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Lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) power all of modern-day electronic devices. However, with the shift from gasoline-powered vehicles to electric counterparts, there is a demand for higher battery capacity. In their quest for higher battery capacity, scientists from Japan devised a low-cost computational technique for extensively screening for atomic substitutions in LIBs to improve their discharge capacity, opening doors to the development of novel alloying materials to boost battery life and new energy storage systems.

The economic and environmental pros and cons of melting Arctic ice creating shorter shipping routes through the polar region are weighed up in ground-breaking research from UCL experts in energy and transport.They conclude that policy makers must properly assess the environmental trade-offs and costs in addition to the commercial benefits and opportunities in Arctic shipping. The authors also want to see more incentives to drive technological developments that will accelerate the uptake of green fuels and technologies.

Creating new procedures that improve mass drone traffic is the purpose of LABYRINTH, a European research project coordinated by the Universidad Carlos III de Madrid (UC3M) with the participation of 13 international organisations within the R&D&I, transport, emergency, and auxiliary services fields. Researchers hope to use these drone swarm applications to improve civil road, train, sea, and air transport, making it safer, more efficient, and more sustainable.

Interactions of two voltage-gated calcium channels and a pump enable separate control of exocytosis and endocytosis at chemical synapses

Proteins are essential for body growth and muscle building. However, protein metabolism varies depending on the body's internal biological clock. Therefore, it is important to know how distribution of protein intake over the day affects muscles. Researchers from Japan have now found that consumption of proteins at breakfast increases muscle size and function in mice and humans, shedding light on the concept of 'Chrononutrition' that deals with the timing of diets to ensure organ health.

Research led by the University of Southampton into the uptake of the COVID-19 vaccine in Ghana, West Africa has concluded that vaccine hesitancy has seen a small, but significant increase over the last three months. This research is in collaboration with youth-led not-for-profit organisation PACKS Africa.

An investigation from UK academics suggests that safeguards put in place in New Zealand to protect drug policy from Big Pharma's influence offer important lessons for the UK when striking new trade deals.

A coronavirus related to the virus that causes Covid-19 in humans has been found in UK horseshoe bats. However, there is no evidence that this novel virus has been transmitted to humans, or that it could in future, unless it mutates.

Germany is not meeting its legal obligations to protect refugee women and girls from discrimination, according to a "shadow report" by Göttingen University, the association Pro Asyl and several refugee councils. Based on current research and a survey of 65 women's counselling centres, psychosocial counselling centres and institutions working with refugees, the study finds that Germany does not adequately protect refugee women and girls and does not meet the requirements of the Istanbul Convention.

Researchers from TMDU and Osaka University have found that a protein called FCHSD1 is involved in the development of emphysema, which is destruction of the tiny air sacs in the lungs, and is a component of chronic pulmonary respiratory disease that causes illness and death worldwide. Mice deficient in FCHSD1 showed less lung damage, inflammation, and cell death. The team were able to uncover the mechanism by which FCHSD1 acts to promote emphysema, which could lead to the development of new treatments.

African swine fever (ASF), first detected in Germany in domestic pigs on 15 July 2021, does not pose a health hazard to humans. "The ASF pathogen cannot be transferred to humans", explains Professor Dr. Dr. Andreas Hensel, President of the German Federal Institute for Risk Assessment (BfR). "No risk to health is posed by direct contact with diseased animals or from eating food made from infected domestic pigs or wild boar."

Researchers realized the high-contrast readout and coherent manipulation of a single silicon carbide divacancy color center electron spin at room temperature for the first time in the world, laying the foundation for building room-temperature solid-state quantum storage and scalable solid-state quantum networks.

Researchers from the Paul Scherrer Institute PSI and the Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL), working in an international team, have developed a new method for complex X-ray studies that will aid in better understanding so-called correlated metals. These materials could prove useful for practical applications in areas such as superconductivity, data processing, and quantum computers. Today the researchers present their work in the journal Physical Review X.

Scientists at Tohoku University and colleagues in Japan have developed a mathematical model that helps predict the tiny changes in carbon-based materials that could yield interesting properties.

Scientists synthesized chemical compounds that can stop the degeneration of neurons in Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, and other severe brain pathologies.

Scientists from three national labs have published a comprehensive study that - alongside other recent, complementary studies of coronavirus proteins and genetics - represents the first step toward developing treatments for COVID-19.

When COVID-19 hit, affluent Columbus residents responded by taking significantly fewer trips to large grocery and big-box stores, apparently ordering more online and stocking up when they did go out to shop.With fewer options available to them, low-income people had to double down on what they had always done: regular trips to the local dollar stores and small groceries to get their family's food.

Wake Forest researchers and clinicians are using patient-specific tumor 'organoid' models as a preclinical companion platform to better evaluate immunotherapy treatment for appendiceal cancer,

Testing of an entire Italian town shows antibody levels remain high nine months after SARS-CoV-2 infection, whether symptomatic or asymptomatic.

Researchers from The University of Tokyo Institute of Industrial Science have developed a machine learning-based model to predict the characteristics of bonded systems. Using the density of states of the individual component reactants, they have achieved accurate predictions of the binding energy, bond length, number of covalent electrons, and Fermi energy. The broadly applicable model is expected to make a significant contribution to the development of materials such as catalysts and nanowires.