% efficient in power conversion.
They published their results on March 26 in Science.
A new research led by MPhil student Miss Yu Yan Yau and supervised by Dr Benoit Thibodeau from the Department of Earth Sciences and the Swire Institute of Marine Science, the University of Hong Kong (HKU), highlighted the importance of reducing fossil fuel combustion not only to curb the trend of global warming, but also to improve the quality of China's coastal waters. The findings were recently published in the prestigious journal Environmental Science & Technology.
A team of scientists at Cardiff University has, for the first time, developed a way of predicting the size of plastics different animals are likely to ingest.
The researchers, from the University's Water Research Institute, looked at the gut contents of more than 2,000 animals to create a simple equation to predict the size of a plastic item an animal can eat, based on the length of its body.
A variety of sea animals can take up virus particles while filtering seawater for oxygen and food. Sponges are particularly efficient. That was written by marine ecologist Jennifer Welsh from NIOZ this week, in a publication in Nature Scientific Reports. This Monday, Welsh will defend her thesis at the Free University of Amsterdam, through an online connection.
The concept of McDonaldization was developed by sociologist George Ritzer and is used to explain rationalization processes happening in a person's life. The author describes his concept this way: "the principles of the fast-food restaurant are coming to dominate more and more sectors of recent". McDonaldization as a form of rationality has a spectre of advantages. By using it a person may become more disciplined and learn how to set goals and achieve them. However, rationalization turns a person into a resource, incorporated into various systems with the sole goal of making profit.
For the first time, researchers who explore the physical and chemical properties of electrical energy storage have found a new way to improve lithium-ion batteries. They successfully increased not only the voltage delivery of a lithium-ion battery but also its ability to suppress dangerous conditions that affect the current range of batteries. This improved lithium-ion battery could make longer journeys in electric vehicles possible and lead to the creation of a new generation of home energy storage, both with improved fire safety.
Professor Ronny Thomale holds a chair for theoretical condensed matter physics, the TP1, at the Julius-Maximilian University of Würzburg. The discovery and theoretical description of new quantum states of matter is a prime objective of his research. „Developing a theory for a new physical phenomenon which then inspires new experiments seeking after this effect is one of the biggest moments in a theoretical physicist's practice", so he says. In an ideal case, such an effect would even unlock unexpected technological potential.
ANN ARBOR--Eighty-five percent of the universe is composed of dark matter, but we don't know what, exactly, it is.
A new study from the University of Michigan, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) and University of California, Berkeley has ruled out dark matter being responsible for mysterious electromagnetic signals previously observed from nearby galaxies. Prior to this work there were high hopes that these signals would give physicists hard evidence to help identify dark matter.
Malignant ovarian cancer is insidious: Known and feared for vague and uncharacteristic symptoms that often mean the disease is discovered so late that on average only four out of six patients are still alive after five years. Researchers from Aarhus University, Denmark, are hoping to change this situation in the future.
Local community involvement is vital in efforts to raise water levels to help restore Indonesia's tropical peatlands, a new study has found.
Unspoilt peatlands act as a carbon sink and play an important role in reducing global carbon emissions. They are also a crucial habitat for many birds and animals, including endangered species such as orang-utans and tigers.
Researchers at Linköping University have discovered a quantum phenomenon that influences the formation of free charges in organic solar cells. "If we can properly understand what's going on, we can increase the efficiency", says Olle Inganäs, professor emeritus.
Porous or dense, columns or fibres
Artificial intelligence will be increasingly used on labels on food and other products in the future to make them interactive, and regulations should be reformed now so they take account of new innovations, a study warns.
Thanks to the increased use of smartphones, smart-watches and other interconnected products, labelling on foods and other goods may become more personalised and thus more helpful, addressing consumer concerns, such as nut allergies.
When hikers returned to UC Davis Stebbins Cold Canyon Reserve in 2016, a year after a wildfire swept through its expanse of oak trees and chaparral in Northern California, half of them expected to see a devastated landscape. But pre- and post-hike surveys conducted by the University of California, Davis, reveal that roughly a third returned energized, awed and excited about the changes they saw.