Earth
A key component of ambient direct air capture (DAC) systems that remove carbon dioxide from the air is the sorbent material that is used to first capture the carbon and then to release it. Certain sorbent materials can pull carbon dioxide from the air as it flows over the material. It then releases the carbon when water is applied. As the material dries again, it absorbs carbon, and so on.
Many people have understood that our immune systems get weaker as we age, which in part explains why older people often get less protection than younger ones from annual influenza vaccines.
Now a team of scientists led by experts at Cincinnati Children's have taken a deeper look at how the immune system changes with age--and what they've found could make often-mediocre flu vaccines much more protective.
Modern applications as high resolution microsopy or micro- or nanoscale material processing require customized laser beams that do not change during propagation. This represents an immense challenge since light typically broadens during propagation, a phenomenon known as diffraction. So-called propagation-invariant or non-diffracting light fields therefore do not seem possible at first glance. If it were possible to produce them, they would enable new applications such as light disk microscopy or laser-based cutting, milling or drilling with high aspect ratios.
When couples argue, mediation by a third party improves the outcome of the confrontation. But that's not all: mediation is also linked to heightened activity in key regions of the brain belonging to the reward circuit - this is the main conclusion of a study carried out by scientists from the University of Geneva (UNIGE) and published in the journal Cortex. The experiment consisted of giving couples behavioural questionnaires and subjecting them to functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) prior to and following a session in which the two partners argue.
A new study from Australian scientists at the forefront of climate and health modelling suggests electric fans and water dousing could be a viable stay-at-home cooling strategy as the United States (US) anticipates extreme heat.
The risk of two major public health threats converging-- a heatwave and the COVID-19 pandemic--is quickly becoming a reality as the US approaches its hottest month of the year with COVID-19 cases continuing to rise.
Share the code and data behind the research please. It's easy, but it will have a major positive impact on progress and trust in science. That is the clear message from a new paper in PLOS Biology. An international team of ecologists found that currently, only about a quarter of the scientific papers in their field publicly shares computer code for analyses. "To make the science of ecology more transparent and reproducible, sharing is urgently needed."
The coronavirus pandemic brought unprecedented uncertainty and stress. But even amid the turmoil and the new pressures of work-from-home and home-schooling, millions of people were able to keep calm and carry on with the demands of the moment.
Research forthcoming in the Journal of Applied Psychology shows that the human sense of normalcy is capable of bouncing back a lot faster than we might think.
A large-scale trial has found a treatment with pimavanserin substantially reduced psychotic symptoms and reduced risk of relapse of those symptoms compared to placebo in people with dementia, a condition for which no treatments are currently licensed.
New data presented at the Alzheimer's Association International Conference indicates that pimavanserin leads to a robust reduction in the severity of psychosis symptoms during the 12 week open-label phase of the study, regardless of the underlying dementia subtype or the severity of participants' dementia.
Lithium, the silvery metal that powers smart phones and helps treat bipolar disorders, could also play a significant role in the worldwide effort to harvest on Earth the safe, clean and virtually limitless fusion energy (link is external) that powers the sun and stars. First results of the extensively upgraded Lithium Tokamak Experiment-Beta (LTX-β) at the U.S.
Agricultural production is highly sensitive to weather and climate, which affect when farmers and land managers plant seeds or harvest crops. These conditions also factor into decision-making, when people decide to make capital investments or plant trees in an agroforestry system.
A new report from the U.S. Department of Agriculture focuses on how agricultural systems are impacted by climate change and offers a list of 20 indicators that provide a broad look at what's happening across the country.
Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), found in many household products and food packages, have raised concerns because of their persistence and possible toxicity to people and wildlife. Because the compounds don't break down naturally, they have become environmental contaminants. Now, researchers reporting in ACS' Environmental Science & Technology have studied the transport of 29 PFAS into and out of the Arctic Ocean, detecting a newer compound for the first time in Arctic seawater.
Mussels secrete sticky plaques that help them attach to wet surfaces, such as rocks on the beach. These adhesive structures are rich in iron, which is thought to help make the attachments strong yet flexible. Now, researchers reporting in Environmental Science & Technology have shown that mussels form weaker attachments in iron-deficient seawater, revealing a possible consequence of altered iron bioavailability in oceans.
Scientists have found that a physical property called 'quantum negativity' can be used to take more precise measurements of everything from molecular distances to gravitational waves.
The researchers, from the University of Cambridge, Harvard and MIT, have shown that quantum particles can carry an unlimited amount of information about things they have interacted with. The results, reported in the journal Nature Communications, could enable far more precise measurements and power new technologies, such as super-precise microscopes and quantum computers.
Grassroots knowledge from Indigenous people can help to map and monitor ecological changes and improve scientific studies, according to Rutgers-led research.
A luxury automobile is not really a place to look for something like sisal, hemp or wood. Yet auto makers have been using natural fibres for decades.
Some high-end sedans and coupes use these in composite materials for interior door panels; engine, interior and noise insulation; and internal engine covers among other uses.
Unlike steels or aluminium, natural fibre composites do not rust or corrode. They can also be durable and easily molded.