Tech

Semiconductors convert energy from photons (light) into an electron current. However, some photons carry too much energy for the material to absorb. These photons produce 'hot electrons', and the excess energy of these electrons is converted into heat. Materials scientists have been looking for ways to harvest this excess energy. Scientists from the University of Groningen and Nanyang Technological University (Singapore) have now shown that this may be easier than expected by combining a perovskite with an acceptor material for 'hot electrons'.

Study finds significant improvements in vascular health of chronic smokers who transition to e-cigarettes

Women see greater health benefits than men following switch to e-cigarettes

VESUVIUS is the largest study to-date on the vascular impact of e-cigarettes versus tobacco cigarettes

Cigarette smokers who switch to nicotine containing vaporisers could significantly improve their vascular health, a major University of Dundee study has concluded.

Dry reforming of methane (DRM) is the process of converting methane (CH4) and carbon dioxide (CO2) into synthesis gas (syngas). Since CO2 and CH4 are the two most important atmospheric greenhouse gases (GHGs), as well as abundant and low-cost carbon sources, DRM has the potential to mitigate rising GHG emissions and simultaneously realize clean(er) fossil fuel utilization.

When will the next eruption take place? Examination of samples from Indonesia's Mount Merapi show that the explosivity of stratovolcanoes rises when mineral-rich gases seal the pores and microcracks in the uppermost layers of stone. These findings result in new possibilities for the prediction of an eruption.

Mount Merapi on Java is among the most dangerous volcanoes in the world. Geoscientists have usually used seismic measurements which illustrate underground movements when warning the population of a coming eruption in time.

NASA's Terra satellite captured an image of developing Tropical Storm Raymond in the Eastern Pacific Ocean.

On Nov. 14, the MODIS or Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer instrument that flies aboard NASA's Terra satellite provided a visible image of then Tropical Depression 20 (TD20) in the Eastern Pacific. The image showed that the storm was being affected by outside winds, pushing much of the clouds and showers to the east of the center. Despite that wind shear, TD20 continued organizing and became Tropical Storm Raymond on Nov. 15.

NASA's Terra satellite captured an image of Typhoon Fengshen after its eye opened as Fengshen had strengthened from a tropical storm to a typhoon and developed an eye.

On Nov. 15, the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer or MODIS instrument that flies aboard NASA's Terra satellite provided a visible image of Fengshen. The MODIS image showed the cyclone was producing a large area of deep convection and strong thunderstorms around the visible eye. MODIS imagery showed the eye is about 10 nautical miles in diameter. Bands of thunderstorms were wrapping into the eye.

Since the Western world came across the South American plant genus Erythroxylum, the use of this multifaceted genus has been associated with the production of soft drinks, such as Coca Cola, or with the abuse of the purified plant substance in the form of the narcotic cocaine. However, the indigenous peoples of South America have been using different Erythroxylum species within their traditional medicine for thousands of years. A review article written by IPK-scientist Dr.

We commonly think a full stomach is what tells us to stop eating, but it may be that a stretched intestine plays an even bigger role in making us feel sated, according to new laboratory research led by UC San Francisco neuroscientist Zachary Knight, PhD.

You may not believe it, especially heading into the holiday season, but your body is remarkably good at keeping your weight within an extremely narrow range in the long run, which it does by balancing how much you eat with how much energy you expend each day.

Within the electromagnetic middle ground between microwaves and visible light lies terahertz radiation, and the promise of "T-ray vision."

NASA Sending Solar Power Generator Developed at Ben-Gurion University to the International Space Station

BEER-SHEVA, ISRAEL...November 14, 2019 - A new solar power generator prototype developed by Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (BGU) and research teams in the United States, will be deployed on the first 2020 NASA flight launch to the International Space Station.

North Korea withdrew from the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons in 2003. It subsequently developed nuclear weapons, with five underground nuclear tests culminating in a suspected thermonuclear explosion (a hydrogen bomb) on 3 September 2017. Now a team of scientists, led by Dr K. M. Sreejith of the Space Applications Centre, Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), have used satellite data to augment measurements of tests on the ground.

An international research team including Iyad Rahwan, Director of the Center for Humans and Machines at the Max Planck Institute for Human Development in Berlin, sought to find out whether cooperation between humans and machines is different if the machine purports to be human. They carried out an experiment in which humans interacted with bots. In the study now published in Nature Machine Intelligence, the scientists show that bots are more successful than humans in certain human-machine interactions -- but only if they are allowed to hide their non-human identity.

"It is important to say that it is never too late to begin exercising. The average participant in our study was around 60 years old at baseline, and improvement in cardiorespiratory fitness was strongly linked to lower dementia risk. Those who had poor fitness in the 1980s but improved it within the next decade could expect to live two years longer without dementia," says Atefe Tari of the Cardiac Exercise Research Group (CERG) at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU).

A KAIST research team has developed a gallium-based metal complex enabling the rapid chiral analysis of alcohols. A team working under Professor Hyunwoo Kim reported the efficient new alcohol analysis method using nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy in iScience.

An international research team led by Nanyang Technological University, Singapore (NTU Singapore) has found that microorganisms living in the gut may alter the ageing process, which could lead to the development of food-based treatment to slow it down.

All living organisms, including human beings, coexist with a myriad of microbial species living in and on them, and research conducted over the last 20 years has established their important role in nutrition, physiology, metabolism and behaviour.