Tech

People who have used Bitcoin, and those who don't have any experience with it, have something in common: Both groups share misconceptions about how the controversial digital currency actually works.

Researchers from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign have developed a simplified approach to fabricating flat, ultra-thin optics. The new approach enables simple etching without the use of acids or hazardous chemical etching agents.

Fuel cells convert the chemical energy stored in hydrogen (H2) into electrical energy by electrochemically "combusting" hydrogen gas with oxygen (O2) from the air into water (H2O), thereby generating electricity. As a result, future electric automobiles might be operated quite well with fuel cells instead of with heavy batteries. But for "cold" combustion of hydrogen and oxygen to function well, the anode and cathode of the fuel cell must be coated with extremely active catalysts.

According to an epidemiological study carried out by researchers at the Hospital del Mar Medical Research Institute (IMIM), increasing the money you spend on food is linked to a better quality diet, particularly increased consumption of fruit and vegetables, leading to a healthier weight and decreased risk of cardiometabolic diseases like obesity, diabetes, and cardiovascular problems.

Organic/polymer solar cells represent the most important direction for green energy in the future. Fullerene electron acceptors have been widely used in organic/polymer solar cells as well as perovskite solar cells. A recent study reveals that the photovoltaic performance can be influenced by fullerene stereomer, implies that the stereomeric effect should be envisaged if new fullerene derivative was designed as electron acceptor.

The UK's self-regulatory approach to preventing pharmaceutical companies from promoting off-label use of their drugs detects mainly high-visibility promotional activity such as print advertising, according to a document analysis of off-label promotion rulings published this week in PLOS Medicine by Shai Mulinari and colleagues at Lund University, Sweden, and King's College London, UK. The study indicates that the UK self-regulatory approach is less capable of uncovering complex marketing campaigns than the government-led approach in the US.

People who have used Bitcoin, and those who don't have any experience with it, have something in common: Both groups share misconceptions about how the controversial digital currency actually works.

WHAT:Oral immunotherapy for peanut allergy induces early, distinct changes in immune T-cell populations that potentially may help researchers determine which people will respond well to the therapy and which immune mechanisms are involved in the response, a new study suggests. The work was funded by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health, and conducted by scientists at Stanford University.

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. -- A Florida State University researcher and his team have developed a comprehensive analysis of oil in the Gulf of Mexico and determined how much of it occurs naturally and how much came from the 2010 Deepwater Horizon spill.

And more importantly, their data creates a map, showing where the active natural oil seeps are located.

The research was recently released online by the Journal of Geophysical Research Oceans and is also the basis for a paper with researchers at Columbia University published today in Nature Geoscience.

(CAMBRIDGE, Massachusetts) - Researchers in the field of mechanobiology are evolving our understanding of health by revealing new insights into how the body's physical forces and mechanics impact development, physiological health, and prevention and treatment of disease. At the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard University, engineers and biomedical scientists have assembled to form collaborative teams that are helping to drive this exciting area of research forward toward real-world applications.

When an automobile's engine is improperly lubricated, it can be a major hit to the pocketbook and the environment.

For the average car, 15 percent of the fuel consumption is spent overcoming friction in the engine and transmission. When friction is high, gears have to work harder to move. This means the car burns more fuel and emits more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.

BUFFALO, N.Y. - Like Beanie Babies and Steve Urkel, the systems we use to transmit information through water bring to mind the 1990s.

The flashback is due to the speed of today's underwater communication networks, which is comparable to the sluggish dial-up modems from America Online's heyday. The shortcoming hampers search-and-rescue operations, tsunami detection and other work.

But that is changing due in part to University at Buffalo engineers who are developing hardware and software tools to help underwater telecommunication catch up to its over-the-air counterpart.

In the water above natural oil seeps in the Gulf of Mexico, where oil and gas bubbles rise almost a mile to break at the surface, scientists have discovered something unusual: phytoplankton, tiny microbes at the base of the marine food chain, are thriving.

The United States could slash greenhouse gas emissions from power production by up to 78 percent below 1990 levels within 15 years while meeting increased demand, according to a new study by NOAA and University of Colorado Boulder researchers.

The study used a sophisticated mathematical model to evaluate future cost, demand, generation and transmission scenarios. It found that with improvements in transmission infrastructure, weather-driven renewable resources could supply most of the nation's electricity at costs similar to today's.

Contrary to initial reports, the drug tested on paid volunteers in a French study, which resulted in one death and five hospitalizations, did not contain cannabis or cannabinoids. The drug, an FAAH inhibitor manufactured by the Portuguese company Bial, was instead designed to act upon the human endocannabinoid system as a potential painkiller and treatment for anxiety. Beyond that, very little information is publicly known and as such, no conclusions can be drawn about the safety or efficacy related to future cannabis and cannabinoid research.