Tech

The Syrian civil war, which began in 2011, continues to result in death, destruction and displacement. The country's higher education system has suffered dramatically, too. An article in Chemical & Engineering News (C&EN), the weekly newsmagazine of the American Chemical Society, explores some of the struggles that academics in Syria face today.

Inspired by nature, University of Huddersfield scientist Dr Jason Camp is pioneering the use of simple sugars to power chemical reactions. It means that industries such as pharmaceuticals and agro-chemicals will have a renewable, inexpensive and non-toxic method of catalysis. The project has received financial backing from several leading firms.

Carbon dioxide (CO2) is a main component of smokestack emissions and the most important greenhouse gas implicated in climate change. This week in ACS Central Science, researchers show that they can turn this pollutant into something useful--a material in high demand for high- tech batteries that are needed to store "green" energy such as solar power, while limiting the environmental impact of current power plants.

An interdisciplinary team of scientists has worked out a way to make electric vehicles that are not only carbon neutral, but carbon negative, capable of actually reducing the amount of atmospheric carbon dioxide as they operate.

They have done so by demonstrating how the graphite electrodes used in the lithium-ion batteries that power electric automobiles can be replaced with carbon material recovered from the atmosphere.

RIVERSIDE, Calif. (http://www.ucr.edu) -- A team of researchers, led by a group at the University of California, Riverside, have demonstrated for the first time the transmission of electrical signals through insulators in a sandwich-like structure, a development that could help create more energy efficient electronic devices.

A new study reports that current rising temperatures already noticeably load the 'climate dice', with growing practical impacts. As a bottom line, the lead author, Dr James Hansen, argues that a carbon fee is needed to spur replacement of carbon fuels with clean energy.

The findings are reported today, 2nd March 2016, in the journal Environmental Research Letters.

Vitamin D supplementation during pregnancy may lead to stronger bones in babies born during the winter months, a new Southampton study has shown.

Researchers from the Medical Research Council (MRC) Lifecourse Epidemiology Unit, University of Southampton, recruited over 1,000 pregnant women across Southampton, Oxford and Sheffield to the MAVIDOS study, a randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial of vitamin D supplements in pregnancy.

A critical milestone has been reached in cadmium telluride (CdTe) solar cell technology, helping pave the way for solar energy to directly compete with electricity generated by conventional energy sources.

Scientists at the Energy Department's National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) collaborated with researchers at Washington State University and the University of Tennessee to improve the maximum voltage available from a CdTe solar cell, which is a key factor in improving solar cell efficiency.

EAST LANSING, Mich. -- Is your boss always a jerk? You still may be better off than those workers whose supervisor is courteous one moment and rude the next.

New research by a team of current and former Michigan State University business scholars suggests employees whose superior is consistently unfair are actually less stressed and more satisfied with their job than employees with an erratic boss.

HUNTSVILLE, TX (3/2/16) -- With up to half of college students experiencing abuse by an intimate partner at least once during their college careers, safety planning should be added to prevention and education programs in higher education, according to a research brief by the Crime Victims' Institute.

The Energy Department's National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) today released new analysis exploring the potential impact of recently extended federal tax credits on the deployment of renewable generation technologies and related U.S. electric sector carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions.

The report, Impacts of Federal Tax Credit Extensions on Renewable Deployment and Power Sector Emissions, details the use of state-of-the-art scenario modeling to explore two questions:

How can we constantly monitor the stability of a bridge or detect a leak in a gas pipeline in real time? A method based on optical fibers has become the norm in recent years. By carefully measuring the path of light in fibers up to 100 kilometers long, we can glean information on the temperature, pressure and intensity of magnetic fields along the entire length of the fiber. It's similar to a nerve, which tells us the intensity and location of a stimulus.

A team of researchers from the Case Western Reserve University (CWRU) in Cleveland, OH have developed a versatile microfluidic platform integrated with a cell dimensioning algorithm for quantitative assessment of dynamic deformability and adhesion of RBCs in controlled microphysiological flow. Accurate measurement of RBC deformability and adhesion, which are the two key biophysical factors of vaso-occlusion in SCD, holds great potential as a marker for evaluation of disease progression, gaining insight into disease pathophysiology, and development of novel therapeutics.

BROOKLYN, New York--Apartment hunters in big cities know the drill: They spot a listing for a well-priced, attractive place and make an inquiry, only to be met with demands for an instant credit check or an upfront fee to access the full listing. Savvier home hunters spot these scams immediately, but others fall through the cracks, making popular rental listing sites like Craigslist a highly lucrative spot for fraud.

Chemists in Syracuse University's College of Arts and Sciences have made a transformational advance in an alternate lighting source--one that doesn't require a battery or a plug.