Tech
In this image, numerous sweeping arcs seem to congregate at various bright regions. You may wonder: What is being shown? Air traffic routes? Information moving around the global internet? Magnetic fields looping across active areas on the Sun?
UPTON, NY--Researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Brookhaven National Laboratory have designed a new, organic cathode material for lithium batteries. With sulfur at its core, the material is more energy-dense, cost-effective, and environmentally friendly than traditional cathode materials in lithium batteries. The research was published in Advanced Energy Materials on April 10, 2019.
Optimizing cathode materials
For environmental monitoring, precision agriculture, infrastructure maintenance and certain security applications, slow and energy efficient can be better than fast and always needing a recharge. That's where "SlothBot" comes in.
Russian and Taiwanese scientists have discovered a connection between the two signalling systems that help plants survive stress situations, demonstrating that they can remember dangerous conditions that they have experienced and adapt to them. This memory mechanism will help improve agricultural plants, making them more resistant to drought, flooding high humidity and extreme temperatures.
Livestock farming is destroying our planet. It is a major cause of land and water degradation, biodiversity loss, acid rain, coral reef degeneration, deforestation - and of course, climate change. Plant-based diets, insect farming, lab-grown meat and genetically modified animals have all been proposed as potential solutions. Which is best?
All of these combined, say researchers at Tufts University.
An international team of researchers just published in Advanced Energy Materials the widest study on what happens during battery failure, focusing on the different parts of a battery at the same time. The role of the ESRF, the European Synchrotron, in France, was crucial for its success.
Although there is ample evidence that air pollution--specifically airborne particulate matter--is associated with an increased risk of premature death, it is still not known which specific particles are responsible for this effect. The Barcelona Institute for Global Health (ISGlobal), a research centre supported by "la Caixa", participated in a study that used wild moss samples to estimate human exposure to airborne metal particles in order to analyse the relationship between atmospheric metal pollution and risk of mortality.
Computers and similar electronic devices have gotten faster and smaller over the decades as computer-chip makers have learned how to shrink individual transistors, the tiny electrical switches that convey digital information.
Scientists' pursuit of the smallest possible transistor has allowed more of them to be packed onto each chip. But that race to the bottom is almost over: Researchers are fast approaching the physical minimum for transistor size, with recent models down to about 10 nanometers -- or just 30 atoms -- wide.
With a wide range of healthcare, energy and military applications, stretchable electronics are revered for their ability to be compressed, twisted and conformed to uneven surfaces without losing functionality.
By using the elasticity of polymers such as silicone, these emerging technologies are made to move in ways that mimic skin.
This sheds light on why Smooth-On Ecoflex, a substance most commercially used to create molds and movie masks and prosthetics, is the most prominent silicone elastomer (a rubber-like substance) found in research.
Two large European studies published by The BMJ today find positive associations between consumption of highly processed ("ultra-processed") foods and risk of cardiovascular disease and death.
The researchers say further work is needed to better understand these effects, and a direct (causal) link remains to be established, but they call for policies that promote consumption of fresh or minimally processed foods over highly processed foods.
COLUMBIA, Mo.-- One of the most devastating images from 2015 shows a 3-year-old boy, Alan Kurdi, facedown and unmoving on a beach in Turkey. Alan had drowned during an attempt to escape Syria, and the image sparked outrage and concern worldwide over the refugee crisis in Europe. It also highlighted the power a single image can have.
Big food brands, such as Kellogg, Campbell, Mars Wrigley and General Mills, have started investing in their ingredients by helping farmers improve soil health and sustainability. Not only do these programs enable companies to reach their sustainability targets, they also help farmers cut costs, provide quality crops and improve stewardship of the land, according to an article in Chemical & Engineering News (C&EN), the weekly newsmagazine of the American Chemical Society.
A new Tel Aviv University study finds that prehistoric humans "recycled" discarded or broken flint tools 400,000 years ago to create small, sharp utensils with specific functions. These recycled tools were then used with great precision and accuracy to perform specific tasks involved in the processing of animal products and vegetal materials.
The site of Qesem Cave, located just outside Tel Aviv, was discovered during a road construction project in 2000. It has since offered up countless insights into life in the region hundreds of thousands of years ago.
Researchers of Peter the Great St.Petersburg Polytechnic University (SPbPU) are developing new materials for solid-state thin-film Li-ion batteries for micro and nanodevices. The first stage of the project was successfully completed at the laboratory "Functional Materials" of the Institute of Metallurgy, Mechanical Engineering, and Transport SPbPU. The project is supported by the Russian Science Foundation (RScF).
DALLAS, May 29, 2019 -- Drinking 32 ounces of an energy drink in a short timespan may increase blood pressure and the risk of electrical disturbances in the heart, which affect heart rhythm, according to a small study published in Journal of the American Heart Association, the Open Access Journal of the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association.