Culture
Tests on new designs for next-gen solar cells can now be done in hours instead of days thanks to a new system built by scientists at Australia’s Monash University, incorporating 3D-printed key components.
The machine can analyse 16 sample perovskite-based solar cells simultaneously, in parallel, dramatically speeding up the process.
The invention means that the performance and commercial potential of new compounds can be very rapidly evaluated, significantly speeding up the development process.
Speciation is the process by which new species forms and is the driving force of biodiversity. Since Darwin published On the Origin of Species, great efforts have been performed without interruption to explore the pattern and mechanism of speciation. It is well acknowledged that determining the forms of reproductive isolation and their relative importance in species divergence is of critical importance for our understanding of speciation.
Boston, Mass. - With nearly 5 million confirmed cases globally and more than 300,000 deaths from COVID-19, much remains unknown about SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes the disease. Two critical questions are whether vaccines will prevent infection with COVID-19, and whether individuals who have recovered from COVID-19 are protected against re-exposure. A pair of new studies led by researchers at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) sheds new light on these questions. Both studies were published today in the journal Science.
Two new studies in macaques offer hope that humans could develop protective immunity against SARS-CoV-2, either as the result of a natural infection or by way of a vaccine. While there are differences between SARS-CoV-2 infection in macaques and humans, these findings - some of the first to show that non-human primates can develop protective immunity to SARS-CoV-2 - are promising in light of the ongoing efforts around the world to develop a vaccine and antibody treatments for COVID-19.
Climate scientists from the IBS Center for Climate Physics discover that, contrary to previously held beliefs, Neanderthal extinction was neither caused by abrupt glacial climate shifts, nor by interbreeding with Homo sapiens. According to new supercomputer model simulations, only competition between Neanderthals and Homo sapiens can explain the rapid demise of Neanderthals around 43 to 38 thousand years ago.
Birth control pills are an effective and safe form of birth control; however, they are associated with a number of side effects, including mood alterations. A recent research study from Aarhus University has shown that women who take birth control pills have a much higher level of the hormone oxytocin, also called the love hormone, in their blood compared to non-users. This study, published in Scientific Reports, helps to understand why birth control pills affect emotional life.
The pressure to send home more patients increases when hospital beds are in short supply.
For example, you have a greater chance of being discharged on a Friday or the day before a holiday. The chance of being discharged on days when the hospital is full due to high activity may also be greater, which can have very serious consequences for patients.
Australia has often been unfairly portrayed as an old and idle continent with little geological activity, but new research suggests that we remain geologically active and that some of our mountains are still growing.
The University of Melbourne study reveals that parts of the Eastern Highlands of Victoria, including popular skiing destinations such as Mt Baw Baw and Mt Buller, may be as young as five million years, not 90 million years as originally thought.
An alternating cycle of 50 days of strict lockdown followed by 30 days of easing could be an effective strategy for reducing the number of COVID-19-related deaths and admissions to intensive care units, say an international team of researchers.
The coronavirus pandemic has imposed an unprecedented challenge on global healthcare systems, societies and governments. The virus SARS-CoV-2, which causes COVID-19 disease, has been detected in every country, with more than 4.6 million confirmed cases and a death toll of 312,000 worldwide to date.
The largest prospective study of adult COVID-19 patients in USA to date confirms that critical illness is common among hospitalized patients (22%, 257/1150). Critically ill COVID-19 patients frequently require mechanical ventilation (79%, 203/257) and death rates among such patients are high (39%, 101/257). Risk factors associated with in-hospital death, including older age and chronic heart and lung disease, are consistent with reports from Italy, China and the UK.
When early tetrapods transitioned from water to land the way they breathed air underwent an evolutionary revolution. Fish use muscles in their head to pump water over their gills. The first land animals utilized a similar technique--modern frogs still use their head and throat to force air into their lungs. Then another major transformation in vertebrate evolution took place that shifted breathing from the head to the torso. In reptiles and mammals, the ribs expand to create a space in the chest that draws in breath. But what caused the shift?
A collaboration between scientists at the Medical University of South Carolina and clinicians at the Greenwood Genetic Center has yielded new findings about how a particular gene might regulate brain development.
A paper published in Biological Psychiatry showcases how the researchers connected problems in mice with a defective copy of the MEF2C gene to issues suffered in real life by patients seen at the Greenwood Genetic Center who also have a defective copy of that gene.
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- As millions continue working from home during the pandemic or are required to report to jobs as essential employees, many have raised questions about how these work conditions impact our health -- and not just as they relate to COVID-19.
A new study from the Indiana University Kelley School of Business finds that our mental health and mortality have a strong correlation with the amount of autonomy we have at our job, our workload and job demands, and our cognitive ability to deal with those demands.
Researchers in the Ludwig Center at the Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center report they have identified a drug treatment that could--if given early enough--potentially reduce the risk of death from the most serious complication of Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), also known as SARS-CoV-2 infection.
Sometimes proteins misfold. When that happens in the human brain, the pileup of misfolded proteins can lead to neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer's, Parkinson's and ALS.
Proteins do not misbehave and misfold out of the blue. There is a delicate ecosystem of biochemical interactions and environments that usually let them twist, unfold, refold and do their jobs as they're meant to.
However, as researchers from Michigan Technological University explore in an article published in ACS Chemical Neuroscience, even a small change may cause long-term consequences.