Tech

Researchers at the University of Surrey believe their tin based perovskite solar cell could clear the runway for solar panel technology to take off and help the UK reach its 2050 carbon neutral goal.

As countries look to get to grips with climate change, solar cell technology is rapidly growing in popularity as an environmentally friendly energy alternative. Most commercial solar panels use silicon as the light absorber, which makes the panels rigid, heavy and costly.

A voice-recognition feature can be easily found on mobile phones these days. Often times, we experience an incident where a speech recognition application is activated in the middle of a meeting or a conversation in the office. Sometimes, it is not activated at all regardless of numbers of times we call out the application. It is because a mobile phone uses a microphone which detects sound pressure to recognize voice, and it is easily affected by surrounding noise and other obstacles.

In free space, the light wave of a laser beam propagates on a perfectly straight line. Under certain circumstances, however, the behavior of a wave can be much more complicated. In the presence of a disordered, irregular environment a very strange phenomenon occurs: An incoming wave splits into several paths, it branches in a complicated way, reaching some places with high intensity, while avoiding others almost completely.

Researchers from the Beijing Institute of Nanoenergy and Nanosystems and the University of Chinese Academy of Sciences have developed a bionic stretchable nanogenerator (BSNG) that takes inspiration from electric eels.

The scientists hope the new technology will meet the tough demands of wearable equipment applications for stretchability, deformability, biocompatibility, waterproofness and more.

WASHINGTON -- Although smartphones and other consumer cameras are increasingly used for scientific applications, it's difficult to compare and combine data from different devices. A new easy-to-use standardized method makes it possible for almost anyone to calibrate these cameras without any specialized equipment, helping amateurs, science students and professional scientists to acquire useful data with any consumer camera.

A cloak of mystery often shrouds the inner workings of technological giants, but sometimes clarity is in plain sight. A Virginia Tech research team recently uncovered conclusive details about the roles Facebook, Google, and the Federal Election Commission played in digital advertising around the U.S. presidential election of 2016.

WATCH VIDEO: https://youtu.be/hGkCnLgBWUU

Oak Brook, IL - In July's SLAS Discovery feature article, "3D Cell-Based Assays for Drug Screens: Challenges in Imaging, Image Analysis, and High-Content Analysis," Tijmen H. Booij, Ph.D., Screening Specialist for NEXUS Personalized Health Technologies (Switzerland), discusses the switch from using 2D to 3D cell cultures in drug discovery to more accurately mimic human physiological conditions and improve the success rates of drugs in the early stages of preclinical drug discovery.

Survivors of childhood brain tumors who received radiotherapy and were very young at the time of diagnosis may experience cognitive and socioeconomic burdens decades after treatment, according to a study published early online in CANCER, a peer-reviewed journal of the American Cancer Society. Interventions such as cognitive therapies and educational and occupational services may be needed to mitigate such long-term effects.

ROCHESTER, Minn. -- Micronutrient deficiencies, including vitamins B12 and D, as well as folate, iron, zinc and copper, are common in adults at the time of diagnosis with celiac disease. These deficiencies should be addressed at that time, according to a study by Mayo Clinic researchers.

Real-world data from Advocate Health Care and Abbott shows prioritizing nutrition care for home health patients helped keep them out of the hospital

Improved health outcomes from nutrition intervention and educational support could help save millions of dollars in healthcare costs annually

Ann Arbor, June 24, 2019 - According to a new study in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, published by Elsevier, United States Veterans seeking treatment for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) are at increased risk of death compared with the general population. Veterans with PTSD are twice as likely to die from suicide, accidental injury, and viral hepatitis than the general population.

Scientists from the University of Nottingham have discovered that drinking a cup of coffee can stimulate 'brown fat', the body's own fat-fighting defenses, which could be the key to tackling obesity and diabetes.

The pioneering study, published today in the journal Scientific Reports, is one of the first to be carried out in humans to find components which could have a direct effect on 'brown fat' functions, an important part of the human body which plays a key role in how quickly we can burn calories as energy.

The fly hasn't eaten for an entire day and it's starving. Finally, it finds a pile of edible gelatinous goo. It begins eating when suddenly a green light appears, and the food, which was far from delicious a moment ago, becomes irresistibly sweet. The fly, excited by the sudden improvement, eats with increased vigor. But its enthusiasm quickly wanes when the green light disappears and the flavour of the food reverts to its original blandness.

Eating a plant-based diet may be an effective treatment for Crohn's disease, according to a case study published in the journal Nutrients.

The case study followed a man in his late 20s who had been diagnosed with Crohn's disease after experiencing fatigue, bloating, episodic severe abdominal pain, nausea, and occasional ulcers for several years. His condition did not reach remission after more than a year of intravenous treatment.

San Francisco, CA - June 21, 2019 - New research has demonstrated the presence of S. aureus in 40% of the cell phones of students sampled at a university. S. aureus is a common cause of hospital and community-based infections and is currently considered an important pathogen because of its level of antibiotic resistance. The research, conducted at the Western University of São Paulo, Brazil, is presented at ASM Microbe, the annual meeting of the American Society for Microbiology.